Monday, August 14, 2017

A Spending Freeze..What Is It and What Steps To Take


A Spending Freeze...What Is It and What Steps To Take

We have been talking about a spending freeze at our home for about a month now. I personally heard and read about a spending freeze from a fellow blogger and decided I would talk to the family about it. We all agreed that it was a great idea. So what exactly are we doing a spending freeze for? We have children and grand children who live in Kentucky and every year we take a trip out there for a week to visit and help the kids with things they might need. Of course, it's that time of year when they are getting ready to go back to school. My oldest has 4....yes I said 4 lol children to purchase supplies for. So MeMaw and Grampa, of course, wants to help spoil the little ones. School supplies plus some 😄We are hoping to save around $400 for the trip! I'll let you know by the end of my babbling haha if we actually saved our goal amount. 

What is a spending freeze? 

A spending freeze is a commitment you make to not spend money on frivolous items such as soda, lip gloss, that new blouse at your favorite store that's on sale. I know I know...it's on sale but you have to commit to say no. You would, of course, still pay the normal bills and if there was a medical or mechanical emergency then that would also be included as a necessity. Anything you can cut out of the budget that isn't necessary to survive. 

What are the benefits of a spending freeze?

When was the last time your family took a vacation together? Are you wanting to have a little nest egg for later but don't think you can afford to put any money up in savings? The biggest benefit to a spending freeze is well.....saving money!

How many times do you take your family out to eat every month? Maybe you stop by McDonald's for a $1 item every morning on the way to work. You think, "It's just a dollar" but add it up. if you go every day for a year that over $365 give or take the tax, that you are spending. Seems like a lot now doesn't it?

What are some rules to a spending freeze?

Make a plan! What is it that you want to save this money for.

Sit down with the family and communicate. How long do you want the freeze to last? who is in charge of what. You all have to commit and work as a team.

Do not spend money on anything except for the agreed upon items. 
Our family estimated what we would need and set aside petty cash for those items, then we handed our debit and credit cards over to a person we deemed to have that responsibility. That way none of us were tempted. Sounds kind of crazy but if you knew our family you would understand.

Don't go out right before and splurge on unnecessary items. That completely defeats the purpose. Our family prepped by going through the pantry and the freezer wrote everything down and made a meal plan for the 2 week period. For the things we felt we would run out of, we made a separate list, estimated the cost and left that amount out in petty cash.

How will I know I'm Actually Saving Money?

How much do you normally spend in a week? Go through bank statements and receipts. Add up what you have spent and put it in your savings account. If you know you spend $40-$50 each week eating out with the family, put that in savings. Stop at a local convenience store for a snack? add it up and put it into savings. It's a great way to get acquainted with your own spending habits. It's an eye opening experience for sure. I myself was spending around $60 a week at the local 7-11. I bet they loved seeing me walk through the door 😏 

A freeze typically will last 2 weeks but for those brave enough have gone an entire month without spending. If this is your first attempt at a spending freeze, I recommend the 2 weeks.

This WILL be a hard task for everyone involved. The first time is always the most stressful. What if you run out of napkins or your favorite store is running a great sale. Just remember your commitment. There will always be another sale and you can use a hand towel or cloth napkin. We make it more stressful than it has to be due to our own "Gotta have it" habit. Instead, think "Do I honestly REALLY need it and what can I use as a substitute. 

How often should you do a spending freeze?

From what I've read, typically most people do it twice a year but can be done more often if you choose. Some do it as often as every 3-4 months. A family, depending on size, can save around $300-$400 in a two week period. It all depends on the rules you set and what your spending habits were before your freeze.

All in all, It's really up to you, your family and willpower to stick with it. Set your goal, make rules, stick with them and have fun with it!  

So I'm sure that you are curious as to what we saved during our first spending freeze. Well in total, we saved about $627! We had a shocker of an electric bill so that put a damper into saving more and I also paid a medical bill that came in. Those 2 things were unexpected and would have saved around another $300. So I don't think we did such a bad job for our very first spending freeze :)

We learned a lot, had a few arguments :( but in the end, we all agreed that the spending freeze was totally worth it and we were able to save for our trip to Kentucky as planned! So we will be on our way to see our wonderful children and spoil our amazing grand kids very soon!! I can't wait to see them and to schedule our next spending freeze. Maybe we will be brave enough to try the month long one!! 

I hope you enjoyed reading about our spending freeze! I would love to hear your feedback and if you have any questions feel free to ask!    MUAH 👄

32 comments:

  1. This was a great idea! I would love to do it myself but I feel like we can't even make ends meet each month. You did awesome!

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    1. I really didnt think i could either ☺ but once you try it I guarantee you will see some savings even if it's a small amount! I did really good because I took my husband's debit card 😜😂

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  2. Such an awesome idea! I def want to try this out, although as stated above I am also kinda iffy on how it will play out with making ends meet. Worth a try for a saving for vacation!

