23 Feb

How Are You Doing with February’s Money-Saving Challenge?

Written by Kathryn Vercillo on February 23, 2010

At the beginning of the year, we issued a challenge to our readers to try to save a little bit of money in different ways each month throughout this year. We hope that it’s an easy, creative way to set aside a little bit of savings to enjoy later on. We also hope that these challenges will stimulate you to action, allowing you to save more money than you have in the past. We hope it’s working. Let’s check in to see how things are going with February’s Challenge.

Recap: February’s Challenge

The challenge for the month of February was to go on a diet. The goal is to slim some pounds off of your body but of course the real goal is to slim your spending. By eating less, choosing healthy produce over pre-packaged foods and eating a vegetarian diet, it’s possible to save a good chunk of money at the grocery store.

Problems That People Might be Running Into

This challenge is easy for some people but it’s also tough for a lot of us. If you find that you’re having trouble saving money by changing your diet then some of the specific problems that you may be running into include:

Cravings. You have every intention of cutting back on spending money when it comes to junk food or meat. However, you get these cravings and you feel like you can’t resist. There goes your money-saving diet. Cravings are the toughest part of any diet and they can be terrible on your pocketbook since they usually result in impulsive spending. If you always crave the same thing then it might be worth it invest in a small amount of this junk food and keep it in the house to be eaten during emergency cravings. If you have random cravings, try to learn how to substitute less expensive, healthier options for your cravings.
Others in the house won’t take the challenge with you. It’s really tough to keep the grocery bill down if you’ve got a family of five and you’re the only one taking on this challenge. Ask the family to support you for just two weeks as a compromise. Alternatively, work to create new recipes that will appease the family but stick to your new grocery-spending goals. If your teenagers want snacks, maybe they can do extra chores to help earn the money (and to see how much this junk food costs!)
You haven’t seen much difference in your spending. It’s possible that you already eat healthy foods that are low cost so you haven’t seen too much of a change. In this case, you should identify one or two products that you spend money on but don’t really need. Do you enjoy a glass of wine each night? Do you love out-of-season fruits? Take a look at everything that you buy and ask yourself if there’s a cheaper alternative.
Emotionally you just can’t do it. There are some people who have their emotions all tied up in their food habits. If you find that this challenge is too tough, there might be some underlying issue that needs to be addressed. You might consider speaking to a professional about the issue. Give yourself a break; if this challenge is too emotionally hard right now then let it go and look for other ways of saving money for the rest of this month.

Get Some Fresh Motivation

It can be tough to stay motivated to keep a challenge like this going all month long. Here are some things that you can do to maintain the motivation just a little bit longer:

Add up your savings. If you can see how much you’ve already saved then you might feel motivated to keep at it.
Choose a new recipe to make using inexpensive, healthy ingredients. This stimulates your creative side and can result in a lot of fun. Learning to cook new dishes can really inspire you to make this challenge a real habit that lasts into the future.
Commit to not buying any new food for the rest of the month. Make use of what you already have even if you have to get creative about doing it. This will not only save you money but it will also reveal to you which foods you have in your kitchen that you don’t even really want to eat unless you have to.
See if there’s a benefit to your insurance if you stick with it. Did you know that some life insurance companies actually give discounts to vegetarians? That could mean some real savings. Plus, a healthier diet in general is going to mean fewer health care costs over the course of your lifetime. These are some big things to consider to help you stay motivated.

Could You Keep It Up All Year Long?

This is one of the toughest monthly challenges to keep going throughout the rest of the year. It is also one of the most beneficial. Eating healthy and cutting back on spending at the same time is going to make major changes to your overall quality of life. Do you think that you could keep this one up until 2010 comes to an end? Challenge yourself!

Tell Us How It’s Going For You

If you’re participating in the challenge this month, we’d love to hear about your progress. Did you save any money? Remember that saving some is better than saving none so we’d like to know about even the smallest bits of progress. And if you haven’t seen progress, share your story about why so we can give you some support. We’re all in this together!

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