No Spend Challenge: Week Three

I did pretty good this week with my spending. Challenging myself to spend no money outside of groceries, gas, and household items is harder than I thought it would be, but it's been great in that I've become aware of places I spend money without really thinking twice.

Here's my weekly breakdown:

Saturday:

-0- We stayed home all day.

Sunday:
-0- Like I said last week, between church and home it's easy to not spend money.


Monday:
Our kids were out of school for MLK day, so we headed to the Springs for some errands and lunch with friends at Chick-Fil-A. Spent $12.97 on lunch. The four of us shared two meals.

We also went to Michael's... $6.44

My very talented friend and summit sister, Chele, made a 12x12 digital scrapbook print of our Pikes Peak ascent. It's been hanging on the side of my refrigerator for the last four months and I keep meaning to buy a frame for it. 

I priced them at Michael's last fall and they were $10. I knew I could use a 40% off coupon and get it for $6, but I never seemed to have my coupon with me when I needed it. At Christmas, they had the frames on sale for $5, but I wasn't in town. Last week they were on sale for $4...and I couldn't resist the bargain. Doesn't it look GREAT in this frame??? I love it!

I let the girls pick up some Hannah Montana stuff from the clearance bins. The dollar stuff was half-price so they each got a dry erase board and a set of mechanical pencils for $1. It was a cheap thrill for them, and that dry erase board kept them busy for the rest of the afternoon!

I also spent .75 at Best Buy. Will used a gift certificate to buy a Wii game and I covered his overage.

Tuesday:
-0- Probably because I was at home all day!

Wednesday:
-0- I was at home almost all morning, but met my friend at the tea house that afternoon. I had a gift card from Christmas, and lucky for me, I still have a balance!

Thursday:

$1.07  I picked Will up from school and took him by McDonald's for a soda. The day before had been a hard one for him/us so it was a small act of restoration.

Friday:

-0- I'm not counting the $261 grocery shopping trip, but I saved $36.35 in coupons! Woohoo!

So, I think I had a better week. I stayed home almost every day though and honestly, that will drastically cut your spending. I'm such a homebody! 

Like I said at the beginning of this challenge, I'm not a legalist. I'm not beating myself up for spending money. I'm primarily using this challenge to identify areas of thoughtless spending.

One more week to go. 

This week might be a bit more spendy. I came home from picking kids up yesterday afternoon and couldn't get our garage door open. Looks like we're going to have to call the repairman. AND, I JUST made an appointment to get my hair cut next week. I tried to make it until February, I really did, but it needs some serious attention.