Bare Bones October

I'm making an announcement:

Today I went to the bank and withdrew $125 in cash. And that is our budget for the month of October. You ask, "Is this really blog worthy?" Well, I guess so. I've been inspired towards this endeavor by other bloggers, so I thought I would take you along with me on the adventure. So here are the details:

What: The Patenaude family is attempting to spend a very small amount of money this month by limiting my spending to $100, and Eric's spending to $25. After the cash is gone, we're done. What will I spend my $100 on? Everything! Groceries, diapers, clothes, movie rentals, date night...basically anything that I would otherwise use my check card/credit card for.

Why: We have always been budget happy, and by God's grace there has always been enough $$$ to go around. Thankfully we don't have car loans, credit card debt, etc. BUT, we have gotten a little loose with our spending. Last month we bought a mini van (more to come on that, I'm sure) and a lot of cement work around our house. We depleted our savings significantly with those big purchases. Now it is time to build it back up. Also, Eric had a short career as a graduate student last year, but that brief mission has left us with some new school loans. We would like to ZAP those loans, and soon!

How: The freezer has lots of produce from our parent's gardens, meat from the past few hunting seasons, and random baked goods. We plan on eating it. In general, we're going to work with what we have, and find an inexpensive way to get what we need (such a subjective concept, isn't it?).

My inspiration: In the month of September, Mary spent a measly $194 on her family of 12. Got that???? I'd say $100 should work for us according to her recipe!

Other inspiration: This post by Jenni and this sermon series preached in the last few weeks.

So, anyone want to join us? I think it will be a fun experiment, and we are psyched to see how we can retouch our budget based on this month's findings.

Here we go!