A no spend month, a month without spending any money, could you do it? Have you

well, that's why they have cellers up north, we don't have them in Texas, well storm cellers further up in the tornado belt, but the bedrock is so near the surface that it really isn't economic to build them, then you'd still need to give them an AC or, we have more to worry about the heat than the ice here in Texas, 105ish today

Not sure. You'd better not come live up here in the snow belt. We buy food for quite awhile ahead. I have a friend who has cat food for 9 cats and cans for himself for a month at a time. He lives on a back road and it has taken 3 to 5 days before a snow plow gets in. When we had an ice storm, 2 to 4 weeks before the roads were clear (depended on where you lived, the Canadians north of us, I hear had it even longer). My Mother, when she was alive, one freezer full of food and the cellar full of pickles, jams, perserves, etc. Dad worked construction and who knew what we would have for $ during the winter. So I don't know. If it was my Mom, it would be food for us and the cat. But we had a one cat limit. I used to also. Wish I still did. This one is sending me to the poor house with medical bills.

Oh yeah, and a cupboard full of flour, sugar, pasta, canned goods and dry goods, beans, oatmeal, etc. Everyone buys a lot of food in the fall, just in case.

Yes...it is high for a 2nd hand shirt. It was one of those 2nd hand stores that only does brand name & like-new clothing. It was a shirt that I would never have touched brand new....like from hollister or abocrombie & fitch. I live in the city and so it was only a few mins away. she paid for over halve of it with money she earned. It just is good to think twice before spending.

Yeah, it is hard in your situation. $9 is high for a second hand shirt, some brand new ones are that right now where I live. Sounds like you're teaching your daughter some very good lessons about money. Teaching no impulse buying is a really, really good and hard lesson to learn. Where I live, 25 miles away from clothing stores, we don't go back if we change our minds. 50 miles round trip would not go over well for a shirt. You must live way closer. Saving up for things is another very good lesson. Sounds like you're doing what you can when you can. Ever read the book, The Tightwad Gazette? It has some interesting ideas that you might like. Good luck and keep up the good work.

Yeah, with 45 minutes each direction, we can't go home and change our minds. Can go to another store and come back or eat and come back, but not home. A few minutes, that's not bad. Yes, some of those designer things are priced sky high. I try to stay out of our designer thrift store unless I have to buy a suit for work because it is the only place I can afford a suit for work. At least most of the designer stuff is usually well made and lasts for years. Like buying L. L. Bean, expensive, but almost indestructable. My husband has gotten years of wear out of the L. L. Bean clothes I bought him when I had money. He hates to buy clothes, so if it lasts for years, he's happy. My cousin's kid had an eye for the designer stuff. So when she became a teenager and had a chance to take sewing in high school, she aced the class and kept learning more and more. She makes all her own clothes now and it looks just as good as the designer stuff as well as lasting just as long. So who knows, having a good eye for nice clothes might lead to something. Thanks and take care.

I forgot about my brother's birthday in August. But I already bought presents. Well pillow panels and stuffing. But diabetic cake and ice cream, maybe a mix I could buy in July and the ice cream, too.

Not going anywhere for a month might be a way to do it. Hadn't really thought about it that way. Thanks. Take care

It's an idea, let me know how you do and how you do it. Thanks and take care.

Wow, I'll pray for you. There is a library book you may want to check out called The Tightwad Gazette. It has gotten me through some rough times. Also see if there are any wild food foraging classes where you live. Unless I find some work between now and September, I have no income until school starts again. I did substitute teaching and I didn't get very many days. Luckily, I'm married, but he's counting on me for part of the bills. So now until September, we're both going to be crossing our fingers. I hope we make it. Glad you have a room mate in September. Until then, luck and $ hoping for you. Take care.

Wow, good luck! I really feel for your situation. Believe it or not, $15 can go farther than you might think barring emergencies. If you can, go without as much as possible to help keep expenses down and eat cheap but healthy (beans, salad and no meat). Would it be possible to have a garage/yard sale before you move?

True, cute baby in avatar picture. See my response to the person below you. If you buy one day extra per week or every so often, you could have a month extra food built up. Also if you read other people's ideas, you may get some ideas. True, people with children and parents to assist or take care of would have a harder time doing it. But if a person put his or her mind to it, at least spending could be cut for a month and more drastically than most people ever imagined. Where I live we were once told to have one week entra food ahead. Then we had an ice storm, and that wasn't enough. 2 to 4 weeks without passable roads. Now they say one month of food ahead just in case.

Sorry, that should be extra, not entra.

