I had a bunch of bills come in earlier this month. Nothing new, but it depleted my funds quickly and now they are quite low. So I've decided to set a no spend challenge for myself and build my cash cushion back up. I haven't set a time limit for myself, as I want to go as long as I possibly can without spending any unnecessary money. Has anyone done this before? How long did you last?

I do have a few tricks up my sleeve to help me out in this challenge. One of them is I have quite a large grocery stockpile in my pantry and my freezer, and it needs to be used up. Another thing that will help is I've done something similar in the past, not spending for a single pay period. (That wouldn't work this time as I get paid weekly. When I did it before I was working somewhere else and got paid every two weeks, so I really had to stretch my dollars until they screamed for mercy. LOL)

I put in my two weeks notice at my job this morning. I've accepted a job at the Dollar General right next to my apartment. It's part time, 15 hours a week. My mom suggested that I try to work both jobs, but because I'm on disability I'm not sure if I can do that without going over my work or income limit.

One of the nice things about working at Dollar General is they have a retirement plan that even part time employees can take advantage of. Dollar General will even match the first 5%. Who would turn down free money like that? :-) I haven't had any type of retirement savings since I left the Air Force Academy, so it will be nice to put some money aside for that. I already consider myself to be "semi retired" due to my disability income. It's not that I need the income; I can pay my bills just fine with my disability. I work as a way to keep myself busy and the paycheck is just a nice bonus.

My hours at work got cut back this past summer. However, I wasn't in a panic or worried at all. Because I had been putting money into my savings account every payday, I had that money to get me through for a little while, and that gave me a ton of peace of mind.

One of my favorite books says "Who knows if you were put here for such a time as this?" (I'm referring to the book of Esther in the Bible.) I've adapted this quote to say that my savings are set aside for such a time as this. Now that my hours are slowly picking back up I am rebuilding my emergency fund.

So for those of you who are frustrated that your money is just sitting there "doing nothing", there's no need to be that way. In fact you'll be grateful that you have that money sitting there when hard times come up. I know I am.