Photo Credit: Smile by Cupertino, 2003.
Today was a NO SPEND DAY.
Wow.
That's about all the news I have to report, yet I'm trying to consistently blog this year.
Doubtful I'll make it if that's all the exciting financial news I can come up with.
We took TheGrrl with us to church this morning and resisted the urge to stop after church and eat out. We don't do that very often anyway and we've taken her out to eat with us after church before, I just don't want to give her the idea it's something we do every Sunday. It did however feel funny just to pick her up for church and then drop her afterwards. I felt somehow guilty for not feeding her! Weird.
When my little familia got home we had leftover creamy chicken & rice, black eyed peas, corn salad, bread, chocolate brownie covered w/pie cherries & whipped cream. Yummers.
I do however, still get a thrill out of having those NSDs. It can be so hard to rack those No Spend Days up sometimes.
I remember when I first read Joe Dominquez's book, "Your Money or Your Life" and started logging my spending, how hard it sometimes seemed to just have a day with out spending some money. Those days when I could manage it got a big smiley face in the log book.
I have gotten much better at racking these days up over time! So, those of you who are just starting on that particular journey keep the faith and keep trying. We are often such creatures of habit that we think we have to stop in here and there and just see what's new, what's on sale, etc.
No, we don't.
NO - the consuming world will rock on without us!!
For me, it was regular grocery stores, scratch and dent grocery stores and antique and thrift stores and yard sales.
No - I don't HAVE TO stop. The world will go on!!
There were days when I had to grasp the steering wheel & tell myself, "I'm going to have a No Spend Day if it harelips the Pope!" So, yeah, keep driving, eyes on the road, don't even consider stopping. Just make it home and get inside and I promise the shaking will stop!! Eventually!
Right after you post your little Victorious smiley face here!!
January 21st, 2008 at 12:27 am 1200875254
January 21st, 2008 at 12:57 am 1200877069
I have just recently within the last couple of months started getting serious about the no spend days and the no gas days as well. I can't believe how much I'm not spending now. I also started a log this month on those nsd's and it is a great feeling.
I'm with you about Joe Dominguez's book, it really does make you think. I picked up the book from the library but know that I probably will buy it used somewhere. It's just a book that I'd like to have in my personal library. I don't know if you know it or not, but they have a website and it is pretty informative and up-to-date.
Keep up the good work LuxLiving.
January 21st, 2008 at 03:13 am 1200885228
January 21st, 2008 at 02:03 pm 1200924202
January 21st, 2008 at 02:09 pm 1200924593
I've looked for 'Your Money or Your Life' used for years at various local used book outlets all with no luck. I do pick up 'Richest Man In Babylon' at used bookstores quite often and keep them around to hand out to people who complain to me about their finances.
And, yes, I've been to that website many times!! I really like the idea of voluntary simplicity - even when I don't always succeed in keeping my consuming-hiney in the proper gear!! Thanks for mentioning it - other people might not know that it's out there...
http://www.yourmoneyoryourlife.org/
If someone does visit the link, don't forget to click back to the SavingAdvice.com area for lots of support getting yourself into a better financial roadway!
Take me home, James!!
January 21st, 2008 at 02:21 pm 1200925286
"I really just aim to have low spend days, realizing that it's just a matter of WHEN you do your shopping."
That CAN be true IF you are some kind of grocery store Stick-To-The shopping list freak, which I'm definitely NOT!! With going to scratch and dent stores there is generally always something on DEEP DEEP discount that I can use. If I spend $26.32 there today, $47.81 tomorrow, and $12.76 on Thursday, and $102.59 at the regular grocery store on Friday, I can EASILY go way over my weekly budget of apprx. $60 a week to feed us all. Easy to do at the store I go to as they get NEW SHIPMENTS Daily!
A sale is a sale is a sale and if I have no internal control mechanism, then I'm a sucker and budget breaker and evidently a compulsive grocery shopper and need to keep my sorry hide out of those stores if I can't control myself any better than that. For some of us it isn't just a matter of "Well, what matter, if I spend $10.00 today, $5.00 tomorrow and $45.00 on Friday if you still come in under the budget radar at $60 that's all good??
I was never one of them.
I just bought groceries every time I found something I would use on sale with not much thought given to the budgetary needs of the household. Sure we had lots to eat, but no money put back for when the HOA dues came payable or other things of that ilk. EEK!
Ralph, good luck with that Ordering-In beastie! I think it may be related to the 'must stop at grocery' daze** that USED TO come over me.
**I do believe I can lay this one at my mother's feet. She is a daily grocery shopper. AUUGGGHHHH!!!
January 21st, 2008 at 04:28 pm 1200932883
When you go into the Joe Domingues website, you just have to click on certain areas and you get a whole lot of articles by Vicki Robin.
I'm with you about the grocery store thing. Every time I go in there, a basket seems to appear with all kinds of items that beckon to me.(Buy me, You need me, I'm a great buy). My luck is that they always seem to put out items when I get there so the girls there tell me. So, I, like you, try to keep my hiney out of there. Like you said, $3. here, $4. there, and pretty soon the budgeted grocery is gone and nothing left over for the rest of the week for incidentals that need to be bought.