Frugality Challenge!
Can you imagine only spending $250 for a month? For a family? I have no idea how she did it. But it’s obviously attainable.

With everyone screaming economic crisis on news sites, tvs and papers, it’s probably pass time to start living a little less extravagantly and a little more responsibly. Meaning no more take-out, no more shoes, clothes or expensive hand-made cosmetics and hair-care products, because I want them. Cheering noises for the Albrecht brothers who found a market in the states for Trader Joes.

According to my spending report, I spent $331 on restaurants, $75.91 on retail, $53.17 on gas, $132.37 on groceries for the month of September. Or $592.45. Oh look at those ugly numbers. Especially the $331 vs. $132.37. Over twice as much going out, than parking it at home and cooking. The horror and shame of it all.

After finding Rachel’s blog on MSN money, and needing to make my money go further, I have decided to make October 2008 my spend no money month. Mainly because this is the last month of the year where I won’t have to spend on birthdays, or holidays.

Can I cut my spending in half?

Just be cutting out restaurants and cooking and preparing meals at home and for work, I could save a lot in the “restaurant” category. Eliminating restaurants would alone get me closer to my goal.

Right about now those coupon books, valpaks, penny-saver papers and online e-coupons are probably doing well with traffic. Maybe eBay will return to it’s more “quite a deal” values of it’s infancy.

In Portland, we have the Chinook Book. For $20 you get this mega-book of 400 coupons ranging in a variety of local grocers and services. Portland being the greenest city in the nation, there’s a lot of coupons for organic goods, which are generally more expensive. So it’s kind of a glass half empty or half full scenario here – go non-organic and increase savings, or use the coupons and stay the same money-wise, but increase the perceived quality of your goods.