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    1. We live paycheck to paycheck at our house, so I completely understand. But it never hurts to try! Even saving spare change adds up fast ☺

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  3. OMG this post is just coming in at the perfect time for me! Especially when I am trying to convince myself not to order takeaway ahah! I think a spending freeze is much needed as I need money for my holidays

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    1. We were eating out almost daily for lunch. It really does ad up. Just stopping that habit and taking lunch to work saved us a lot

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  4. Spending freeze is such a nice idea especially for impulsive buyer or when you need to save up for something. With my personal money, it's very rare for me to buy new things, 70% of my earnings would always go to my savings.

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    1. Oh my goodness! I wish I could put 70% back lol that is amazing. My goal is to eventually get out of debt so up have more money for the future. But this freeze was a special one. I get to go see my grand babies. So the next one will be to help pay down a bill!

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  5. A spending freeze is such a great idea, I might try and do it myself for a month perhaps and see how it goes, perhaps think about treating myself with a little at the end, I need a dishwasher so it could go towards that if possible!

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    1. What's a dishwasher? 😂😂 sorry couldn't resist. That is an awesome goal though. I have faith that you can do it. My biggest thing was eating out. It's so easy just to stop by and grab something for lunch. I had to resist the temptation and in the end have been rewarded for it!

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  6. A spending freeze is such a good idea. It's a cool goal to have and helps build your spending willpower, so to speak. I'd love to give it a try.

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    1. It really helps to see the habits and gives the tools to stop spending so much. New healthy spending habits!

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  7. I have done spending freezes before as well as I don't have a lot of money and it really does help! I need to do it for the rest of this month because Sept and Oct will be expensive.

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    1. Our busiest months are November and December. We have property taxes and Christmas. So completely understand the busy times. We are doing another one the end of october!

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  8. My family and I are watching our budget very closely right now. Eating out was out big problem. Now we eat mostly at home and eat out only with coupons and free meals.

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  9. This spending freeze is a good option. I do not see a point wasting money on unnecessary items like soda and candy which are unhealthy for the kids. Saving is always a good option!!!

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  10. Great idea and post. You sure saved a lot!

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  11. Thanks for sharing this cause some people are negligence about this, setting up a cautious budget and living by it saves a whole lot. Will intensify on this cause i have been spending unnecessarily of late.

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  12. We are saving up for our Disney trip in january, so I need to freeze a few spending habits lol. Especially eating out so often.

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  13. I need to really make a commitment and discipline. I hope I can stand when I choose to do the Spending Freeze. Hopefully soon.

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  14. I've never heard of a spending freeze. But I do think it would be a great thing to institute. And it would have been good when I was with my ex. It's not always easy to not spend money on easy things.

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  15. Spending freeze is a wise idea and keep it to a unified investment/insurance to make it grown bigger than deposit it to a savings bank account. When it becomes your lifestyle to save, it will become normal and easier.

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  16. I love this idea of a spending freeze! It's especially helpful for me to go on a bit of a "freeze" before a vacation or before a big purchase.

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  17. We are going to be buying a house at the end of the year. We are under a spending freeze so we can save money for it.

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  18. I've heard of it but never really knew what it was! Definitely something my husband and I need to look into

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  19. Oh i have never heard of this but this is an awesome idea! I will surely try this out.

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  20. I have never done a spending freeze before but now I want to. I bet I could save some mega bucks by cutting out frivolous purchases. Thank you for the idea.

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  21. What a great idea
    so to do this we would add up what we spend over two weeks then when the freeze begins we have thatmoney in savings already?

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    1. What we did is average what we normally spent during the month on bills and groceries. Then we left out $25-50 each week to spend on groceries. We put our debit cards up for the 2 weeks so we wouldn't be tempted to spend on snacks or eating out. At the end of each week I put what I normally spent on groceries and such into the savings account. For example: we normally spent about $200 a week in groceries, so we put $150-175 in savings. My husband are out for lunch an average of 3-4 times a week at work, when he wasn't spending that, we saved an average of $100 a week so that also went into savings. So it's not really putting into savings in the beginning but seeing what you would have spent for that week and placing it in savings at that point. :) Then at the end of the 2 weeks you can see exactly what was saved!

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  22. this post comes right on time for me. I need to save for a Jamaican vacation and as a freelancer that's hard enough to do but, I realize that I do spend on things that I don't really need so, I'm going to buckle down and put myself on a spending freeze.

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  23. I love the idea of spending freeze, although I must admit that I would find it hard to accomplish. I am willing to give it a try though because I know how helpful it would be to our family's budgeting. (gee Villaruz)

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  24. Thank you so much for this. I needed the motivation, I am a natural spend thrift and it hasn't done me any good. I am so taking up the challenge.

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