Welcome to the 2022 Frugal February Challenge!
For the past 8 years or so, I have been participating in a Frugal February Challenge. It all started when my husband and I decided to attempt to pay our house off in three years (Spoiler alert: we did it in two! We also live in an older home in a low-cost of living area, so the mortgage was not too terrible.) My husband was working a ton of overtime at his new job and after crunching the numbers, we saw we could easily pay it off if we threw every extra cent we made at the debt. Paying our mortgage off early has blessed us again and again. Besides allowing me to get to stay home and homeschool my kids (which I know is a huge privilege most people cannot afford), it helped us to not panic during job loss and short-term disability issues.
How did Frugal February come about?? Well, while I was looking up money saving ideas on the internet to help us achieve our lofty goal, I found this fun notion of a “Frugal February” that popped up again and again. Basically, it is a low spend/no spend month that helps you to get back on track after the holiday season. I do a more flexible version where you can set the rules for your family based on your season of life. Some years we have been really strict, and others we have been less strict, but overall, the challenge really helps you to refocus on paying off debt and living a frugal lifestyle. **While you do get to decide how much money you will spend on food, entertainment, and extras remember this is supposed to be a challenge, so do not go too easy on yourself!
This year, we are going to allot $400 dollars for groceries and $100 for everything else like: eating out, thrift store shopping, homeschool field trips, etc. (**I tend to set a lower limit for groceries during Frugal February, but inflation is killing my food budget!) I also have a New Year’s goal of taking the kids on monthly outings by themselves, so this takes a moderate amount of money as well each month. Overall, I think $100 should be just enough to cover all of the extras, but still be challenging enough to make me more aware of my spending.
I will be blogging about my deal findings and money saving tips throughout the month, so come back and see how my family fares in our 2022 Challenge.
If you would like to take the challenge with us, just comment below about the spending rules you are setting for your family this month and come back each week to give us updates!
The Thrifty Educator 