We did it!  We made it through the first week of No Spend January, and no one cried.  I am so excited about the cooking we did and the temptations we resisted.  Yes, we had been out several nights in a row before we declared eating out off-limits for the month, but it was also our vacation.  Normally if my husband was off for a week we would have gone out for dinner at least five times plus take out on the other nights and lunches.  I estimate we saved between $700-$900 easily.

When I say we saved money, that’s very misleading.  We don’t actually have that much extra cash in our pockets, it just means we didn’t put that amount on a credit card.  I feel like I’ve been given some kind of spending goggles and I can see the cost of things for the first time.  Before when my checking account was empty I would just switch to credit cards and think nothing of it. Now that we’re only using the money in the checking account I have to watch every penny.  I used to think nothing of buying a few random items each trip, now I have to think twice about each item I put in my cart.

Even stocking up on a good deal can be a tricky proposition now because I have a set amount of cash that is transferred to checking each week.  Do I use this weeks cash to buy coffee for three weeks from now because it’s a great sale?  I haven’t worked those things out yet, so I decided not to deal with it this first week.

I have my meals planned for this week and have even prepped a few to get us started.  I’m actually kind of enjoying eating at home.  At least it’s something different!  We had gotten into such a rut with the routine of going out.  Where should we go?  Do we want to walk or take Lyft?  If we drive will there be parking?  Then it’s always the same; sit, order drinks, order food, should we have more drinks?  Ugh!  How did this become boring?!

Speaking of breaking out of a rut, it was more than just what and where we ate that was affected.  With more time on our hands because we weren’t spending hours a day on the ritual of  eating out we got to have a wider variety of activities.  We went for walks, watched tons of movies, took long naps all snuggled up, played video games and just generally enjoyed each others company.  Our dog Ollie thought it was the best vacation ever.  It was so relaxing, which seems counterintuitive since cooking and cleaning up had always seemed like too much work.

Last week showed me we can do this, we can turn our financial and physical health around.  I feel excited to keep going and I’m looking forward to trying lots of new things.

Random Observations of the Week:

1. When you cook at home you have to run the dishwasher all the time, it’s no longer just glasses and silverware.
2. Storage containers are now in constant rotation with leftovers and meals for the week.  Good thing the dishwasher is being ran so they can get back in circulation.
3. Planning an efficient menu for the week takes work. My mom is a genius at  organizing meals and ingredients so they can roll forward into other meals, no waste there. I need to remember to compliment her on that.
4. If there had been any wiggle room in our plan this week we would have gone out to eat.  The fact that we set down a clear challenge with clearly defined rules was absolutely key to the success we had this week.
5. Adopting Ollie this September is the best decision we’ve ever made.  He’s not the least expensive little guy to care for, he’s a 10 year old Yorkie, but he’s wonderful and I would definitely trade going out to have him in our family.

 

Do your thrifty best!

Lisa