-I spent 200 of my 500 dollar allotment in one week. That seems extreme, but we had to spend money for Mother's Day and a birthday.
-I also still have food supplies to cook at least two dinners in the upcoming week.
-We managed to eat all of our meals at home, every day! There was no extraneous spending on eating out.
-This project is also inspiring me to eat less. Apparently, saving money is a bigger motivator than the promise of losing weight.
-There have been millions of times this past week where I've thought, "I'll go grab a coffee and read tonight... oh wait." Or, "Louisey and I can go thrift store shopping while Scouty is at school... oh wait." Or, "I have money for all of us if the ice cream man shows up at the playground... oh wait." I'm really realizing how I don't think of free things when I'm on auto-pilot. My first impulse is to go somewhere and do something that will cost money.
-Gas is expensive.
-Groupon and Heartsy are tempting.
This whole thing has me thinking a lot about how far we've come, as a family in the 5 years we've all been together. During my first pregnancy, and when Scouty was a baby, most of the time all we had was $500 per month to spend on food and gas. So, every time this feels hard, I just think about how there are lots and lots of people who would read this and think... "It's hard for her to stick to only spending $500 this month?" I get that. I get that I'm totally privileged and blessed to be even thinking about a trip to the beach.
The point for me is that it is totally possible to spend and consume less, and it's possible without living in a state of deprivation. This week, we've maintained all of our social visits and have been eating super healthy, super yummy meals. We've just changed locations and ingredients around.
While spending money on whatever I feel like spending it on is fun, it's not really rewarding. I mean, I can have rewarding experiences through less thoughtful spending, but the actual act of handling our money isn't rewarding. There's nothing satisfying about making it through another month. I already feel a sense of accomplishment every time I turn down one of my impulses to spend money in favor of saving for our goal.
Want to see what I'm planning, buying and cooking? Click here for the details.
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i'm totally going to do this... i NEED to do this. thanks for being an inspiration!!
ReplyDeleteI took the Ocracoke photo you used... it's so nice there. You really can get a private section of beach. If I could go spend a week anywhere next week, it would be Ocracoke.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! Since I've move away from my Mommy, I've stolen one of her hella cheap/easy dinner "recipes":
ReplyDelete1 can Red Clam Sauce $3.50
handful linguini noodles $.50
sprinkle of Parmesan cheese $.50
Pour heated clam sauce on cooked linguini. Add shredded Parmesan. Consume. Serves 2.
This is one of my favorite dinners of all time. :)
James, your photo is BEAUTIFUL. And I know! It's pretty much my favorite place on earth. Everybody around here thinks that all beaches in the carolinas are pretty much the same... but if you've been to the very tip of the Outer Banks, you know that isn't true!
ReplyDeleteI love this idea, but after adding up your numbers I found you overspent by $15.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, you missed this note that I included at the end of week three.
ReplyDelete"Note: I'm adding $13 back into my total because the etsy purchase I made fell through. Also, I won $10.50 this week from the hip mama weight loss competition, so I'm including it in our "money left to spend." (You can consider that second one cheating, if you want to, but I say it's on the up and up.)"
Also, this wasn't meant to be some blog scheme to get readers. This was a personal project I decided on so that I could save enough money to pay for my vacation. I did that. Based on your pedantic approach, the way you didn't read the things I wrote and focused on trying to find a flaw in my numbers, it's obvious that you totally missed the point. I don't feel a pressure to not go over 500$... although I'm not going to. It was just an arbitrary number I put in place to get control of my spending.
Thanks, though.
It's hard, evolving... it's hard to remember where you've BEEN and where you are, and put it in perspective, because sometimes the only place you can think of is HERE and NOW. I think that's why budgeting is so hard for me at times.
ReplyDelete"most of the time all we had was $500 per month to spend on food and gas. So, every time this feels hard, I just think about how there are lots and lots of people who would read this..."
That really speaks to me, and it's a good reminder for me to be thankful. I am reading through each of your weeks... I'm excited to see how it turned out after week 4. I'm inspired!