I recommended WaMu as a bank in the past, but the bank is under new ownership and everything has gone downhill.

• 1% on what used to be 4% interest on savings .
  
• $12 fee that they refuse to refund for what used to be free overdraft transfers from savings to checking so I could keep my money in savings and have it automatically transfer over as needed.
• They closed my accounts and re-opened them with different account numbers so several checks bounced and electronic payments were canceled.

Move to another bank that gives free checks for life and better service.

A superbowl party wasn't the best way to start No Spend February. We dropped some good cash at the grocery store on February 1. Also this week we had my high school small group over to watch Ironman (blu-ray), and we made food for them. That cost us some cash too, but the guys pitched in a few bucks each, which helped some.

Other than that, we've been very good. We've spent some cash on produce and milk, but nothing on household supplies, home improvement or clothes, and instead of our weekly dinner date we went to Starbucks. That saved us $10-15 right there (we always share a dish when we eat out, so it's not that expensive normally).

We've also been discovering what frozen, canned and boxed foods we have. What we have to eat largely depends on what we have in the pantry rather than what we're hungry for.

February is exactly 4 weeks long, so we're 25% done. I hope we can save up some money to give away at the end of the month. It's only 3 more weeks of not spending.

Along with some friends, we're spending as little money as possible this February to sacrifice to give money away to the Denver Rescue Mission or some other non-profit. Inspired by our study of the Gospel of John, we're applying what we learn rather than leaving it in the realm of the theoretical.

We're eating lots of simple food, hitting Starbucks for our dinner date instead of a restaurant (and even then just buying a tall tea instead of a grande hot chocolate) and having friends pitch-in for lunch at our house on Sundays instead of going out to eat.

We're skimping on household supplies, home improvement is suspended for the month, our milk delivery and Netflix are on hold. No clothes purchases for the month, no miscelaneous/fun spending money.

This isn't an exercise in budgeting, it's about sacrificial giving.

It was surprising at how easy it was to say "I don't have anything to give" or "I don't have any expenses I can cut back on."

It ought not take long to see the sin in that. Has God not provided for our needs? Has God not commanded us to be generous? I was able to give money to church, even if it was only $1/week when I was in college and unemployed. How selfish is it to believe that God hasn't provided enough to me for me to be obedient to the command of generosity?

So, in addition to helping people by sacrificing this month, hopefully it will help us get away from believing the lie that we have nothing to give, and that we can't trust God so we have to hoard everything he gives us.