Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Freeze!


So, we attempted a 21 day spending freeze. 21 days because apparently that's how long it takes to make real and lasting changes in one's habits. Somehow, the past 21 days have felt like a spending geyser, a waterfall, a virtual dam-break of cash... I could go on. Besides the pre-freeze frenzy of last minute essentials (anti-fungal cream, for-a-small-village-size Tide, a rotisserie chicken, potting soil, sheet moss, razor blades and about 20 cans of beans), there was the busted belt tensioner and the resulting masticated belt to be replaced on my car, the case of PBR and bag of Grippo's pork rinds for my honey on Valentine's Day (I really go all out), even more potting soil and 15 packets of seeds (I am aching for Spring and only buying things will ease the pain), then, today we ran out of milk- so a quick trip to Kroger resulted in a giant bag of birdseed (that the deer are sure to demolish in a matter of hours), and um... some Harp, dog food, frozen fish (gotta stock up during those excellent Lenten seafood sales), fresh fruit, chewing gum... and oh yeah, almost forgot- the milk!
Perhaps there should have been a better plan of action- an actual negative consequence for unnecessary spending, outside of the whole diminished funds thing. I just can't not buy something if I suspect that we might use it and it seems a good deal. I'm sure there's a support group for this? Loss Leader Buyers Anonymous? Spend a Dollar to Save a Dimers Anonymous? I'm working on it. Really.
In the mean time- we will keep eating the many variations of bean soup and pimped out ramen- at least until Sunday. When the alleged spending freeze has expired. Maybe once it is over, we can start spending less money?

5 comments:

Beth Niquette said...

I totally enjoyed reading your blog this evening. Wonderful!

Sunny said...

Thank you Beth! And I loved the Best Hearts are Crunchy blog- you are a busy lady!

brad said...

Sarah and I have talked about doing something like this! But we were going to just try and start with a week, not 3!

sarah said...

yeah, we really want to give this a try, but it will probably have a similar result. i think we spend less when we're not thinking so much about it.

Sunny said...

Studies have shown that people on diets actually eat more than when they are not dieting- it must be that same psychology. It has made me very aware of my spending patterns, but definitely did not have the desired outcome.