31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero – Day 7

I did it! Week 1 is complete.

Made it though the first week and today’s challenge is just to review your week, reflect and set goals for next week. I like the questions Ruth Soukup asked us to think about and setting goals for next week got me excited for the new challenges that days 8-14 will hold!

We asked ourselves these questions.

I set 3 (kind of 4) goals for next week.

Listed a couple of “AHA!” moments and acknowledged what has been the MOST surprising thing about not spending this week.

Get her printable here.

So to summarize this week there are parts that were easier then we though, less pain. And some things were surprisingly tougher then others. Staying home (at least not being in shopping areas or stores) helps a lot. The hardest stuff for me/us comes down to the fact that we like to be generous. Parties and birthdays this month seem tough, I cheated by mailing (postage costs $) gifts to friends and my hubby kind of cheated (although he earned us some extra income doing it) by having lunch with his Dad. Both we okayed despite being not “absolutely necessary.”

I need to ask Ben how he feels about the challenge. Cashel has asked for a few things while we are out driving that reveal our “spending habits.” I’d say the toughest area is eating on the go – drive thrus are my arch nemesis. We are amazed at how easy food has been. I’m sure this will get harder as our stock dwindles but with a month-long meal plan and my neighbors giving me fresh produce from their gardens or fridges that they can’t use I think we’ll be okay.

I love our local Buy Nothing group and they have made the tough spots a lot easier!

We are looking forward to building so new habits and my goals next week include making progress in the book “Living Well Spending Less” by Ruth Soukup. I have a couple other books/studies going that I’m trying to juggle. Plus blogging daily! And then I want to start doing some creative planning for birthdays/parties in which I can spend ZERO. And my serious goal is to actually do all the challenges next week (it’s cleaning week) and I’m tacking on giving away things on Buy Nothing and maybe visiting storage to start getting rid of things there too.

Here’s to week one being not TOO painful, completing and actually looking forward to week 2! You can read the individual days posts here on my Spending Zero page.