The past month was very hard for me. I was expecting royalty payment, so I was spending more than usual. But I ended up spending more money than I had on my bank account because they didn't pay me, and I behaved as if they did.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon the concept of spending freeze on Pinterest that very day (without even looking for it!). The idea is to stop all your spending except for absolute necessities, and even for those you have a set budget (very low). You cook from your pantry and cut any spending in other areas as well for a set amount of time (minimum of 2 weeks, maximum 1 month). I used to do something similar every time the money was tight, but it was never so well thought out.


It was a very poor timing for a spending freeze since our daughter's birthday was right in the middle of the spending freeze and my husband had to take a tractor driving test, which costs a lot. There's barely anything growing in the garden at this time of year, and the harvested and frozen produce is almost all gone. But I felt like we really had to jump into the spending freeze wagon. Since I decided on it on a whim, I didn't feel like we should force ourselves into enduring it for a whole month.

Our daughter's birthday turned out really well. I'm planning to write a post about planning a party on a budget, so stay tuned. It was a very low budget and low key party, but usually, this kind of parties turn out to be the most fun.


I didn't set a timeframe for our spending freeze, but I decided we should stick with it for  at least two weeks, which we did. It wasn't really hard. But right after the two-week mark, my family started to put pressure on me (my little one, F, wanted yogurt, the older one, L, wanted spaghetti, my husband was pretty upset one morning because there was no butter), so I decided we should call it a day. If I had been better prepared for this and planned every meal in advance (and especially snacks!), we could have probably lasted longer. Now I know how to better prepare for the next spending freeze (I have to figure out how to do it without defeating the purpose;)).

So, for breakfast, we usually eat homemade bread with butter and homemade jam, which is a very Slovenian breakfast, but we do occasionally have granola, millet kasha or pancakes. Lunch is the biggest meal in our household, and dinner can be anything from cereal with yogurt to a three-course meal. There's a lot of snacking since we have two little kids.

Breakfast

Homemade sourdough spelt bread, butter, and jam

Granola made with sugar (I had no maple syrup in the pantry ...)

Millet kasha with cinnamon, honey and fruit

Cottage cheese pancakes

French plum pie

Oat porridge with frozen raspberries and dark chocolate

Lunch/dinner

Pasta with asparagus and cream sauce

Mashed spinach with stinging nettle and mashed potatoes

Mushroom-potato soup, baked oatmeal

Homemade pizza

Couscous, fried tofu, tomato salad

Couscous salad with lentils, tomatoes, and feta cheese

Buckwheat-lentil patties, green salad

Buckwheat stir-fry with peas, leeks, and zucchini

Mock lasagna with homemade marinara and cottage cheese

Bean soup, millet patties with feta cheese

Pasta Aglio olio e peperoncino

Vegan shepherd's pie, Armenian walnut cake

Baked Potatoes and green salad, strawberries with mint sugar

Tofu burgers with homemade buns

Sauerkraut moussaka

Homemade gnocchi with marinara

Apple pie

Snacks

Grandma's cookies

Apples

Peanuts

Bananas

Nuts


So, here it is. What do you think? Have you tried going on a spending freeze? Would you?