So I left my last post on the challenge at a good note. I leave this week, the last week of March on a more wiser note. The last couple weeks have been difficult, and I broke the rules more then once.
Weeks 3-5
Tom ended up buying me new shoes, my old ones were really bad! But as usually I have a hard time parting with things I wear everyday. He did offer to buy me a second pair of shoes, but this time I politely declined. As you have read in my last post, I’m working on not abusing my spoiled girlfriend privileges.
During this time we also had a little debate over how he thought the challenge was stupid. Example being that we ran out of milk, Tom in turn would buy more milk. I would not buy the milk as rules are not to spend any money. But in turn I would still drink the new milk. So in reality I wasn’t spending anything, but Tom was spending enough for the both of us. I stated that the challenge would be easier if he also participated, but he was convinced we would starve. I respectfully disagreed.
I ended up working on some crafts, that I started in my last post that I had everything for. So I remelted some candles, to make new ones, and finished painting and repotting some smaller plants I had.
By the end of the third week I received some news.
1. One of my friends was moving out of state.
2.Easter was coming and I needed to make a dish.
Shit shit shit shit shit…. This surely messes up a couple of things. For one I was not about to let one of my drinking buddies leave the state without her favorite bottle of wine. And two, I refuse to be that person that doesn’t bring a dish to pass at Easter dinner. So I broke the rules.
And then everything slowly started to fall apart. Not long after my friend left, my car decided it needed an oil change RIGHT NOW. I found myself being more okay with going out to eat, which in turn made Tom spend more money. And then I saw some rosemary seeds at Lowe’s and I bought them. They are still sitting in there bag right next to my computer.
But on the good side, my friends wine was on sale. The cake I made just needs boxed cake mix, canned pumpkin, and frosting. And most of the money I used for all that came from bottle returns. The seeds were less then $2, and I knew my oil needed changed soon and would assume I had the money available because I wasn’t spending money on make up and other little things throughout the weeks.
By the end of week 4, I did willingly break the rules though. I went bar hopping with some friends. But I didn’t really drink, kept it really cheap, and ended up spending less then $20. I also did need to put gas in my car, but still less then $20. And I really needed lotion, I used up all 3 half used lotions that I owned.
….I also kinda cheated in buying special oreo’s…. You should never go to the store late at night after work and hungry.
Now we’re gonna get into some TMI things. I looked into doing to challenge a month or so before actually doing it. I wanted to see how people (mostly women) went about it. But not one mentioned what they did if they ran out of monthly supplies. I assume maybe they bought twice as much tampons or pads before they did there challenges. But I took a different approach. I used up all my supply and then didn’t buy anymore. Instead I went to GladRags and bought a kit. I had actually been wanting to move on to a more sustainable alternative to monthly supplies. And so I bought this right before my challenge started.
So nows it’s the end of the challenge, my last days coming near. I’ve already got plans to buy things for Sunday breakfast and other products that I won’t allow myself to replace. I will say I probably won’t do this again. But it was a nice way to kinda force myself to use up some half used/opened supply. I feel like this would have been way more of a challenge, and maybe a little more interesting if the whole apartment did it together. But you live and you learn.
After doing the math, I saved about $121.17. And that’s with loans, bills, and auto transfers. I only did what was added and subtracted from my main account. So this challenge didn’t really uncover any deep dark spending habit in need of control. But I won’t lie, I did have a little fun testing myself.
What challenge should I do next? hmmm…
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