Home Spending Hiatus Recap

One more day to go!!!  I started my home spending hiatus 29 days ago and I could not be happier with the results!  In fact, I plan to continue to limit my home spending going forward.

At first, it was hard.  Before starting the hiatus, I used to run to Target or HomeGoods for mommy breaks.  I would even rationalize that if I bought a lamp at Target with my groceries, it didn’t count.  How wrong I was.  All those little mommy breaks and cheats were adding up.  I was spending way more on impulse home purchases than I wanted to be.  Meanwhile, we weren’t meeting our savings goals to make bigger planned home purchases.  Those mommy break habits were hard to break.  I knew the only way was to go cold turkey.

During the first week, I fell into a new routine.  I started taking mommy breaks at home.  I would go to my craft room and work on a project.  I had so many projects in progress, it was nice to take the time to finish a few of them up.  Ultimately, I found my new type of mommy breaks more rewarding.  I felt fulfilled, creative, and I had no buyer’s remorse.

You might wonder if I just turned the spending up on other categories, like clothes.  Interestingly enough, I found my self spending less money in all categories.  Since I was not running out to shop on my mommy breaks, I was not getting a coffee on the way back home or going to the outdoor mall to wander after hitting up the craft store.  I am pretty sure the only shopping I did all month was for groceries.  And, I did NOT miss all the other shopping.  In fact, I felt relieved.  For whatever weird reason, I always used to feel if I went into a store I needed to find something to buy.  Blame it on those stores funneling you through checkouts just to get back out the door.  By simply not going into the stores at all, I avoided feeling that need to buy.

Oops!  One Mistake

The whole month, I only slipped up once.  I would have been more alarmed about the slip up if it occurred at one of my normal haunts.  I would have worried I was regressing.  Instead, my slip up occurred during an event and one of the least likely places.  I ran into Oh Dier at the NortherGrade PopUp Men’s shop with my husband.  I could not resist taking home a couple wood signs I had coveted for a long time.

Despite my one slip up, I managed to double our savings over the past month.  By simply putting the money I would have otherwise wasted on impulse home purchases into my savings account, I doubled my savings account.   We are now that much closer to the amount we need for our basement flooring!  We have paid for our entire basement remodel in cash and plan to continue as we finish it off.  The main contracted work consumed most of our savings and we needed a little break to save more to finish the project.  The home spending hiatus gave us the kickstart we needed to get back on track and save the additional funds we need.

Going Forward – Limited Home Spending Plan

With such great success this month, I am planning to continue on a permanent limited home spending plan.  In addition to  these 10 tips to avoid unnecessary home spending, limited home spending will mean:

• Only making planned home purchases, either large purchases we have saved up for or smaller purchases for things on our wish list
• No impulse purchases.  When I go to home stores or online shops, I will only look for and purchase things from my planned wish list.  Otherwise, I will be limiting myself to window shopping.
• With all the extra non-shopping time, I will continue to work on my back log of projects around the house.
• Consistent with working through the project back log, I will allow myself very limited spending to buy supplies necessary for finishing in progress projects.

My hope is that going forward I will feel good about any home purchases I make.  They won’t be made on impulse or due to boredom.  They will be planned.  They will be for things we truly want in our home.  Limited home spending will lead us to love what we already have and to be comfortable waiting for the things we really want.