Spending Challenge, Day zzzzzzzzzzzz

Here's my revelation of the moment. This challenge is BORING.

My yoga challenge was awesome, because I was pushing myself to do something that I normally love to do. Easy peasy. This challenge is all about denying myself something that I normally enjoy. I wouldn't necessarily say that I love spending money on lots of random things, but it does give me a certain amount of pleasure in the moment.

Also, the yoga challenge provided me with instant gratification. I was calmer, and more flexible, and got to feel all proud of myself for getting up at whatever-o-clock to get some me time. This time, there's no real reward from day to day. It's actually more like a punishment, in that I am not getting something that I want. Although, I do anticipate being very proud of myself when I finish it, and I will definitely need some sort of material reward. Maybe I finally can get one of those yoga mats I keep eyeing!

I know, I know. Big picture, big girl panties, all that stuff. I'm going to keep doing it, of course. But I want the world to know that I'm doing it because it's good for me, and not because it's fun. Like going to the dentist. Not anyone's first choice, but a necessary one.

Checklist:

Jan 6-7 (Week 0): Starbucks 1/1 possible days; Lunch from home 1/1 possible days. (See what I'm doing there? I'm not counting weekends. Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater! I will have to rethink that, and either put a whole helluva lot more effort into weekends than I normally do, or extend the challenge to 30 work days.)

Jan 8-11 (Week 1): Starbucks 0/0 possible days; Purchased lunch 3/3 possible days so far, and I'm going out for lunch with my colleagues on Friday. Which means I'm not going to make my lunch goal this week.

Related Reading: Check this out! One of my totally awesome girlfriends has started her own blog, on a similar topic: Things I Did Not Buy. As the title suggests, it's about things that she thought about buying, but didn't. There must be something in the air. :)

Spending challenge - who's a clever girl?

Well, not me, apparently. I *just now* had the brilliant idea that this challenge probably exists out there on the internet, probably in multiple forms. Draw up a budget, stick to it. Surely I'm not the only one who has trouble with this sort of thing, and I bet there are tons of resources out there to help me through it. And likely in a more structured manner than what I've been doing.

So that's my goal for this week, to find a good budget challenge, and get it set up.

As for the current version of the challenge - so far so good. I have started making notes of the things I want to buy, as they occur to me. I'm not tracking the little impulses, but the things I would actually spend time thinking about, researching, and then potentially buying, if not for the challenge. I wish I could say I'm surprised at how many there are, but I'm not - I know I spend too much. I wouldn't have set this goal for myself if I didn't, right? :)

So, nothing new to report right now. Just a couple of insights into the blindingly obvious!

New Year, new challenge

I have kind of fallen off the yoga bandwagon in the past month - not entirely, but I'm certainly not as dedicated as I was when I was doing the challenge. I blame December, with all its crazy busy-ness and lack of routine. But I have kept up with my spinning, and I did a 60-minute Spynga class on Dec 31st, and a 90-minute class on Jan 1st, and I got up early yesterday to do a home session, so I'm not off the mat entirely. I'll get it back.

And I have also decided on a new 30-day challenge: no unnecessary spending. I tend to go through money like water, especially at this time of year with so much Christmas spending going on. (One present for DD, one for me. One present for DS, one for me. And so on.) My debt load is pretty manageable, so I'm not too worried about that, but I really think I could do better when it comes to buying things. So, here we go: 30 days of no unnecessary spending, starting tomorrow. (I would start today, but I just bought myself a book I've been wanting, as a way of tiding myself over!)

Of course, this all depends on my definition of "necessary," and history has shown that I can be pretty liberal with that one when it suits me. :) So I'm going to lay out the rules beforehand.

First, the easy ones:

100% Necessary (buy as needed):
~Food from the grocery store
~Diapers, wipes, formula for the baby
~Yoga/Spinning classes (necessary for my mental and physical health. I just purchased a 10-class pack, so I should be okay for the duration of the challenge.)
~Medications for anyone in the family

0% Necessary (and therefore not allowed):
~Clothes, shoes, scarves, jewellery for myself
~Books or magazines for anyone in the family (including e-books)
~Toys for the children
~Yoga accessories (I have an unhealthy obsession with yoga mats, even though I don't actually want a new one. This will stop me from looking at them, and will free up some valuable brain space!)

And I have a third category for Planned Treats. These are things that are not strictly necessary, but which I buy a lot - and this is where the challenge really comes in. I don't think I will be able to eliminate these things entirely, but I should be able to cut down quite a lot.

~Starbucks. I love Starbucks. And I'm also lazy, so I am perfectly happy to buy a new coffee every day, rather than making it myself. So for this challenge, I will limit my coffee-and-cookie purchases to no more than twice a week. The rest of the time, I will make coffee at work or at home, and buy cookies from the grocery store.

~Lunch from the cafeteria, Tim Hortons, etc. I would love to be able to eliminate this entirely, but I don't think that's realistic. I'm working against a habit of almost a decade, of buying my lunch nearly every day. Honestly, I would say I bring my lunch from home no more than a couple of times a month. It's unhealthy and it's expensive, but like I said. I'm lazy. So I don't think I can quit cold turkey - that's more of a challenge than I'm up for right now.

So I will limit my lunch purchases to three times a week, and bring lunch from home at least twice a week. This may not sound like a lot, but it is a big improvement from what I've been doing. Once the thirty days is up, I will re-evaluate and try to bump it up even more.

And like before, I will blog about it at least once a week. Mostly to keep myself honest, but also as a way of thinking about and working through any issues or hurdles that come up.