$0 Spend month for October

Well this is going to be a challenge.  Here is the parameters.  Monthly bills still get paid, but every transaction is going under scrutiny.  The big savings is happening on groceries.  We are only allowed to buy produce (provided we don`t have it frozen.), milk/dairy, and ground beef if lean goes on sale as we have almost run out and we always try to buy meat on sale and freeze it.  We are also allowed to buy NEEDED items for Spencer, ie infant cereal.  Most other items we should have enough stock piled to cover the month.  That does mean however, no Walmart Smiles packages.  Only the free singles.  That will be hard, but I'm sure we will make it.

The general idea is to help bring budgets back into manageable spend, stop bad spending habits, and deplete items purchased but not being used because they are forgotten. For this month, any savings we do, we are donating to the Malawi Water Project.



This charity has been close to Deb's heart since it's development in 2009 (I think that is when.)  Back then Cherry was reading an article in a Calgary newspaper, about how Helen was trying to help in Malawi, which started by them sponsoring a child there and they went to visit.  The trip there showed how in need everyone was there.  When they got back they decided to try and fill a shipping container of needed supplies to send over there to help.  Cherry contacted Helen and met her for dinner with Deb to explain the project.  Cherry and Deb were on board.  Deb helped round up construction supplies and tools to send over.  As much as that helped there was just too many people that needed things.  Helen and family looked at the greater need, clean water, a lot of remote villages in Malawi needed access to clean water.  This is where the Bio Sand Water Filters come in, showed in the picture above.  For full details see their website.

Alas, on September 27th, we went to their fundraiser and wished we could do more.  We made a donation from the sale of Deb's rental house, but with being on Maternity leave and also donating to our church we didn't put any additional aside.  We are very blessed to live in Canada, and be able to do the things we do on a slight whim (but after much talk from the whim), like last month purchasing a new car. If we can afford to do that on Mat leave then we can afford to do more for the charities close to our hearts, and this is definitely one of them.

So, for every $1 we save this month we are going to donate it to the Malawi Water Project.   We are also having a mini garage sale and donating the proceeds from that too.  Let's see if we can stick to it.

Deb's cravings are starting, she has been craving Mexican, can't stand the smell of raw onions (I had that too), and her general appetite is getting stronger.  The onions thing didn't help that yesterday I processed 20 pounds of onions into freezable state, along with 20 pounds of carrots into puree for soups and baby food.  By the end I was fairly immune to the onion smell, but Deb wasn't too fond of our house.

Poor Spencer has his first cold right now.  Snot and sneezes everywhere.  We have a humidifier running full blast while he sleeps.  It is like running into a rain forest at night.  Hopefully he is better soon.