THE CHALLENGE: We came, we saw, we conquered. Okay, so our challenge was maybe not quite so daring and dangerous, but it was tough at times, and worth it. What was it? To not spend any money on discretionary items in the month of May.

It started as we were talking one night in April about money and budgeting and life. We have a budget that we stick to pretty well, and we’re pretty happy with our spending and saving habits. Still, we were starting to wonder if we were distinguishing enough between needs and wants and if there’s any room for improvement. So the challenge was Josh’s idea. Why not go a whole month and focus just on our needs? Then afterwards we could evaluate the difference it made and see where we might want to change.

So it was a good experience. Yes, hard at times. No fast food, no eating out, nothing “extra”, not even any candy or ice cream during weekly shopping trips (wait…okay, maybe we got one quart of ice cream). We were very careful to spend money only on things we had to. And it was a very good experience and taught us a lot.

First, we learned that it really is important to evaluate our spending decisions. In May, whenever we looked at something extra we wanted to buy, the answer was just “no”, so it was easy. The Challenge made it easy to tell the difference between wants and needs because we had already decided. Now we can try to make our future budgeting decisions wiser by saying “no” more often.

And second, The Challenge put us in a mindset – the “oh yeah, we’re not rich yet” mindset. We’ve been very blessed lately, it’s true, but we’re still young and saving up for so many important events in the future. It was nice (and good) to remind ourselves, “wait, we’re still college students.” I think that’s something we’ll remember now as we make decisions on what to buy.

And there’s been the benefits, too – saving extra money, coming in way under budget, knowing that we’ve been smart.

So now May has come and gone, and (though we’re excited we can eat out occasionally again), I think we’re a little wiser for it. We’re going to try to make that “oh yeah, we’re not rich yet” mindset more of the standard, and spending extra money more the exception.

What do you do to make sure you live within your means? Do you have any tips about budgeting or spending decisions?