Happy New Year!
It's Day Two of the 20-day spending freeze and so far so good. I went with a friend to the fabric store yesterday and I purposefully left my purse at home so I wouldn't even be tempted to buy anything. I'm not doing much sewing right now but I didn't want to take any chances. We spent a long time there, and it was great fun helping her look for the perfect fabric for some home dec projects she is planning, but it also felt very good to walk out the door with empty hands. I have not often left a fabric store without buying at least one thing. Victory number one!
The first assignment Kim has given us as part of the
Forget the Joneses (I'll call it FTJ for short) project is to make a list of those things you are giving yourself permission to spend money on. What you put on your list is up to you, but of course you get out of this what you put (or don't put) in to it.
Here is my initial Approved Spending List. Kim tells it that it is interesting to keep track of what you add to your list as the time goes by. We'll see if my list gets any longer.
Groceries: Milk, eggs, fruit, produce, cat food, butter and the only bread my son likes, if we run out of the loaves I have in the freezer.
What I won't be buying is my usual stockpiling purchases, even if it is a good deal. I also will not need to buy any toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper supplies, etc. I have a freezer full of food, shelves overflowing with stockpiled canned goods, and lots of dried beans, pasta, etc. I bake my own bread and have plenty of flour and yeast. I'm just not going to look at any of the CVS and Walgreen deals for awhile. I'm normally a pretty bit couponer but it won't hurt me to take some time off from doing that - I think I will enjoy the break.
Eating Out: We are allowing for our weekly Domino's Pizza for Family Movie Night, which we do every Friday night. We do the take out special and it is only $10. I also will allow no more than one Taco John's stop for DS per week. We only do this on "Taco Tuesday" and spend only about $5.
Wine: DH is pretty much onboard with this - I think he is mainly humoring me, but he doesn't spend much anyway. I told him he was allowed one "so good he can't pass it up" wine deal for the month. We are pretty serious "winos" and stocking the cellar is one of our primary "entertainment" vice. We don't eat out much at all since DS is such a good cook, as are our friends, and we mainly eat at home or at friend's houses.
Bills: Of course our regular bills will be paid. I do auto-pay for most of our regular expenses. It's one less thing to worry about and it helps me from paying late fees because of a late payment, not because we don't have the money but because I forget to pay the bill.
Gas: We will fill up if necessary, but DS and I only buy one or two tanks of gas a month because we don't drive very much at all. DS works just a few miles from home and I work at home, so we have no commuting expenses to speak of.
Miscellaneous: DS has his French Horn in the repair shop and we will need to pay for that repair. We will be paying for his weekly music lessons. He also will need a pair of black pants and a white shirt for his first band concert later in the month. We will also still attend our monthly American Wine Society wine tasting. Other than this, I can't think of anything we will "have" to purchase. I'm really not too much of a shopper, so this should not be too hard. I guess I should add postage to this list in case I need to mail a book as part of my Paperback Swap. I told DS he could spend his money or gift cards, but that I wasn't going to buy anything for him. Again, this is usually not a big deal, and especially with everything he just got for Christmas he should be in good shape for quite a while.
So that's the list. I may have forgotten something, but hopefully it won't change too much.
Stay tuned.......
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