Would you like a little whine with your coffee?

We are coming up on about a week of our spending freeze. The hardest day was a day without enough coffee. I was so tired! I sat at my desk thinking about the coffee cup that sat just a few feet away. I kept envisioning myself taking a dollar out of my wallet and walking downstairs. Who would know, except me with a little extra pep in my step? After sending a very whiny text to my husband about not liking it when I don’t get what I want (okay about 15 texts about not getting what I want.) I was done dreaming of dark roast and sucked it up. A Few hours later I did happen across an expired thing of Starbucks Via in my desk drawer that I consumed with only a little bit of complaining.

Reflecting on this week, it makes me realize how self-indulgent I am. Not getting enough coffee can spoil my day when there are people not only far off, who are not getting enough food. I am sure they have more grace then I exhibited complaining about my coffee during a self-imposed fast on our spending. What would it be like to really go without? To have a sense of want, not because of greed, or being accustomed to more, but to want because I don’t have the basic things that sustain life? I have a slight pain in my stomach thinking about this situation and to experience that kind of hardship. Honestly it’s something I pray we never have to go through. It has made me realize though, how much I take for granted and how much we are truly blessed with every day.  

I will continue on with our spending freeze, with a lot more grace and gratitude than I’ve exhibited in this past week, and can hopefully extend that past the spending freeze into my daily life.

Spending freeze! Day 1!

After last month’s failure in couponing we decided to take even more drastic measures. Instead of allowing ourselves the gray matter of discounting and couponing it’s time for a spending freeze! A spending freeze in our house is a time period set aside by us, where we do not take money out of our checking accounts unless it’s vital, or preplanned. Gasoline to get to work for example would be considered a vital expense.  A bill like our daughters preschool is preplanned or something we already expected to pay. The rest of it we are not allowed to buy!

Why do we do it? It allows us to really reflect on our spending habits, and reset them. We have a few leaks in our budget. I’m guilty of spending money at coffee shop right down stairs from my office without thinking about it. Other things we are guilty of are quick meals out and about due to poor planning, or because I’m too tired to cook after a long day. And of course there are the impulse buys, and retail therapy we are all guilty of.

Tonight I kicked off the spending freeze by looking at what we have in the fridge and mentally planning some meals based on those items. It’s about making do with what we have, and hopefully at the end of this developing a better sense of gratitude for the things we are provided instead of always wanting something else, or something extra. I’m going to try to update my blog at least once a week so you can follow along in our success, failures, and attempts to better account for the way we spend our money.

In the spirit of being a shameless self-promoter you can also check out the food I make during our freeze at http://laurasmaking.blogspot.com/ to learn how I make do with what we have on hand, or make a recipe when I don’t have everything I need to do it.

Courting supermarkets

Here is what I like about clipping coupons and watching sales. The realization that supermarkets are really compeating against each other for my business. I am a little more empowered to purchase from stores that are offering deals that appeal to me. I've never really seen myself as having any real power over these giant shelve lined stores. I've felt something like a consumer pushed around in a current of other shoppers. As if my cart is being pushed down a track, pushing past things I have no intention of buying. They will make sure I see them though, those impulse buys that they want me to believe I really need. Watching shoppers, and figuring out how to get them to spend more has been a very profitable industry for a very long time. From placing the sugar filled cereal in view of the children, to making sure we enter through the area where the produce is (let's face it, produce has the highest mark up!) and filling end caps with items that are appealing to most shoppers and easy to throw into our carts. Today was different though, I started out with a list of things I needed to buy, and most of them items that were either on sale, or that I had a coupon for. As I strolled the isles on a busy Sunday afternoon, I had no need to see what was on sale isle by isle, because I had already visited the weekly ad in my Sunday paper. In fact I had reviewed all of the store ads, and went to the stores that offered the best deals for me. I told myself that I would try couponing for a month to decide if it is something that I want to continue doing for my family. But right now with a total monthly savings of over $150 dollars, and having more food then we normally buy for the money I've spent due to a little bit of planning, I already feel like this is something we will continue. I keep checking my bank account, and expecting to see it go down at a rate higher then t is. Now I just need to find a way to organize all of those little slips of paper!