No Spend January: Week 1 Round Up

We survived our first week in 2023, friends! For those of you that are also doing a No Spend Month this January, I would love to know how you’re holding up. This first week was tough breaking some old habits but most days really well. I’m very excited to report that I stayed on track this week with my budget and I’ve got the receipts to prove it!

Shall we dive in?

Table of Contents

No Spend January: Week 1 Round Up

Okay, so just a reminder of the rules for the month:

$25 at coffee shops for the whole month
$35 a week for groceries
$50 for eating out for the whole month

Here’s what I spent…

I did very very well! Now, bear in mind, I am using up some of the canned items and general staples in anyone’s pantry (flour, sugar, etc).

$7.21 = breakfast sandwich + tip. Tea was on the house because I used my stars!
$29.29 = Groceries for my meal plan (below).
- A lot of research to find the best deals.
- Half at Trader Joe’s & half at Safeway.
- Used a $5 promo at Safeway and coupons on eggs, bread, chicken, & bell peppers.
$xx.xx – Going out for brunch with 2 friends this morning! Will update in next week’s round up.

My meal plan

Breakfast:
- Veggie egg scramble
- Blueberry muffin (made from scratch last week!)
Lunch:
- Chicken & dumpling stew (holy smokes, this was SO good and everything was from scratch!)
- Veggie tacos! (Mushroom, peppers, & zucchini)
Dinner:
- Italian artichoke and apple salad with a side of veggie bread pizza
- Tofu teriyaki with a side of rice and broccoli

How it went

I barely ate breakfast all week and I didn’t even touch/make the tofu teriyaki. I got a bug and a nasty headache on Wednesday but I also had a lot of trouble sleeping. Stand by if it’s for personal reasons or if it’s the moon being too big or some astronomical reason I don’t understand. However, I do know that almost every single one of my girlfriends had a terrible night’s sleep this week too.

In short, I ended up having too much food this week. Which is wonderful because I froze some of the pizza for next week. Will also have teriyaki too… and all the eggs I didn’t get to eat. I ended up hard-boiling half of them, for snacks, cause they’re way faster than scrambling.

Other than that, a total success! I didn’t spend anything all week and I’m $5.71 on top! Which, is really good. I need to buy olive oil in week 2, and that’s expensive.

What I did instead of spending money

I love this section. Since I’m not spending money, I’m not window shopping. At ALL. Which is a huge time suck for me. Instead of spending money, here’s what I did this week!

Walked an hour every day and listened to an audiobook on libby – check me out on Goodreads! This year I’m trying to read 75 books this year without buying any of them.
Worked out on my rowing machine – I bought it two years ago during lock down. I love using it during the rainy months.
Watched other budgeting videos on youtube – this is one of my favorite pass times. I love watching people stuff envelopes full of money and also unstuff them and pay off huge amounts of debt! Now, I’m out of debt but there are a few big-ticket items I’m paying for. These videos keep my head in the game and my eye on the prize. 😊
Organized and planned my monthly budget – I did this using a simple excel. I have 6 sinking funding I’m excited to save for.
Worked on my blog – I’ve been outlining, writing, editing, and scheduling blog posts! My goal is to get ahead of schedule so I can socialize with you guys more!
Cleaned my apartment – I made a chores list and assigned myself a room every day to clean. So far, so good! It’s so much less to do when I break it out.
Worked! – Hahah! I have my 9-5 and it keeps me busy. I did a lot of annual cleaning that needed to be done. It was a good distraction. 😅

Should I add anything else to these round ups? I’m hoping to add the money I’ve saved this month and put it towards my biggest ticket item. We’ll see how we do!

Thank you so much for reading, friends! Is anyone else doing a No Spend Month??