An entire year? Wow! They either bought food for a year, or foraged, or had a huge garden or farm, or hunted and fished, or some combination of the above. Sounds almost like the movie Mountain Family Robinsons. They had supplies flown in for really long periods of time. My foraging teacher foraged for 90% of her food. 10% she had to buy. Friends of mine had a 1 acre garden, picked berries and apples, raised pigs, went fishing, and hunted deer. Plus they traded with neighbors. They did that in the 60s, 70s, and part of the 80s. They were a family of 7 kids and two parents. So 9 people. They had a decent amount of land. I think they still shopped at least once a month for milk, butter, eggs, bread, flour. So my teacher and my friends could eat, if they had to, without shopping if they had to for a month, I think they could anyway. There are plenty of ways to eat without shopping. But for an entire month is hard. You never know, with kids it's a lot harder to not shop at least once a month. But some people are taking the challege. I would be interested to see how they do it and what their situation is. Maybe they stock up and buy enough food for a month ahead.

Could you buy one day extra of food most weeks and put it away or store it away until you had enough food for one month? Some people are in a situation where they can and some are in a situation where they can't. Each person is different. But it is something to think about.

You are definitely right. A months supply of groceries is much better.

Very true, and by not shopping for one month, a person or family can see if their planning would work for an actual emergency. They had told us to have food for one week in advance. Then we had an ice storm. Depending on where you were, 2 to 4 weeks with impassable roads. So most people with only a little food ahead were in big trouble. Now they are saying at least one week's worth of food ahead in case of an emergency. Plus less gas if you practice for that month. Since the price of gas is going up, I think that's why she chose a summer month. Thanks for your perspective, hope other people read this and take care.

Sorry, that should say, NOW they are saying at least one MONTH's worth of food in advance, not week again.

For one month of the year, if you played board games, picked berries and made berry shortcake, recycled arts and crafts, read a really exciting book, window sill garden,whatever you can do, etc. Yes, it is hard when children need things or when things need to be fixed. But we're pretty creative. My washer is being held together by duct tape and it's working great! Going right now. 1980s washer. I have a list of things I always want to do, but never have time when I'm working. The ones that don't require more money or travel, I can do. Yeah, no money is a drag, but in the 1930s, people, sometimes, still found ways to have fun and that was during the depression, so we can do it! During a townwide garage sale, some people have just gone and taken the free stuff at the side of the road marked free only while walking from sale to sale. The Tightwad Gazette has some great ideas for low cost and no cost. I read a bunch of how to be poor books. One of them started with, "If you bought this book, you're missing the point." I was reading it at my local library that I had walked to, so I wasn't missing the point. I had a friend complaining to me about sitting around being poor, couldn't go anywhere or do anything. She had forgotten about her local library that she could walk to. She went out, explored new worlds, just by going to the library. So yeah, month after month, it's hard, but one month a year? Some people need to just start with once a week maybe. My cousin did that, no electric night. Cleaned refrigerator, ate cold cuts, played board games or read a book and used candles, wood stove, etc. She said the no electric night a week saved electricity, got her fridge clean, and taught her son how to get along without electricity. They picked one night when they hated TV.

Can you walk to the library so you don't feel so couped up or go for a walk every day? Like walk north one day, south the next, east the next day, and west another day? That way you won't feel couped up?

Some people go one month without spending on groceries by stocking up. One extra grocery bag per week and putting it away can make it so you don't even have to spend gas to buy groceries for one month. Bills I discounted in my last line on the original post. That's too bad about the big ticket items. My washer and dryer have been working since the 1980s. I replaced my oven 4 years ago. My refrigerator is 9 years old, but I have to see if I can fix it myself, then call a repair man. Hot water tank, replaced about 1999. So if my cleaning the fridge doesn't get it to stop freezing (since turning the temp down only made the milk be too warm on one shelf and the freezing kept going), then I may have to replace it. TVs were just replaced because they couldn't handle the changes. Otherwise we had both of them for over 10 years(one almost 30, colors were a little funky at times, but still had good picture and sound). My furnace is 10 years old. Reading consumer reports/guides/digests before buying something or getting a really, really good sales person that wants you to keep coming back that charges almost nothing for repairs helps to get the best for things. My parents had a freezer for over 30 years and a furnace for 40. Annual check-ups or cleanings of big ticket items can save you $ and can keep your house from burning down. Esp. the dryer and the furnace. Had to replace a line in the chimney one year. It's great that you save for those big ticket items. I hope that the never ending aspect stops. Take care and good luck.

I don't know how long things last in Sinapore. We try to get at least 10 yrs. here.

Sounds like you're either there or almost there. Yes, it would take some pre-planning. If you didn't stock up on groceries, it would be really hard, have to eat only what you had and go eat out of the garden or the woods. Probably part of why they started talking about it in June so people would be able to prepare grocery wise. It's something to think about. Thanks and take care.

Yes, it is very hard, esp. if you don't have $ for groceries ahead. I hope you're able to get help somehow, unemployment, something. I hope the discussions at Mylot help and that there is some kind of help in your community. Thanks for the Hugs and I pray that you have money and a job is in the future, too. Thanks and take care.

