My 1 Month, $0 Budget challenge (V2.0) starting January 2012 - Want to do it with me?

As you know, last March my husband and I made a decision to not spend any money on non-essential items. As I said then, March became our 'spend free' month....a moneyatorium month...a spending moratorium month. We didn't allow ourselves or our kids to spend money on anything other than what was absolutely necessary.  We could buy fresh produce and other essential food items but could not buy any meat or frozen veggies until all we had in the freezer was used up. We weren't/aren't having financial troubles; we were just shocked at how much we spend! We took a serious look at our spending habits and realized we needed to step back and re-evaluate what we needed to spend money on. See the full post here.

March's spend free month produced amazing results for us as home owners and parents. I spent days purging everything from my linen closet and kids clothes to crafting materials that I knew I would never use. We spend weekends as a family playing games and not rushing around a store. We gave more to charity in that month than we did in the entire year and we felt amazing for it.

Well, as this Christmas season is rapidly approaching and our credit card bill is even more rapidly growing, I feel I need to do this spend free month again. I thought January would be a good month because by the time our credit card bills arrive mid month, I will already by well into the month and I will be saving money. I won't feel quite as bad when I open those envelopes.

After receiving a very nice note from Mother Hen Strikes Again (who is also doing this in January), I thought this might be something we could all do together. Who doesn't love the support of thousands of strangers to get through a month of not spending?

What I am proposing is a month long challenge where we all vow to not spend money on non-essential items. No crafting supplies, no home decor, no clothes...nothing you cannot literally live without. If you are interested, I would host a party once a week and we can share with each other what we made, accomplished or any other thing we feel the others would benefit from. What do you think? Is anyone out there interested in participating in this? Please leave a comment a tell me what you think.

Now, do we all go out and stock up on crafting items (like hot glue sticks, modpodge, etc.) in the month of December in order to have enough for your spend free month...no. That really defeats the purpose of the spend free month. However, if you do, we will not judge. We are trying to support each other and help everyone out with saving a few dollars after Christmas.

I am sure many of you are just like me and have stashes of stuff all over your house. I think my first post will be photographs all my crafting materials to share with you how much crap stuff I have hoarded.Here are some photos from last year. I can guarantee this years will not be any better.

 I don't need ANY wood!

 

Fabric? I have three huge tubs of it..just in case I ever want to sew something.

 Spray paint anyone??? The worse part is, they are three deep!

Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions. I would love to hear your feedback and whether or not you would like to participate.

I hope some of you out there will participate and we can motivate each other!

Have a great Thursday everyone and I will have some cute ornament posts tomorrow.
Stephanie at Full of Great Ideas