I was doing my weekly blog hopping the other day when I stumbled upon a post that really grabbed my interest.  Missy, from Graceful Little Honeybee wrote a post on taking a spending fast.    Her goal was to get her spending priorities back on track by going on a four day spending fast.   It seemed like a great idea to me, but I’m thinking about taking it one step further.

I’m certainly not a shopaholic, but I am a sucker for advertising.  I’m one of those people who goes into a store intending to buy one thing, but I tend to veer off course when I see my favorite colors, or things that promise to make housekeeping easier, or books….BOOKS…they are my downfall!  And then there are the frivolous spends, like that cup of coffee to caffeinate me while I’m running errands, or the snack I pick up for the boys to tide them over for a little longer….

All these little purchases add up quickly, and before I know it, I’ve shot my budget on non-essentials.

So, I’ve decided to try and limit my spending each week to certain days.  I think it will force me to plan better and curb those passing cravings for things.  Monday through Thursday are days for housework, hanging at home with the boys, and a few other things that really don’t require any money.  My goal is to avoid spending any money on those four days as much as possible, and plan ahead so that the bulk of my spending occurs on Friday through Sunday.  I’ll have to reject the temptation to buy pizza for dinner during the week, or run those errands that aren’t really necessary but get me out of the house for a bit (and money still seems to get spent).

Another perk to limiting my spending to three days is it will make uploading receipts and purchase amounts into my mobile/web budget tracker much easier.  I’ll have more expenses to upload at once, rather than multiple spread out over the week that I’ll most likely forget to take care of.  Hopefully, it will help me keep closer tabs on how much we’ve spent and where our money is going.

So, we’ll see how it goes, and I’ll update in a month with an estimate of how much money was saved each week by clumping up my spending into three days.

Have you ever tried a spending fast?  How did it go?

Seeking to fully live,