"This month, my suburban family of three from Apex is attempting to live our lives without spending money. No dinners out, no clothing, no gifts, no entertainment, not even a weekly trip to stock up on groceries.
No kidding.
We will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner from the stash in our pantry and freezer. We will amuse ourselves without opening our wallets. And if the occasion arises to give a gift, we will just have to get creative.
Needless to say, we won't be making any trips to the mall.
This year's dollar diet will be the third time in three years that we've challenged ourselves to unplug from the consumer-driven lifestyle.
I first got the idea back in January 2009. Still reeling from the stock market tanking the previous fall, I stumbled on an article about a mom in Virginia going cold turkey on spending for two weeks.
From their last drops of olive oil to her husband's trips to Best Buy "just to look," she blogged about the highs and lows of making do. I was hooked.
If they could do it for two weeks - and they weren't even particularly frugal - we could certainly do it for a month. After all, I was a coupon guru and a pretty savvy shopper.
While always up for a challenge, we also had other reasons to put a temporary halt on spending.
A one-income family at the time, we were feeling a little vulnerable as the economic news went from bad to worse amid a steady stream of buyouts, layoffs and downsizing. A month of no spending would be a good way to gauge just how thrifty we could be.
I had grown up the child of two Depression-era babies who worked hard to give my brother and me more than they had. They also made sure we knew the value of a dollar.
Soon after marrying and starting my first job, I began using coupons to help stretch my $15,000-a-year salary as a newspaper reporter in West Palm Beach, Fla. Those quarter and 50-cent coupons made a difference.
That frugality continued through the years as our family grew. With the help of coupons, and other thrifty ways, we sent two kids to college and are now saving to send a third as we prepare for retirement.
We never pay full price. My husband drives a 16-year-old Honda. Thrift stores are a regular stop on my shopping route. Garage sales have been a main source of baby clothes, kids' toys and home furnishings.
But no-spend challenges are different.
Instead of spending less, we're trying to spend nothing. It requires a whole new skill set and a whole new way of thinking. We had no idea that the challenge would become less about the money and more about changing our lifestyle.
More time to spend
During those first two February spending fasts I was drawn to learning about spending our money more consciously and living more simply.
What began as an experiment in saving money through deprivation evolved into more of a spending vacation. With shopping eliminated from the to-do list, I had more time. I read more, we spent more time as a family, and I worked on long-abandoned projects and hobbies.
Without realizing it, we had stepped off the consumer grid, and it felt good.
We discovered that if we bought less, we had less clutter to manage, less to dust, less to clean, less to worry about. In turn, we were wasting less and sending less stuff to the landfill. And, bottom line, we were saving more money than we ever dreamed of saving by shopping sales and using coupons.
Two years later, we've come a long way. We've purged our house of bargain-priced clutter, and we think twice before we purchase anything new. If you don't need it, it's not a deal, no matter how cheap it is.
What do we hope to accomplish during our 2011 version of the spending diet?
I've got a lot of things planned for our spending vacation, most of them a continuation on our path to a simpler lifestyle. There's a pile of "stuff" to be posted on Craigs list or given away on free cycle and a sewing project to be completed using recycled materials. I have two or three books I'd like to read, and I'd also like to see whether there's any correlation between our dollar diet and a healthier lifestyle. We'll certainly be eating healthier since fast-food stops are forbidden.
Saving several hundred dollars would be nice, too.
The timing is right
Why now? Why February?
February is a great month for a no-spend challenge. Following Christmas and a January busy with birthdays and our wedding anniversary, it's a great time to snap the wallet shut. And let's be honest here: February is the shortest month of the year. We're all for a challenge, but 28 days seems sufficient to prove a point. No need to get too carried away.
Now the fine print. We will pay our mortgage, electricity, gas and all of our other regular monthly bills, which includes our cable package. I realize cable is not a necessity, but let's just say I value my marriage.
We'll gas up the cars to get to and from work and pick up our daughter from school when it's our turn to carpool, but we'll limit our reliance on the cars otherwise. If someone gets sick, we'll go to the doctor.
And we'll set aside $10 a week for milk and an infusion of fresh produce.
We will use coupons I have on hand for free items, but we won't use the stack of gift cards that we received as Christmas gifts. That just wouldn't be in the spirit of the challenge.
If necessary, we will borrow or barter. And we will accept any and all invitations to dinner from family and friends.
That's pretty much it. If it's discretionary, it's off-limits.
How we prepared
In the interest of full disclosure, we had not gone on any wild shopping sprees during January. We've stuck to our usual $50 a week grocery budget, which includes all our food, over-the-counter medicines, paper products, toiletries and dog food. Although that may seem a little low, I buy very few paper and plastic products and I routinely make my own laundry detergent and foaming hand soap. And as I said, I'm pretty handy with the coupons.
My only fears as we embarked on 28 days of dollar dieting?
1. Running out of toilet paper. Don't even want to think about it.
2. Running out of Diet Pepsi. Got to have my morning jolt of caffeine."
Perhaps I should've suggested she (or I) start the No-Label Diet--this would've cut down her need to stock much of anything to begin with.
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