Jun 9, 2018
The What + Why Of My Month Long Spending Freeze
I’m not shopping for a month. Let’s gooooooooo
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The What + Why Of My Month Long Spending Freeze
I’m not shopping for a month. Let’s gooooooooo
I put myself on a spending freeze for February in an attempt to reset my finances. I’ve never been a budgeter because I’m generally living that frugal autopilot life, but even frugal peeps need a financial reset every once in a while. I firmly believe in the power of short term challenges. They shake us …
What does a month long spending freeze REALLY mean?
30 Day Spending Fast
Putting myself on a spending fast. I feel like my spending has been pretty out of control since about March. Once I realized that I was not going to be able to move out of state this year, I just started dipping all up into my Savings accounts. So it’s time for me to get back on track.
No additional spending on any and all non-necessities. That means, for the next 30 days I will only be spending money on Bills, Gas, Food, and Toiletries (and Gym membership - not giving that up). NOTHING else. I don’t care how good the sale is, how bad I want it, how bored I am, etc. The answer is NO. I’m hoping this will be like those 30 day detox diets. A kick-start to get me back saving and to help me stop spending unnecessarily. I have too much shit, and I am not any happier. Actually, I feel more stressed every time I check my account(s).
After the 30 day fast, I’m putting myself on a diet. Still only spending on necessities, but giving myself a little “allowance” (or “cheat” money). No more than 200 or 100 in discretionary spending each month. I’ll decide on the amount when I get there.
This is simply a ‘note to self’. I just had to write it out to make it real, to hold me accountable.
2016: January 15, Holy Crap It’s January Again
So I’m on a spending cleanse again this year. It’s going well (I guess?)
This year was different. I just got back from four days at a Palm Springs resort. “How in the hell can you spend four days at a Palm Springs resort during a spending fast?” Well, it was for work, and it informs a lot of how my life has been in the last year.
I got this job in February of 2015. There was a re-org and I got a promotion in October. In the span of a year, my income shot up an insane percentage - not because I’m some super duper high earner but because 1. I’m compensated fairly, and 2. My old job underpaid (this is a scientific fact, Jack). As I make a point of saying often - it’s super lucky and I’m really grateful and I am sure I’ll have future rough moments career-wise again, as should we all if we are growing - but for the moment, things are great. Which is handy, BECAUSE: I have a wedding to plan! We were technically engaged last year at this time, but we didn’t want to touch planning until I had a stable job. After my 3-month probationary period was over, we started to look at venues and picked an affordable-yet-beautiful space in a nice area of Los Angeles.
So now there’s that! My parents are generously helping, but there’s a lot to buy even for a relatively small (by wedding standards) event. And you know what? It’s been easy to put away a certain dollar amount each month, but we really need to step it up as we get closer. I used to hear that statistic about “the average wedding costs $27,000″ and roll my eyes thinking “My god, these people are spending thousands on crystal vases or swan ice sculptures.” Even as an event planner and wedding blog junkie, I was woefully unaware of how much sh*t actually cost. Well, not anymore. And I will never again judge the numbers I hear for others unless it’s like, obvious opulence.
Anyway! Anything wedding-related gets a pass this month, but we’re already halfway through January and I’ve done fairly well. The first week/first two weekends was eaten up by prep for my session at the aforementioned Palm Springs sales meeting - staying in, rehearsing, stressing out, working late and bouts of self-doubt. This week was the meeting itself. Held in the nicest resort in Indian Wells - it’s been forever since I walked into a hotel room and was like “Holy crap, this place is nice!” Huge, balcony, double sinks, comfy bed. We didn’t really have time in our rooms, since we were mostly in meetings and doing endless amounts of eating/boozing. Everything was taken care of... er, other than the room service pizza I ordered late on the last night.
So now with a busy season behind me, I plan on enjoying the long weekend and tackling some wedding tasks with the husband-to-be. On a day off such as this, I would ordinarily like to go out to lunch, do some shopping, maybe hit a happy hour, but I’m listening to Drake on my balcony with a glass of wine as I type this long-overdue update. Not bad.
Oh yeah, we went to Cirque du Soleil last week, for free. Another contest win works out nicely for us! We didn’t even have to pay to park - the event was held near Dodger Stadium (a makeshift tent in the parking lot, basically) and we parked down the hill, saving $25! Perhaps in the next update I will share more about that.
21/344
3 weeks in already?! I’m shocked to admit it but so far time has flown. I braced myself for fun-crushing, pride-smearing, whine-inducing coming-to-terms-with-my-selfishness misery but thus far I have experienced mostly the opposite. The transition has been mostly painless (some credit is due to my generous, kind friends who have already treated me on more than one occasion / love y’all).
I’m finding that pressing pause on more, more, more, better, prettier, faster, etc. has given me the brain space to look around and see what I already have is pretty neat. thankfulness has abounded; and with that, contentment.
I’m recognizing that the temporary thrill of buying something new never holds up against the investment of long term friendships or the satisfaction of using your creativity to
The freedom that simplicity brings causes me to humbly acknowledge that even if I never chose to buy a ‘want’ again, my life would still be abundantly full.
So, I am marking today as the beginning of my spending fast (more like diet). No cigarettes, putting a limit on alcohol (comfest is coming up!), no eating out, etc. Also, I will be limiting my driving. I put so many dollars into gas every month. It's insane. I am going to be doing this for at least three months to see how much I can save by the time September comes and probably will continue once we return from Colorado! I have half assed tried doing this about a year ago and again maybe about 6 months ago. Third time is a charm!
How to stop spending money, a thrifty 15 update
How to stop spending money, a thrifty 15 update
So it’s nearing the end of month 2 of my spending fast and I bet you all want to know how its going! I will be completely honest with you, I have slipped up on occasion but overall (and considering it was Christmas and New Years!) I have really done better than I thought I would.
Christmas went really well, we have a group of 10 for Christmas lunch, followed by left overs for dinner so its pretty…
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