April

April - Live frugally. Scott & I have had 3 wonderful but extremely expensive years together and now is the time to pull back... a lot. So we can pay off debts and buy a house... in that order. So I am going to try to do free/cheap things and volunteer. I chose this month because it's one of the few that doesn't have a holiday or many birthdays in it so it could be easy to spend less.

There isn't a chapter in her book about this - I chose something my life needs. Scott and I have been doing a really good job doing this (compared to our lives together so far) since December. So I read some blogs and got some advice. 

The first thing I did was make the checklist of things to focus on:

That blog above is ridiculous. The man has a wife and 6 kids and both of them have jobs and they own 1 car on purpose (not because they can't afford it). That's just crazy. Using cash is big because with a debit card it's hard to see how much money is leaving and how much you have left. I have become a slave to the debit card. The 10 day list is modified from the blog above where the guy uses a 30 day list. Basically, if you want something (as opposed to needing something (food, etc...)) like clothes or other items you write it down and put a date next to it. If you no longer want it after 10 days, you don't buy it. It stops impulse buying. I haven't had a sip of soda since December 31, 2011 (which is tough because I LOVE soda even though I rarely drink it) so I think I can cut back on alcohol. I am of the "if it's broken, buy a new one" generation so I will maintain things instead of buying new things.I am the queen of driving all around the world at a moment's notice but rarely do I see it as wasting gas. So I am going to stop that. The rest is self explanatory.

And the second thing was to read about a lot of fun and free things to do. I liked this article in Cosmo the best. 

Should be an interesting month...