Frugal February

Yes, it that time of the year when your post-Christmas bills star to arrive and you realize that you were a bit too enthusiastic with January sales. I want to do a minimal-spend February where I only spend money on essentials.

photo borrowed from news.com.au

I would like to see how much money I will manage to save and also re-evaluate my wants vs. needs.

Some guidelines I am planning to impose on myself:

• Use phone app to track spending and income and note everything - bills, lunches, groceries etc. I use Expense IQ app on my Samsung and find it very useful as it gives me a breakdown and visual graph by category. It is also like keeping a food diary - makes you think twice before splurging on something.
• Create a budget and stick to it.
• No spending on non-essentials like clothes, make-up and other self-indulgent items.
• Shop at cheaper grocery stores like Aldi for essentials, then get specific items from Coles/Woolies.
• Cook at home as much as possible.
• Minimize take-outs. I want to limit myself to 3 meals per week as it is not always possible to bring my own lunch. But I will keep some essentials at work to snack on or whip up a quick lunch such as nuts, canned tuna, crackers and fruit.
• Find ways to entertain and socialize on a budget - cheap movie nights (our local cinema has $7 tickets on Tuesdays), picnics in the park, home movies and hangouts.
• Spend free from shopping time on looking for better deals on loans, insurance and phone.
• Don't even read those promotional email! Delete straight away or even better unsubscribe to remove the temptation.
• No shopping around, avoid shopping centres all together.

I will try to report my progress throughout the month and let you know at the end how much I've managed to save.