It's Time To Freeze

I have never done a spending freeze.  Not for real.  I've talked about it plenty of times, but I've yet to pull the trigger.  Mostly because I feel like when I do think about it it's when I have a ton of stuff coming up where I'll be spending money.  However, yesterday I finally sat down & looked at my finances.  Normally I'm really good at tracking my spending right away but I hadn't done it yet for this pay period which started on the 20th.  I knew I had spent more than normal simply because I went to a concert on the 21 & again on the 25.  

I normally set aside 800/mo for gas, groceries, & going out.  As of yesterday I had just over $475 of that left...for the remaining 3 weeks.  Yikes.  Now luckily, I had also put way more in savings than I normally do too.  However, even though I had already planned on using part of that for an upcoming trip, I don't want to have to dip beyond that.  So starting today until May 18, I'm going on a spending freeze.  For someone who has never done a spending freeze at all, nearly 2 months might be a bit extreme but it needs to be done.

So here's my plan:

1)No eating/going out

**This is honestly my biggest problem.  Now like I said, this has been a weird pay period because of the 2 concerts right away, but within the first 10 days I spent almost $225 at bars/restaurants...**

2)No unnecessary purchases

Remainder of my current pay period (Mar 30-Apr 19) exceptions

1)Big Texas Beer Festival
**I already have my ticket purchased.  I wasn't originally going to get a hotel since I only live 40 min away but because it'll probably be the last time I see the best friend for awhile it just seemed smarter to get a hotel over there so I didn't have to worry about drinking & leaving late.  Plus, because I'm cutting my Houston trip short (see below) my Dallas hotel is basically in place of my 2nd Houston hotel so the money for that is coming out of my Houston fund.**

2)Houston

**I have had this trip planned for a couple of months now.  I was originally going to go down the 14-16 but for the past week or so I've been going back & forth or whether or not I wanted to be there for 3 days or just 2.  Well my finances decided for me.  I'll head down there Friday morning & leave Saturday evening.  That way I can save on eating out & the second night hotel can go to BTBF above.**

3)Grad School Class Nights

**I'm actually not going to class tonight so that I can work on my case study but the 6th & 13th I will be.  I'm also not entirely sure if we'll go out both or either of those days but we normally do go out after class & since my friend Katherine is moving at the end of April I'm not going to skip out on our last few chances to hang out before then.**

Exceptions for (Apr 20-May 18) pay period

1)Grad School Class Nights

**Only 2 actually fall in this pay period because class ends April 27**

2)Girls Night Out

**Like I mentioned my friend Katherine is moving at the end of April so we're having a girls night on the 22**

3)2 Non-Grad School/Girls Night Eating Out

**I don't even know that I'll actually use these.  I have no plans & would like to keep it that way at least until grad school ends.  This also doesn't mean I can eat out just because I feel like it.  But if a friend happens to invite me out & I'm free then I can say okay twice.  I honestly don't know that I see this happening just because the people that I would hang out with will either be gone, dealing with the same teaching & grad school balancing act as me, or works opposite hours.**

So there you have it.  Unless it's gas, groceries, or any of the above listed exceptions it's not happening.  Even in my exceptions I'm not going to let myself go crazy with how much I'm spending.

For those of you that have done a spending freeze before, any tips or suggestions??