The Month of Frugal Living

Even though we've been practicing frugal living for several years now, it occurred to me that we could be doing better. I started keeping track of things we were spending money on, like once a week trips to Starbucks, and once or twice a week eating out. When it comes down to it, it all adds up. So for the month of September, we are living very frugally. Instead of buying Teddy Grahams for the boys lunches, I spent a good part of Sunday in the kitchen, baking dried fruit and nut filled cookies. We also are resurrecting Meatless Nights, where once or twice a week we have a meat-free supper. (Last night was millet/chickpea patties, very tasty!)
Something else we're doing is spending no money this month on anything except necessities. No trips to Half-Price Books, no eating out, no buying anything except food, medical stuff, and gasoline until October. This also includes no going out, unless it's to a free event, and then we take our own food and water, since we can't buy anything there. So far none of the free events have been anything we've been interested in, but hope springs eternal. The first week hasn't been too bad, except for S's trip to the game store to watch the new 40K rollout, but he managed to restrain himself from buying anything. (Way to go S!)Three and a half more weeks to go, then we can see how much cash we have at the end of the month, which will be put into savings. If it goes well, we're going to try doing it at least one month out of every three.