No Unnecessary Spending for 40 Days!!

It crept up on me but right now at 1pm I just accepted the fact that today is Ash Wednesday. Now I am Catholic but I'm not an uber-Catholic. Some years, I'll go to mass on Ash Wednesday and other years I won't. I do observe Lent every year though and make a promise to give something up. It's a good test of will power and I usually hold through all 40 days! In previous years, I have given up desserts, wine and other random things. This year is a biggie, I am promising that there will be no unnecessary spending on my part. I will only buy the things we absolutely need and nothing we want.

This is going to be super-incredibly hard for me to do. I love online shopping. I get sucked in by sales emails every single day. In order to make good on my promise, I made the following list of things we can spend money on until April 5th:
RentUtility billsGroceriesLaundry itemsJC's Crossfit membership & supplementsNecessary furniture for home: couch & bookcaseEaster gifts for the kidsBlog post itemsMedical expensesOne trip with the kids to the movies
That's it. No clothes, no Starbucks, no Panera, no Target dollar spot, no movies every weekend. Nada! I'm serious here people! I made a big Target run this weekend and bought random stuff I probably won't use and that should last me until April. You see the problem is my house is full of "random things we don't use" such as clothes, toys, art supplies and food. We all need to learn to use what we have and play with the toys we already have. I know this will be tough on all of us but we do need it. Wish us luck!!
Are you giving up anything for Lent? Have you ever done the "No unnecessary spending for 40 days" promise??