Lockdown

Lockdown-according to the Altic Family Dictionary; a lockdown is when the leader of the family declares no superfluous money will be spent for a particular period of time.  This can last a day, a  week or a month or longer depending on the reason for the lockdown.  The definition of "superfluous spending" changes depending on the severity of said lockdown.

Jared and I purchased an older suburban the first of January.  We had a special family reach out to us and offer us this great truck for a great price.  It was really a God thing.  We had decided to keep the vehicles we had since we found and fixed the problems with our Dodge.  Then we received a phone call from the owner about the truck and prayed about it.  We decided not to act on it until January (they called in Nov).  When the owner offered to hold onto the truck for us until Jan. we decided to try and sell the Kia.  It literally sold in a day for exactly what we needed out of it.  There's a lot more to this story and about the generosity of the family that owned the truck.  They were just wonderful and we are so thankful.


When we went to tag the suburban we decided not to roll the tags and taxes into the loan in order to pay it off sooner.  In order to do this, we had to enter a lockdown of epic proportions.  It's the longest and strictest lockdown in the history of the Altic clan.

It has been a month since we accessed our checking account for anything other than bills.  We have used any money that I have brought in (hair cuts/color, carpet shampooing, babysitting) for gas and groceries.  Last pay period I spent $57 on groceries and a total of $100 for the entire month.

While I'm giddy we are mere days away from the end, I am really thankful for this time.  We have worked through the bulk of the storage in our pantry.  We've eaten things that were stashed in there and ignored for who knows how long.

I've come across a few articles that suggest a No Spend Month in order to jump start a savings.  For us, it saved us 5 months of extra car payments and extra interest for that debt.  More importantly, it reset what we felt we had to have in order to function.  Jared and I are encouraged that we can do with so much less and save so much more.  One tight month in order to save 5 months payments?!  That's a great trade off.

It's been a blessing for the kids.  We used to frequent Happy Hour at Sonic.  We haven't been in a month and Saturday I took the kids and got them the smallest drinks after a free outing at the park.  I spent less than $4 total and they were thrilled.  It was the "best treat ever!!"  according to my boys.  They were so very grateful and there wasn't a single complaint.

In the end, we are better off and we have a great truck that fits our family.  Meet the Altic School Bus: