Plan B, or is that C, or is that M? Next play...

I am still trying to save, but many we sure do have a lot of things that come up and are just going to cost money.  We didn't go to the musical Wizard of Oz, and we didn't go to the  touring Acrobatic performance at the local college.  We saved over 350.00 on tickets, so I can't complain about all we are spending.

 Valentines is such a money wasting holiday.  But if we made one person feel loved, then the money was well spent.

That last statement is why I have such a hard time with saving.  I can see so many good used for money and they are all about making people feel happy or loved or important.

Brilliance in plastic wrap and barking dogs.

Brilliant idea.

I'm wrapping my debit card in plastic wrap so I'll have to unwrap it to use it.  Brilliant right?

It's my second defence against spending. I used to give my husband my debit card, but wound up needing gas and calling him to rescue me. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind being rescued by my spouse, but it would take him away from what he was doing or needed to do, and we would end up going out to dinner or spending money at the gas station on coping food.

It helped me not spend because if I didn't have cash I couldn't spend it. It didn't teach me one thing about saving money, instead of spending, it just limited my access.

Ohhh...

I'm about to kill my neighbors dog. It has been barking and howling all day. Like seriously all day long. I have a headache and feel sick so I want to shoot it.

RELAX... I won't do it, but I feel like it and it makes me on edge and a bad way to deal with being on edge is to spend money.  Just some chips or maybe a beverage of choice. Maybe dinner out cause then I won't have to listen to a barking dog which I don't own, who is barking all day, next to my house. I really want to get some sleep and get over being sick, but I can't cause the dog is BARKING AND HOWLING!

Don't get me wrong, we have three dogs and they bark when someone comes to the door, but they are not left outside to bark and bark and bark. Who does that to a dog? Dogs want to be part of your life. If you have a dog. Take care of it. Don't just let it stay outside in a kennel and bark it's poor life away.  SHEEESH!

Anyway, back to topic. NO NOT BACK ON TOPIC...

Gaaaaa THAT DOG!   I'll write later when the poor creature is asleep or another neighbor takes it out of it's misery. 

Talking to myself in a thrift store.

In looking for an apothecary cabinet for my kitchen, I ended up in a thrift store this afternoon. I found a table instead. $19.00 worth of semi circle folding table. A once in decade find.

I walked around it telling myself I didn't need it. I walked around it some more and thought "How nice it would be to have a semi-circle folding table to sew on."

It reminded me of a house we looked to buy in Maine. It had been a Taylor and seamstresses house which had a small, quaint, fantastic room filled with custom built in cabinets and tables for sewing machines.
I asked a clerk to help me set it up. If it had wobbles, I would have to pass. If it didn't fold out correctly, I would pass. If the top cracked when he moved it, I would pass.
I stated all these facts to the cheerful, too perky store clerk and he said, well if it's wobbly it's probably because of this floor, it's a mess, and it was.
It wobbled and I decided to pass. He moved the table and it didn't wobble as much.  Maybe it was the floor.
"This table is heavy". I thought to myself. Then the man answered "Yup, solid."
"Wait. Am I talking outloud in a thrift store? Only crazy people do that." I thought.
DON'T JUDGE. It's what I thought.
"I don't think I'll get because I want to save 50k this year. How can I spend 20.00 on something I absolutely can live without. I mean. I have a table I can use for sewing and in fact I actually do use it for sewing all the time. I was literally sewing on it yesterday." I thought - no out loud this time.
I walked away. Honest I did.
I walked up and down six isles convincing myself I can live without this table and realizing I had lost the battle and was going to get the table after all. I got the table. Moved it into my studio and now I have decided I have to sell something worth $40.00 to make up for my weakness. I'll let let you know how that turns out.

Sick money

I've realized I can not trust myself with money when I'm sick. I spent 150.00 on groceries one day and 50.00 the next day, and 140.00 today. I got some bulk items, but they were treat items like graham crackers and chocolate-ish chips of all varieties. Sure they were one sale, and we will use them, but none the less, If I am to meet my goal, then I have to be serious.

I think for the rest of the year, I need to make a list and send someone else to the store, I literally have no self control when I'm sick.

Once when I was pregnant with my third child, I was feeling sick, but went to the store anyway.  when I got home, my husband started laughing. He said "Wow, I can tell you don't feel well, because every single thing here is completely instant."

Lesson? Do NOT trust yourself with money when you're sick. I spent almost 350.00 on groceries just because I am sick and don't care about anything, money or otherwise.

My husband had a medical test done and the first thought was to reward him with a money spending activity. He was not to do anything stressful the rest of the day, we think of spending money. We came up with two options. Two choices. Seriously these were the only two things we could think of as a reward. Drum roll please. trratrtrtratrtrtrtarttrtrtratrtrtratrtrtratrtrtrtt...

New pickup or potato chips. Quite the bipolar decision right?

Spending money is a total comfort activity, like comfort food. We feel sad, we spend money or eat, or both. We're happy, we spend money. We get nervous, we spend money. What's the deal?

When I was a kid. I don't remember thinking, "Oh ouch, I fell and skinned my knees. I better go find myself a stock option to buy. No one does that. As an adult maybe we are trying to replace something we have lost. A filler of sorts. We go out, buy something and for a few minutes, or a day or two we feel better. Then the guilt creeps in and we feel worse. Not worse in the same way, but wore in a different way. We regret purchases many times, but it did help us fill the void we felt earlier. Basically we have moved from one low point to another, but maybe we can better handles the buyers remorse than we can the initial fall.

Why do we feel buyers remorse when we make an emotion based purchase? I'm going to have to do some research on this and make some hard choices. How do I cope without spending money or without making a buyers remorse decision, or coping with food.  Also a bad deal? I just spent 350.00 on food items in three visits to the store. Ouch.

I think just writing this right now makes it easier to recognize emotional buying. I am going to make case for forward thinking. Living with purpose. If I spend every penny because I need to cope, then I now have two problems. An emotional crisis and a financial crisis. Dave Ramsey makes sense when he says having an "Emergency Fund" helps us in a crisis by eliminating the financial part of the crisis. No one wants a flat tire and zero money to buy a new one. If we have to get a new tire and we know we have the money to do it, then we just get the new tire and move on. 

My money is now spent on groceries and not saved. My new plan.  Make a list and send someone else to do the shopping so I'm not tempted to bulk buy on treats or things we can actually do without.

Spendinding to save

Everyone has heard the saying "You have to have money to save money".

Well today I guess I tested this theory. I went shopping for some holiday lights for next year. This caused a little problem because I spent 126.42. Most of what I got was on sale and if it were any other year, I would have been super excited over my savings. I saved 152.61, but in reality what about the idea of not spending it at all. If I hadn't spent any money I would have saved 126.42 and that is better than savings 152.61 while spending 126.42.

I like to give a years worth of holiday paper plates and napkins to couples for weddings. When you first start out and want to celebrate and have no money, it can be hard, so I like to give something that will make their first years memorable.
Anyway, I collect them all throughout the year for any upcoming weddings.. In truth, I'm not a good gift person. Gifts are not my love language. Don't get me wrong, I like gifts, but I am not good at giving them. It doesn't cross my mind as the first option. In fact spending money on wedding gifts or birthday gifts has to be a planned thing for me or it won't happen.

Anyway, I spent 126.42 and now hopefully I won't do that again. I really didn't need to buy any of it, but then again I don't want to skip weddings altogether. I was sick for many years and I didn't give gifts for a long time because I just didn't have the energy to do it. I decided that had to change. I got some things I needed and some things other people needed. I only bought a few things that were not on sale and I decided I need to get coupon apps on my new phone (which came in and I'm setting up)

I have this unrealistic goal of not spending a dime EVER. That is not going to happen. Commerce is a real thing and making a choice to do without is hard. It is hard to say no to the enticings of sales.
I got sucked into saving money today while spending money and it was ok, but it will never get me to my goal. My goals has to be to go without or only buy things at 50% off at least. Almost everything I got today was 70-75% off so I feel good about that, but I would be better of going for a long walk outside than stepping in a mall.

A dollar spent is a dollar spent and a dollar saved is a dollar. Which do I want, I spent dollar or a dollar? 

Spending money hurts.

This is much harder than I thought.

Today I felt guilty for buying gas for my car. I haven't filled my tank since the beginning of the year, which is nothing short of a miracle.  I didn't get myself a beverage.

I did have to buy some horseradish powder. I made some Fire Cider tonight.  No doctor visits if I can help it this year.  The silly thing is, I have horseradish in my garden, but it is under two feet of snow, so next year I will make sure to make my Fire Cider earlier in the season and save on medicines when everyone is sick.  Usually I threaten to give them some and they are instantly healed.  LOL.

I wanted to grab a bite to eat in town, but I DIDN'T.  I went home and made dinner.

While I was in town I bought some meat and tomatoes.  I was going to buy some other groceries, but I really felt the pain of spending any money.  If I am going to meet this goal, I have to say "no" to almost all purchases.  I did splurge on a mesh bag for straining almond milk.  It was $3.49 and I was scolding myself for the purchase.  In fact I'm scolding myself now, but in 2 weeks when my Fire Cider is finished, I will decide if it was a waste of money. 

I'm going to start adding a few pictures soon.

I like spending money to improve our life.  It's hard to say no and it's even harder to recover from the guilt of spending when you know it is not an absolute necessity.

Happy Savings.

Let's go buy a car and ramble.

I have been saving every penny I can. I've been shutting off about thirty billion lights in our house and we have not eaten out once and it's already January 8th.

Today I deposited some checks into our account and I was super grateful for them. I'm not going to post amounts all the time, but will talk more about the experience and the challenges.

I got to drive about 45 miles away to help someone else buy a car. It was fun to help without spending a dime. My friend's son was in a car accident (thankfully no one was hurt), but the car was totalled. The insurance money came in and he needed another car and off we went to check out a newish car. It was weird to be part of a transaction while saving money.  Watching someone count one hundred dollar bills on a table made me more solid in my resolve to save.  Not because she was being foolish, but because she had been very wise and was making a good deal. I got to drive the newish car home and since it was getting late, I wanted to stop and get a caffeinated beverage.  BUT I DIDN'T!  I kept telling myself how much I was going to enjoy winning the money saving battle.

Some people have an internal belief that God will make sure their needs are met. I have to say my needs have always been met and though ants and needs are two different things and I don't think my wants will ever be met because I will always find something more to want for.  That sounds terrible. I'm not an expensive person and I lead a pretty simple life (compared to the Hollywood's scale} but my love language is service and I'm certain I'm not going to leave this life having done all the service I want. I love to spend money on people, and this will be the challenge of my life. Helping someone else spend filled the void for needing to spend my own money tonight.