No Pay October

I know that this doesn't roll off the tongue as well as "No Pay May" did, but Mitch and I have decided to revive no pay May this month, and try to limit our spending. We can't be as strict with it as we were a few years ago because there are things that we've already committed to this month, and others that are only offered during the month of October. With this in mind, we have decided to cut out ALL extraneous shopping as well as eating out. We are still allowed to eat out with friends, but we cannot buy dinner on the way home from work, eat out for lunch, or grab breakfast on the morning commute.

Since it is state fair time, we will be allowed to be free on that day. Our state fair day is tomorrow. I will explain more in my fair post as to why we chose tomorrow, but I am very much looking forward to it. State fair day is a day without rules in our house. There is no such thing as too many calories, and we can buy whatever we want. (Don't get me wrong. We don't buy little gifts and stuff. We do however get snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and sometimes another snack. We also buy out BBQ sauce and some candy while we're there.)

A couple of weeks ago, we bought the Groupon for the Dallas Arboretum. It was 2 admissions for $12 instead of $12 a person. (Side note, if you don't get Groupon...YOU SHOULD! We have had many a dinner for 1/2 off as well as two trips to Studio Movie Grill, and now our 2nd annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I have also gotten a $20 gift card to Old Navy for $10 from Groupon, and the same for Barnes and Noble.) Back to the Arboretum...we went last year with me nieces and nephew and LOVED it. This year, we will go next Monday. They have a lot for children to do on Mondays and Tuesday including a children's photographer who charges $15 a picture. We plan on getting one or two if they are any good, so this would be the other exception to that rule. We will also buy a few pumpkins including hopefully one big enough to put Witten in. I'm sure that this year will be the last year we can possibly fit him in one.

For these two big days, we will use some cash that we got from selling some items on Craig's List. That was such a great experience for us. We were able to pay for our trip to San Antonio last summer as well as a few other things, and we still have more than enough for these two days this month.

Other than that and a couple of planned dinners with friends, we are taking it easy on the credit card this month. We want to get things back on track since we took the house off the market and aren't planning on re-listing until next Spring.