The first few weeks of a spending fast tend to feel like
starting a really restrictive diet. You
end up fighting temptations to spend money on things you obviously don’t need
but somehow in the moment feel like essentials.
Add in the fact that everyone you know will start selling some
revolutionary product that you just have to try and you really start to feel
like an outsider. I’ve put myself on spending fasts enough in the past to know
that these urges will come, and luckily, I’m not as susceptible to them as I
have been in prior years.
This time around, I haven’t really felt tempted, and I’ve
had a pretty easy time keeping myself away from the stores. Luckily, I haven’t had to go to the mall or
Target and I’ve avoided any unnecessary stops at stores that are purely for
shopping, like Hobby Lobby or boutique clothing stores. And honestly I haven’t missed it. The only thing I’ve struggled with is turning
down invitations to shopping parties like LulaRoe, Cabi, and Plunder. Those events are as much about the social as
they are about the shopping, so I hate to miss out. For this first month, I thought it was best
not to put myself in that situation, but in future months, I may be able to
venture out without buying. Isn’t that
what they teach you in rehab? Test
yourself, go hang out with all your old buddies who are still addicts. What could possibly go wrong?
I will admit I still have a twinge of embarrassment when I
tell a friend I can’t go to their event because I’m on a shopping fast. I can see the sympathy in their faces. People probably assume I’m in way over my
head with bills, when nothing could be further from the truth. This is just something I need to get
over. I should be proud to be on a
shopping fast. This small act of
sacrifice will pay huge dividends down the road. Short-term chagrin is a small price to pay.
March was like most months – same old bills, same old
surprise expenses. We started things off
with an emergency trip to the vet for our fur baby Willow. $157 later, her bum leg was magically healed
through the powers of time and a dose of probably unnecessary anti-inflammatory
meds. Then, wouldn’t you know it, our
$99 yearly membership fee was due on our Southwest card. You might be asking why we bother with a
credit card that has a yearly fee, but we don’t carry a balance and we rarely,
if ever, pay for flights. Case
closed. That was a charge I should have
anticipated, but I dropped the ball.
Bills that come due on a regular schedule should never catch you off
guard! By March 5, our slush fund was
cut completely in half and we had nothing to show for it. I felt a little discouraged, but since I knew
I wasn’t going to spend any money, I figured we’d still be okay. And for the most part we were.
Where we really struggled was with our food budget. We have a healthy amount budgeted for
groceries and eating out – more than enough to not feel limited. But even still, we blew the total by almost
$300. I’m really hopeful that we can
exercise more control here. Now more
than ever it’s important to get our finances under good control, because…
I’m pregnant!
We found out mid-March, and my mind has been reeling with
the cost of daycare ever since. This was
a planned pregnancy, but that doesn’t mean you feel any more equipped when it
actually happens. The only symptom I’ve really had so far is an intense craving
for all things junk food related. I’m
pretty sure this is the root cause of our grocery budget issues, but it’s
getting better week by week.
I have a chunk of money set aside for just this scenario –
both for medical costs and baby supplies, and this month we used part of it to
purchase a recliner for the nursery as well as some much needed book cases for
the office so we can begin the task of setting up the nursery. We were almost swayed by the appeal of a
customized fabric recliner at the La-Z-Boy store, but before we pulled the
trigger, we visited the discount room of a local furniture chain and found the
exact same recliner in a very practical beige leather for literally half the
price. Score! The bookcases were a decent deal but still a
hefty expense. At least it was a
budgeted expense. Even though we are
just getting started with the nursery set-up process, we are trying to clean out
closets and donate/recycle/trash unwanted junk.
I’m already amazed at how much stuff we’ve accumulated over the years
that we don’t even see or use. It’s a
valuable lesson to not overbuy that I hope to expound on in future posts.
Our last major purchase for the month was a final payment on
our upcoming vacation. I had set aside
the money for this trip back in January, so this didn’t really eat into our
budget for the month. I have all our
spending money set aside as well, so we will be vacationing guilt-free!
My only true test came when my favorite face wash finally
ran out. Per the rules of the fast, I
could technically replace this item since I truly do love it, but I’ve decided
to try out some new brands to see if I can be satisfied with a drug-store
brand. My face wash is about $50 per
bottle and lasts me about 4 months. I
picked up a bottle of Neutrogena face wash for $6 but failed to read the fine
print and ended up with a harsh exfoliating scrub that really dried out my
skin. I had decided to suffer through
until it was used up, but my face had finally had enough and I picked up an
Aveno product yesterday for $4.50. After
one use, I’m more than satisfied. And
even with a waste of $6, I still saved myself about $40 by not repurchasing the
expensive brand.
After all bills were paid, we were able to make an extra
principal-only payment to our mortgage for $1,561.25!!! Here’s the great thing
about being down to one debt item – all your extra money goes towards it. Every dollar you pay is a dollar you never have
to pay again! That is so exciting to me
on so many levels. Our ultimate goal is
to pay down enough of the balance to eliminate primary mortgage insurance by
the end of the year, and then pay off the entire mortgage by 2021. It’s actually doable, especially if we
continue to make steady progress this year. We plan to celebrate each 10% of
equity achieved. We should be able to
celebrate our first milestone at the end of April!
Here’s hoping we can stay on track and build even more
momentum!
No comments:
Post a Comment