Day 1

Whew! I made it a whole day. I can hardly believe it. Okay, I won't be doing a day by day post. That would make the month seem eternal. But I may do weekly updates. We'll see. I do have to say, I'm a little bummed. I was kinda hoping no one would join me and I could just slide by, no one would even notice the UPS guy at my house every day delivering yet another Amazon box. But, I've got people to report to now. I better stick to this.

I've had a few questions that I'd like to respond to. One, how does Valentine's Day work? This is completely up to you. If you want to set a separate budget just for that, or if you want to postpone till March, go for it. We are not big Valentine's Day-ers at our house, so a fun dinner with the family at home is all we ever do. We don't do gifts, either. But that's because we're lame, not because we're frugal. So I won't be passing any judgement on anyone who does anything different here.

Second, if your husband is the one forcing gently guiding you into joining me, I've got some words for him. "This is for you too, buddy. No fancy pants "lunch meetings" while we're stuffing our faces with pb&j." I hope the few husbands who actually read my blog know I'm kidding. Well, kinda kidding.

Third, if you want to join me "except for that one thing," then set that one thing aside and join me for the rest. I gave the Chik-fil-a exception. And also, my mom and brother will be coming to visit the last week of February. I have a feeling we'll do an outing.

Which leads me to fourth. The point of this to teach ourselves how to live on less. If getting you through it is a prize at the end, sure, go for it. (Come March 1, Amazon better get ready for me! (Just kidding, Greg)) If you absolutely can't go a week without Sonic happy hour, try just going once a week. 

Set your own rules and live by them. 

I'll leave you with a few tips:

• Do not, under any circumstances, log in to your Amazon account
• The second the deal-a-day emails pop up in your email box, delete them. Don't even look
• Do your grocery shopping at a grocery store- not Target or Costco
• Make yourself lots of treats. You may miss going out less if you're still getting treats (I didn't say this was a diet)  
• Eat the frozen enchiladas in your freezer

Please, by all means, share tips and secrets for me. We all know I need them!