While most people are counting down to Christmas, I’m counting down to my new adventure. For 2014, I am embarking on a challenge of no spending. I consider myself a fairly frugal person to begin with, yet I have a sneaky suspicion that I spend more than I think.

In February of 2013, we did a brief money detox just for a month. During this time we learned a few lessons about our spending habits and even created a few new habits (like Tuesday bean burrito night). Most of all we created space in our monthly budget without adding an extra job.

So we have decided to do the extended version – no spending for a whole year. Of course, we will still have to pay bills and buy groceries, but there are many “expenses” we can forego. For instance, eating out, renting movies, and buying ice cream are all expenditures we can live without (although my husband might beg to differ about the ice cream). And we will.

As the countdown continues, I will share our official “no spending” rules and what I hope to gain as well as how we plan to handle some of the challenges we know we will encounter along the way. Twelve days and counting…