He had this crazy idea...(the beginning)

A few weeks ago, over brunch at our favorite cafe, my husband posed this question to me, out of the blue. "Do you think we could do with less? If we didn't spend so much money, I think we could pay off our house in a year. I think we could really do it. What do you think?"

Hmm...

That particular weekend we had really been spending it up. We went out for dinner on Friday night, then went shopping, then went to the local brewery for a few drinks. Friday night probably cost us around $200. Saturday morning we woke up, went shopping again, ate lunch out. Saturdays cost? Around $200. Sunday, we went for brunch (hence the above proposition), and then went to "The Nutcracker". Sundays cost comes in right around $150. We had just spent nearly $600 in a weekend. We were just having fun. We didn't need any of the things that we had purchased while shopping. We could have eaten at home. We could have rented "The Nutcracker" on DVD.

My husband thought that I'd never go for it.

Now, I will admit, I am a spender. No doubt about it. I love to go shopping. I love to wear new clothes. I love to buy new shoes. But, I also love to find a sale...

Over the next few days I thought about his theory. I really thought about it. I thought about all of the things I would have to go without. I thought about all of the things we could do to reduce our monthly living expenses. I thought about clipping coupons. It started to turn into a game in my head. "How much money could we save?".

So, we started to talk about it. We talked about how we had grown up with so little. My husband and I both lived in poverty as children. How had that shaped our current spending habits? We talked about what we are teaching our children about money. With a 17 year old, who's about to venture out into the world on his own, we have been feeling pressured to be "up in his business" where money is concerned. Certainly our kids would garner some great information having gone though this experiment with us. We talked about how our friends would laugh, and think to themselves we were crazy, and how this sounded exactly like something we would do. My husband are and are a little unconventional as a rule...

We started to make a plan. We started to negotiate what was and what was not a "necessity". I will laughingly admit, one sticking point was wrinkle cream. At 37 years old, I need it. I really do! We talked about getting rid of cable TV and our house land line. We talked about looking for a cheaper Internet provider as ours was bundled in with the land line. We made a plan to sit down on Sunday afternoons to clip coupons, plan meals and go grocery shopping. We decided that we should always do the shopping together, as a matter of accountability. We considered all of the ways we thought this experiment would affect us and our children. I considered blogging about our experience.

There are some things we have decided on.

We're doing this!

We're doing this?