And now for something new!

I opened my bank account the other day to find a balance lower then what was on my mental tally. A quick audit of my spending showed something very revealing. A $5 deli meal here, a $2 coffee there- all added up. Then there are the quick trips to the store. In and out, just to get the things I need for dinner; only I always manage to find something extra to put into my basket. When it comes down to it, I am simply in a habit of shopping more often then I really need to.

I came to a realization that financially we are never going to be in a better place then we are right now, if we don’t start to make some changes. It’s like being in a boat that is taking on water, as we row towards our goals, our boat drags and yet we don’t plug the holes in our boat. It’s time to look at what those holes are in our life, and start to plug them. So Josh and I decided that we would start an experiment. We are simply going to stop shopping. For remainder of September we are simply not going to buy anything that is non-essential, and will not do anything that wasn’t already on our schedule. We are calling it a spending freeze.

Yesterday we decided to have a last meal at a local Pho place, and then stopped off to get YoCream, and then we started on our spending freeze.

Day 1- The big freeze

Today I was so tired when I got up this morning. I would have really loved to go get a triple tall soy pumpkin spice latte- but I didn’t. I had oatmeal and a cup of black coffee, and was thankful to simply have something on my table.

As the day drug on, I was still rather tired, and have to admit that I thought about the coffee shop downstairs more then I would like to admit to. I also thought several times about my little starbucks card key chain with several dollars loaded onto it. How easy it would be to pop downstairs for a quick cup for coffee, but I corrected my thinking, in hopes of correcting my habits.

As dinner was looming we faced our first real problem. I asked Josh to take the minestrone soup out of the freezer so I could place it in the crock pot to warm. Instead he took a rice and mushroom mixture out of the freezer- and we ended up not having anything planned for dinner. In previous days I would have stopped off at the store and bought something to make, or even worse something pre-made. Instead we decided on grilled cheese sandwiches as we had everything to make them on hand.

Part of the challenge of our spending freeze is starting to look at what is essential to us, and what isn’t. Pita chips for example, although amazing with my hummus dip at lunch, can be substituted or eliminated. I am not sure if other things we purchase will so easily hit the chopping block.

I guess when it comes to our spending freezes, only time will tell.