31 Days of Living on Less

As I mentioned recently, my husband just lost his job. He’s got work until the end of this month, and I’m so grateful for that mercy. He’s already started looking for another job, and we’re praying he’ll be able to find something that will allow him to begin right after his current job ends.

However, we’ve dealt with unemployment before. Years ago, the company my husband was working for decided to downsize, and my husband’s department was one of the ones that got deleted. Even though he diligently searched for a job, it took months before he finally found something. That was a very scary and difficult time (with three small children and one on the way), and one that I do not wish to repeat.

Thinking through all the potential outcomes in our situation, I realized that we need to be as frugal as we can, and spend as little as possible. Instead of feeling fear and despair, I decided to embrace the challenge.

My challenge to myself for this month in particular is to spend nothing or as little as possible for necessities and whatever life brings. I do know that we have 3 birthdays and a wedding coming up, so I’ll have to be creative there. I’m looking forward to it!

Part of the way I decided to motivate myself is by writing about living on less for 31 days. My plan is to write every weekday and then take off for the weekends. So it may take me longer to reach 31 posts, but I hope to get there eventually! And to make them easy to find, I’ll have all of the posts linked at the bottom of this page.

I hope you’ll join me, and I hope you won’t mind the extra posts this month. I do plan to cut way back for the months of November and December, so it won’t be long before I return to just two or three posts per week. See you tomorrow with my first money-saving idea!

Here’s a list of all the posts in this series:

Day 1:   You’re Here (this post is day 1)!
Day 2:   Take Inventory
Day 3:   Organize Your Pantry
Day 4:   Make a Meal Plan
Day 5:   Cook From Scratch
Day 6:   Save Money on Groceries
Day 7:   Make Your Own Bread
Day 8:   Enjoy a Free Date Night
Day 9:   Find Beauty in the Ordinary
Day 10: Make Your Bedroom a Haven
Day 11: Organize Your Closet
Day 12: Create a Capsule Wardrobe
Day 13: Organize Everything
Day 14: Make Your Own Cleaning Products
Day 15: Cultivate Contentment
Day 16: Cut Your Own Hair
Day 17: Make Your Own Beauty Products