Each month this year I’m trying to do a “low buy month.” This is not the same as a “no buy” month or year, where you truly don’t buy anything but the essentials. I am simply trying to be more intentional when spending money. If something isn’t absolutely essential, I don’t buy it right away. I am trying to wait a few days so that I can make sure it’s something we truly need. Below is my April 2025 budget recap!

Low Buy Year | April 2025 Budget Recap

Last year I did a series of monthly posts with questions to ask yourself about your budget at the end of each month. For more of an explanation of our low buy year, please see my January 2025 budget recap.

The first step in looking back at a month is seeing how much we spent on discretionary categories. For my purposes, that includes the following categories: groceries, personal care, household items, dog food, eating out, clothes, entertainment, home improvement, home repair, and the dangerous “miscellaneous” category. Our budget software lets me look at trends, which is really helpful. Because we’re a third of the way through the year, I went back and looked at my average spending in these categories for the first four months of the year.

This was our second lowest spending month this year (February was the lowest). Compared to last April, though, we spent 23% less on these categories! Compared to our average monthly spending in 2024, we spent 30% less this month. Looking at our average spending over the first four months of this year compared to last year, we have spent 20% less overall. I think looking at trends over many months is helpful, because sometimes the month to month comparison isn’t very accurate if you have a random large expense.

In April, I set a challenge for myself to spend less than a certain amount on the combination of groceries, household items (toilet paper, etc.) and and personal care items. I’m pleased to report I beat my goal by 75 cents! My goal was to cut that spending by 15% of the course of the month, so doing that feels like a true accomplishment.

Now let’s look at some of the things we bought as part of our low-buy month.

What we bought / spent money on in April 2025

• Three pairs of shoes for two kids
• A new chef’s knife after our trusty knife of 16 years broke in half when I dropped it on the floor
• Printer ink
• Movie tickets (a spring break treat)
• Bathing suits (we’re already swimming here!)
• Tickets to a local wildlife refuge

After looking at this month, I decided to make a new category for spring break to put some money in each month over the course of the next year. It may not be enough for a special trip, but even a couple hundred dollars would let us go to the movies, have a fun dinner, and do something out of the ordinary without messing with our normal budget. One reason I love budgeting and tracking spending is that it lets our family make decisions about this regarding what’s important.

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