This has been a good month. I didn't feel the stress I felt last year when I did this for the first time. I am already not buying anything new this whole year, so this wasn't all that different other than decreasing my grocery budget and not going to the thrift store. I am really happy I did it but I don't feel like it was as life altering as the first time I did it. Here are the things I've learned.
- Jason LOVES Spending Fast month. Or at least he loves watching our bank account during the month. He recently said "Can you believe I looked at our Amex bill and there wasn't any charges" Uh, yeah, I can.
- I can live without saran wrap and sandwich baggies, at least in the short term. I am doing better about using tupperware. I want to make reuseable sandwich baggies, but haven't done it yet.
- I plan more fun outings when I don't shop.
- I sew more when I don't shop.
- I re-focus my grocery priorities. I stuck with fresh fruits and veggies this time which meant I really had to skimp elsewhere. I'm glad I did though. I definitely prefer fresh over canned or frozen.
I did have a slight lapse in judgment on Thursday and went to a yarn shop and new thrift store. It was really fun to walk around Alexandria and the stores just sucked us in. I bought a skein of yarn for $6.00 and spent $5.00 at the thrift store. Thankfully LuAnn bought the skein of yarn from me when I found very similar yarn at the thrift store. So, yeah, I ended up only spending $5.00 but I still felt guilty about it.
How did your month go?
2 comments:
Good job, Cami. I managed to stay a little under budget the last week ($38.79) but it wasn't enough to make up for the train wreck in week three. I'm glad I did the spending fast and I learned some things about myself;
1) Since I'm retired and live by myself I really do rely on my friends for companionship and that often involves having lunch or invited someone over for lunch, so the eating out part was the hardest part for me and the place where I fell off the wagon during week 3. I decided I was feeling a little isolated and depressed so cutting that out of my social life is not a good option for me.
2) On a positive note I am not generally an impulse buyer and shopping is not my favorite past time so I didn't really miss that. All but one of the things on my list of desired purchases is still on it and they are all pretty practical, a light colored turtle neck, a sweatshirt, PJ's. I did go to WalMart yesterday and got a CD I'd been pining for.
3)I need to pay better attention to the price of things in the grocery store.
I did make a big dent in my freezer and I'm still going to keep going with that. Its been fun and is in keeping with my efforts to de-clutter my home.
Thanks for offering the challenge, Cami, I will be ready to do it again sometime with some allowances for a social life.
I'm glad you did so well! Any new challenges?
Post a Comment