We are 8 days into December and 8 days, officially, into our spending fast.
Today turned into a tense day.
I went to town to do some Christmas shopping and on the way in actually planned my stops so that I would finish by a Starbucks so that I could reward myself for responsible shopping – by buying a latte!?
Then I realized what I was doing and, you will love this, decided to go to McDonald’s for one of their peppermint hot chocolates instead! Yeah, I thought I would be cost effective in my splurging!
What stopped me? Well I decided that I would stop at a McDonald’s close to my house so that I could enjoy my refreshing, relaxing and rewarding beverage at home. It was not until I was nearing the exit for McD’s that I realized that I could just drive another few minutes and have one at home and thus, not break the spending fast!
I am amazed at how easily by brain went to money spending mode and was justifying it! Thankfully I caught myself and the fast remains in tact!
Today I would like to acknowledge our “family value”. A term I use to help me recognize all our family members do for us – as it is very easy to take them for granted. Family Value #1: baby-sitting. My mother-in-law came to baby-sit this afternoon while I went out. Had I had to hire someone it probably would have cost me about $30! Realistically I would have just drug booboo around with me, but I would have paid for it in other ways later! Family value #2: Food! We went to have dinner with Ma Kettle and my spendy brother the other day (Pa Kettle and my thrifty brother were away) and my mum sent us home with two mini shepard’s pies! To make it even better, each one was enough for two of us. So three bonus meals for the cost of driving over! In essence, saving us probably close to $20 in food! Yah!
This exercise of not spending is more important than ever these days as a couple of days ago my hubby was offered a great “side hustle” (a term I learned from Snowball in Hawaii to describe extra work! Check out her blog!), we have been diligently avoiding the grocery store and eating what we have at home and most of all we may very well meet our goal of $3550 by the end of the month with money left for what was supposed to be our first big payment on Han Solo’s credit card.
In other happy news, neither of us has dipped into the red in at least a month and if we make it to Tuesday without spending anything we will be +$60. It may not seem like much but Hubby hasn’t been paid since the middle of November and getting by on my maternity benefits is pretty freaking impressive if you ask me! The best part is that when Hubby’s cash does come in to cover this time, it will be all bank so that is how I stay motivated these days!
Stay tuned to see if my optimism last to the end of the month. Same bat time, same bat channel.
thedebtpreoccupation
