No Spend July

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Last month I was not able to pay all of my bills because I didn't make enough money. So this month is a no spend month. If it isn't a bill or envelope money doesn't get spent. I'm doing good so far. I've only spent $53 and that was on groceries. Groceries is my major headache. I've got one kid who cooks and is trying new recipes. She cooks 3 days a week and then I eat whatever leftovers we have for lunch since I work from home. My youngest refuses to eat anything the cooking kid makes so I have to get her whatever she puts on her list. Her rule is it has to be affordable and there needs to be no food waste. So, no telling me you want a 4 pack of steaks (actually affordable for what I get) and you only eat 1 without tossing the others in the freezer. Also, everything in the fridge needs a date sticker so we aren't eating spoiled food or tossing food out before it hits it's time because we don't remember when we made it. So far she is doing good. She picked up a week's worth of food for $40 and made sure to get fresh vegetables in addition to her packaged goods. Everyone can cook in my home so I'm not worried about her living on candy bars and pudding cups. It just makes meal planning more difficult. She also knows that anything she wants that I deem "not affordable" she has to pay for with her own money. A great example of that is I can get a 4 pack of sirloin steaks for $12 at Sam's Club but if she wants to buy 1 steak at the grocery store she works at I would deem that as "not affordable". So far her only picky thing is she prefers fresh chicken breasts or thighs vs the frozen ones. She claims the frozen ones have a taste to her and she doesn't like it.