Just to be clear I am not wearing an orange safety vest and waving my arms around. I’m not placing construction cones or turning a stop sign. But I am however redirecting my thoughts this week. It is not easy to reroute my regularly scheduled thoughts but I am going to share with you some of what I have had to guide this week.
I am a little over a week into my no debit card February. What I have realized is I have a spending problem based on my moods and bad habits. I have had to think about every trip to work, every trip to the store and even about fun things coming up. Maybe you can relate to some of these.
If I know I have a long day ahead of me, I want to stop and grab a coffee or an energy drink. Thats $3 to $8 dollars spent before I start the day.
I had a long, trying day at work where orders were wrong or late and the task list never seems to end. So too tired to cook and we head thru the drive-thru. There goes $8 to $15 not even for good food.
Three different friends ask you out for drinks, dinner or to hangout in one week. Do you go for all three, narrow it down or push them off? $25 to $75 depending on the trip and the friends.
Those are just some of the food related things I have caught myself wanting to swipe for in the last week or so. But I have also thought about the things that I think I need to buy for home or work. Things that could be bought later on or things that I dont actually need but only want because they would be nice.
Spring cleaning is just around the corner and I am in the mood to finish cleaning and sorting the garage. immediately my thought is that I need to go to Costco and buy the big black and yellow, stackable bins. We have about 10 of them already in their nice little places in the storage unit. And they do make everything easy to find. But while I am saving up for a car, wouldn’t regular boxes I can get free at work be a suitable idea? In case you had a doubt, IT IS better to save the $50 and use the boxes.
There are some things that can not be avoid though and for me I did have to spend a little bit on my safety gear. I havent mentioned this yet but i have decided to ride my bicycle to work while I am saving money for my new car this month. The weather here in Vegas is nice in the spring and the added benefit of 2 workouts a day to me is worth it. I’m only 2.5 miles from work. Anyways I do ride on one busy street and the morning ride is dark and chilly. So I had to purchase a bike helmet and a pair of biking gloves so I can feel my fingers. I wanted to add a new pair of bike leggings, a new jacket and maybe a new pair of shoes designed for biking. My bad habit is to over shop when really I only need 2 things.
There are more examples of the habits I am seeing in my spending. But really they are habits in my life that I am noticing. Things that you dont realize you do until you look under the microscope. I hope I am not the only one that has been taking stock of things. Maybe you can relate, maybe you dont think those are bad habits, maybe your budget allows for more of the fun little stuff. Let me know what you overspend on or any tricks you have used in your budget to change your thinking. What directions have you turned?
The Distracted Damsel 