had
But I have several excuses, none of which really count for anything much but life's been busy. And when I'm not busy, I'm lazy.
So, in the interest of getting the totals up to speed:
Thursday had quite a few challenges...first off, I work 10:30-7. I SO wanted to order Jimmy Johns($10) when a group was putting in an order. It would have been SO worth it to have thinny chips. I swear. I even considered asking someone to add just the chips onto their order, however I stayed strong (barely). Then at right around 3:41 in the afternoon, I had a WICKED craving for chips. Every Thursday between 3:30 and 4 pm, like clockwork, I crave chips. I don't know if it's because I think that a salty snack will tide me over better until dinner, eating my lunch later than normal makes me crave salt rather that sweet or if my sodium, for some reason, dips inexplicably and insanely low for no reason and I have to eat something NOW but I want chips. So much that when I said, Hey Jaime! (my cube mate and dear friend) It's 3:41! Guess what I want more than anything in the world! She was able to reply with CHIPS! I was to the point of even digging up change in my flower pot change holder. I got up to go to the printer and lo and behold, on the "tables up front" there were two big bags of chips, left over from our food day the day before. I grabbed a plate from my desk (only used to carry my soup bowl back) and had a nice serving. It was pretty much perfect, curbed the craving and money spent! Oh, and not buttery fingers like when I had a half a bag of popcorn last week (Saved $1). After that, I got through the rest of the day at work and on my next challenge. I am usually too starving to fix anything at home when I get off on Friday and the rest of the family has eaten much earlier, so I usually hit up a drive through or stop at Casey's to grab a slice ($4) to eat on the way home. This week tho, I knew that I was going to Target to stop and pick up some filler groceries (Emerson is having a growth spurt, I swear, he eats more than I do sometimes) and some other essentials. I did see a massive 70% off sign in the women's section. I allowed myself to wander over there (with a basket full of juice, yogurt, apples and bananas mind you) and looked at the items. I found several cardigans (which I wear year round, especially the Target ones) and even picked one up to deeply consider it. However, I decided it didn't REALLY need a new one with sequins/rhinestones/fleather so walked away. I did take a quick swing at the 70% off hanging clothes to see if they had any camis for $2.70 but they didn't so I walked away. (Saved $7.50 on the sweater). Full disclosure, I did end up buying a Twix bar. (less than $1) however you know what they say about Karma...it was gross...the caramel was dry and off tasting. I ended up tossing after a bite from each stick.
Totals:
Money Spent: $1
Money Saved: $21.50
Total Spent: $65
Total Saved: $211.50
Friday came and went. I really really wanted a snack from the vending machine ($1) however I avoided it. I also asked J what he wanted for dinner and his answer was Tacos. (Honestly, anytime you ask him what he wants for dinner, it's pretty much the only answer you'll get). I got off work at 3:30 and asked J if he wanted me to swing by the store, if we should go together or if he wanted to go. All we needed was ground beef, lettuce and some seasoning, etc so could be a quick trip ($15) but a reason to get out of the house. He replied back to me and said "If we don't have the stuff, let's eat something else...that's the point, right?" Hard to argue with that one when you are both suffering working on this together. We ended up eating things we had at home so no money spent.
Totals:
Money Spent: $0
Money Saved: $16
Total Spent: $65
Total Saved: $226.50
Saturday I got up, cleaned the kitchen, started some laundry, took some Christmas stuff down, etc. I did some grocery shopping fixed dinner and sold some jeans on the local garage sale site. (Made $8!!!). I didn't stray too far off my list shopping either, only picking up some bacon at Fareway while getting the hamburger they had on sale.
Money Spent: $0
Money Saved: $0
Total Spent: $65
Total Saved: $226.50
Sunday we got up and did some things around the house. J walked the dog, we ate lunch and worked on Spencer's Star Student poster. We then went to the Iowa Energy game (tickets were free through work) and only spent $7 (popcorn and a soda to share). It helped that I had dinner all ready to cook so it would only take me a few minutes to get dinner done when we got home.
Money Spent: $7
Money Saved: $15+ on snacks at the game
Total Spent: $72
Total Saved: $241.50
Yesterday was date night. Yesterday was a terrible day at work. Terrible enough that it normally would have translated to Old Chicago and beers ($40) however since I had planned ahead, we had Tacos (I put them into the menu so it wasn't impulse spending this time (planning ahead and still getting what you want is a success in my book...plus it was nice to have tacos on a night that the kids wouldn't fight over being told to eat them when they have suddenly decided they no longer like hamburger or cheese or whatever ingredient they have decided is gross.
Money Spent: $0
Money Saved: $40
Total spent; $72
Total Saved: $281.50
Today was pretty standard. Outside of the fact that EVERYONE ordered Jimmy Johns (I seriously saw 5 different people with it) I survived. It helped that there was leftover catering in the break room. Dinner was planned so it was mostly just throwing it together and done. I'm calling the totals the same today as yesterday.
$281.50 saved since the beginning of the month on eating out and impulse purchases. That's like saving $20/day. I'm excited and yet a little depressed. What if we had been saving that $20/day for the last several years? Where would that have left us? $7300/year. If you take that over 5 years, that's over $36K. That's some serious debt we could have gone.
Now we're going to work on budgeting our savings. Immediately we will be addressing some debt and starting an emergency fund, but also a vacation fund and maybe even putting some away for me to get my paralegal degree and maybe be able to make some extra income from that.
Thanks for bearing with me if you're at the end of the post!
$281.50 saved since the beginning of the month on eating out and impulse purchases. That's like saving $20/day. I'm excited and yet a little depressed. What if we had been saving that $20/day for the last several years? Where would that have left us? $7300/year. If you take that over 5 years, that's over $36K. That's some serious debt we could have gone.
Now we're going to work on budgeting our savings. Immediately we will be addressing some debt and starting an emergency fund, but also a vacation fund and maybe even putting some away for me to get my paralegal degree and maybe be able to make some extra income from that.
Thanks for bearing with me if you're at the end of the post!
No comments:
Post a Comment