With no other choice, does it take discipline? Doesn't discipline indicate a choice- at least between disciplined and undisciplined? Or spending $ you don't have versus not spending $ you don't have?

Have you not heard of credit? Living beyond one's means? Keeping up with the Jonses? Robbing Peter to pay Paul? Of course it takes discipline to do what you HAVE to do and not what you WANT to do. Have you ever known anyone who could never pay their utility bill but always had all kinds of new crap?

We usually do have food. I am a thrifty shopper and always try to buy extra when it is on sale. My husband took a closet and added shelves to it from tip to bottom it is almost four foot deep and 32 inches wide. I try to keep stocked up cause we also help others when they need it. He is a odd job carpenter so no money coming in if he doesn't work. he does loan money out in the summer months to family members and he tells them to just give it to him when he needs it in the winter months the worst. SO that helps when people pay it back.

I think just bills, that was my last line, anything more than bills. Maybe the household food. But if a person buys one day extra of food each week, there are 52 weeks in a year, you could even skip some weeks before Christmas and still have food for one month. Just watch the expiration dates. Good time to clean out a closet and put food in or some shelves or add some or put some in a really, really dry basement. We'll told to have an extra month's worth of food for emergencies. We were told one week, then the ice storm happened. Took 2 to 4 weeks for most people to be able to go shopping. So now we're told one month extra food available for emergencies. My Dad worked construction, acoustical tile. We had a garden. We bartered, etc. But in some really bad years, I remember oatmeal and powdered milk for breakfast, eggs all kinds of ways for lunch. Pickles, jams or jellies for supper with whatever part of a cow or pig the neighbors didn't want to eat, but didn't want to throw away plus potatoes from our cellar and/or veggies we had frozen. We put food away for a long time. An extra freezer in the cellar, many extra shelves in the cellar plus lots of cupboards in our kitchen. We repacked many dry goods from cardboard boxes to large jars and labeled them. My current house has less storage, but we always try to have a month's worth of food ready for winter. My husband and I always try to buy lots of canned goods in the fall when they go on sale. His family, too, often not much food in winter. If they hadn't had a garden and bartered, wouldn't be any some months. We don't have a freezer yet, but we want to save for at least one. My brother has two. One for meat, one for fruit and veggies. We're also learning how to dry food. We also received hand me downs from my cousins and neighbors for clothes. I think it's harder with children not to buy for an entire month. But many Januaries, if Dad didn't get 26 weeks of construction, we didn't have unemployment to fall back on. Try one extra bag of groceries when you have money and try putting it away. Your Januaries might be better.

Glad you wrote back, I was worried about you. Great thing about having a carpenter in the family, you can get those shelves and put extra away. Yes, family does come in handy. My Mom was a great shopper, too. $100 worth of groceries for 30 bucks sometimes. If she were alive, double coupons now, she'd go crazy! Glad you usually have food. I hope people read this discussion, others may not realize they could modify closets, loan out $ and get some back (provided they have family with $ in winter) and other ideas as they come up. Sounds like your Januaries are close to no spend. Take care.

Maybe January. With kids, there always seems to be unexpected expenses. A car is bad enough in that respect, but kids, always fees and things coming up. Broken shoelaces, hair cuts, sudden growth spirts, want to participate in sports, cold, flu, etc. Yes, with a family it is very, very hard.

Any month in winter? Really? I think Christmas (December) and when my family has birthdays, it would be hard. How would you do it? I think your response is interesting. Glad to hear that some people don't think I and the person on about.com are crazy. Thanks and take care.

Yup, it does not include paying bills. So what month do you think you'd do? One way to go without buying groceries all the time is buy one day extra per week and put it away. We used to put our stuff in glass jars with screw tops so the mice wouldn't get in. Let me know if you do it and how it works for you. The savings on gas alone could be a big help. I think that's why she chose July, to try to keep at least some travel down. But it's also a big family month for some people. Thanks for responding and take care.

It sounds like you gave this a lot of thought. Christmas does get expenseive sometimes. 3 children, often many things do seem to come up, Drs., meds, growth sprits, etc. Many of us agree here that it is harder to do with children. Thanks and take care.

Yes, your situation makes it really hard right now to do. Every person's situation is different. Some people could more easily do it than others and some definitely could not do it. When my Mom was dying of cancer, I could not have done it. When my collar bone was broken in three places, no problem, I did it, but I was living with my Mom. The next time I think I'll be able to do it is when I retire unless I can find a job on the internet that actually pays a living wage, but I won't hold my breath. Still, it is something to think about because people's situations change. I had friends that I think would have been able to do it and some that lived in mountainous regions and one who would get snowed in for long periods of time that I think have done it. So take care and enjoy the responses. Ever person's situation is different. Take care. I hope your situtaion improves.