A Month with No Money. Could you do it?

[nissangirl74]

This family of six has vowed not to spend one single dime during the month of February. They bought a stockpile of food on January 31st and they are walking instead of driving.

What do you think? Could you do it?

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625 ... 30433.html

[nissangirl74]

The only issue i think I would have would be fuel. I honestly think I could do everything else. Hell, we could just go fill up all of the cars and drive them one by one until we ran them all dry...

I'd just pay a month's worth of bills on the last day of the previous month / guesstimate amounts. I can stuff a month's worth of food in the pantry / fridge / freezer.

[Bubba1]

This family of six has vowed not to spend one single dime during the month of February. They bought a stockpile of food on January 31st and they are walking instead of driving.

What do you think? Could you do it?

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625 ... 30433.html

Sure I could do it, but it's a false sense of sacrifice. You either pre-pay (and store) the things you anticipate using, or you pay for them a month later. That family might save a little in gasoline but it's probably not all that much if they live close enough to be able to walk to/from work or school.

[themadscientist]

I can live pretty scant when I have to, but I have to get to work and I'm a 45 minute drive away so no.

[Kompresshun]

Sure I could do it, but it's a false sense of sacrifice. You either pre-pay (and store) the things you anticipate using, or you pay for them a month later. That family might save a little in gasoline but it's probably not all that much if they live close enough to be able to walk to/from work or school.

I'm with Joel on this one.

My new job is also a 30min commute and i'm not walking that far, but I see no true benefit to it other than saving some money on fuel. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable

The only way I see it being worth while is if you were providing some, or all of your food yourself(by that I mean farming and ect). Just stock piling whatever you need isn't really going to save you any extra money, so I don't really see any appeal to it other than saying that you didn't spend any money for a month.

[Jesda]

I could do it since I have no commute. Technically, I dont even need to own a car. I'd just store gas in several containers.

[conniegeo1]

Problem is We have all the oil we need right here . Cry Babies think we should not drill and hurt the Birds . Time to do something right and get the tree huggers out of the way . Between Tree Huggers and Liberals ,their going to ruin our Country all in the name of Enviroment BS . in my day you get out and work to support the people you love ,if we chase all the jobs away we'll have nothing . I personally dont want to be supported by government and sit home . Get a job work your A _ _ off make lots of money then retire . The American Dream . Geo

[Dittoz7]

Challenge excepted!

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I have a life... so no, I couldn't do it, nor do I want to.
I suppose you could go with the loophole way and just use the barter system for a month though.

Buy a bunch of gold a month ahead of time and just pay people with that. Or pay them with sandwiches. Mmmmm sandwiches.

[Razi]

What Bubba said.
I could go a month without money if I stocked up the month before.

My life in Florida was basically like that every month, getting food with the food credits I bought at the beginning of the semester and cycling everywhere.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'm with Bubba. Stupid experiment. "Can you survive without doing something by doing more of it before hand?" Gee, I dunno...sounds tough.
I could go all February without spending a dime, too. I could store 18x3 gallons of gas in my shed (plus another 18 in the car), fill the freezer, write checks for my bills in advance, and pretend I'm not "spending any money". But it's not true. It is something, though: stupid.

Let me see if I can get by without washing any clothes next week. I'll go buy extra pairs and wash them all this week and then act impressed when I don't need to use my washing mashine.
Or how about not using any dishes. I'll order a lot of pizza and chinese takeout and proudly brag that I haven't used a dish.
Or I could go a month without turning the TV on once. I'll turn it on January 31st and I won't turn it back off again for 28 days.

Dumb is dumb. And these people are both.

[nissangirl74]

I wonder if it was an exercise in curbing impulse spending. For example, say you pass a Circle K on the way home everyday. You're hungry and you stop and get a drink and a snack. Say it's $3. If you did that for 20 days ( a month's worth of work days), that's $60. Or, say you buy your groceries at Wal-Mart every week. As you are going up front to check out, you walk past the clothing section and see a cool shirt. Impulse buy leads to <$15 in your bank account. You go through the line, and decide you want / need gum, mints, a bottle of hand sanitizer, and a People magazine. As you walk out to your car, you smell french fries from the McDonald's across the parking lot. You decide to eat lunch there, even though you just bought $50 in food. I can see their motivation, especially if they are prone to impulse buys like this. Not saying I would do it, but I can see why someone would.

[jbracy7]

Umm I have done this for 3 yrs, lived of of wild boar and dear,I hunted and veggies from my perents farm,didn't have to spend any thing for food just a light bill,I was single with no kids,I miss them good ol counrty days,but now with kids,hell the School hits me up every week for dump crap they don't need, fundraisers, plays, sports, and I got 6 kids,ok I might push the sports,but stll. Its imposible for me at least

[G.O.B.]

What of the Amish, they seem to do without money quite well for long time periods. I know they do buy and sell as needed, but generally make do with in themselves. And very well.

[Bubba1]

I wonder if it was an exercise in curbing impulse spending. For example, say you pass a Circle K on the way home everyday. You're hungry and you stop and get a drink and a snack. Say it's $3. If you did that for 20 days ( a month's worth of work days), that's $60. Or, say you buy your groceries at Wal-Mart every week. As you are going up front to check out, you walk past the clothing section and see a cool shirt. Impulse buy leads to <$15 in your bank account. You go through the line, and decide you want / need gum, mints, a bottle of hand sanitizer, and a People magazine. As you walk out to your car, you smell french fries from the McDonald's across the parking lot. You decide to eat lunch there, even though you just bought $50 in food. I can see their motivation, especially if they are prone to impulse buys like this. Not saying I would do it, but I can see why someone would.

Right. IMHO the story is actually about a family who eliminated 4 things: impulse spending, eating out, driving, and leisure activities that cost money (like movies and arcades) for a month. The title and teasers were misleading. The only thing that would have made the story legitimate is if they calculated out how much they really saved on those things. But to determine that, they would have needed to at least figure out the expenditures they averaged for the same # days before the project. And iF you subtract all the stuff they purchased to make it thru the cashless month from the savings, the final figure would probably won't be that impressive unless they were reckless.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Meh, the US economy depends on buying crap nobody needs haha. I contribute quite often, for better or worse.

[VQpwrdSE-R]

There was a show on TV called ultimate cheapskates where people would do extreme things for the sake of saving money. One family didn't use toilet paper. Instead they laundered fabric scraps and washed them for reuse. Not thinking of the energy for washing and drying and the disgusting shi*ty pieces of cloth in the washing machine. They did this all to save an estimated $220 dollars a year. Another guy would go on a weeklong financial fast and did what you guys said about using stocked food and prepaid bills. However he scrounged in his couch and even rode his bike 40 miles to a pay phone and car vac at a car wash. After what I imagine to be the better 1/2 of the day he spent. Total money gained $7.50. What these people don't realize is that your time is worth money. That guy could have worked at MCDonalds for 1 hr and been just as well off. What a tool

[flohtingPoint]

The only time I've done stuff like this is when I was deployed. It's not impossible, but it is difficult to spend money in a war zone.