How did the January No Spend Challenge go for you? I figured I’d better share how it went for me since I was among several that proposed the challenge. I think we could have done better, but we did put my husband’s third paycheck of the month to good use.

Biggest Downfall

Eating out is still our Achille’s heel & January was no different (cash or debited) – $200.

Splurge

No warm weather getaway for me this winter so I paid for a 4-day Scrapbooking retreat that I’m attending this month. (check) – $120.25.

Blog related

I bought my Fincon ticket (charged) – $149.00.

Truck repair

A week ago Sunday my truck wouldn’t start so my husband bought jumper cables first and then a new battery when jump starting didn’t work (charged) – $117.

Checking

We opened an account with Perkstreet (electronic transfer from checking) – $25.

Investment

In an effort to contribute more towards retirement, we opened an account with Betterment (electronic transfer from checking) – $500.

Emergency Fund

We had every intention of putting $1000 into an emergency fund,  but ended up with $700 (electronic transfer from checking to savings).

Comments

I consider this month a semi-FAIL because we ended up using my credit card twice. If we hadn’t eaten out as much or paid for the retreat, we would not have had to use it.

Also, we still have mixed feelings about investing in retirement while we still have debt (Dave Ramsey made an impression on us), but we are not getting any younger and may in fact have to play catch up once we’re debt free.

I have decided to keep up the no spend challenge on a month by month basis. Wish me luck in February, especially if we get a tax refund!