Day 14 of the September Save-off and it ain’t pretty! Remember how I challenged my son to spend the least amount of money during the month of September? We included our partners to make it more fun and fair. Boy, what a learning experience this has turned into!
Whine, whine, whine that’s all we’re doing (in between the trash talk texts flying back and forth). We can’t go out to dinner, can’t take advantage of that great sale, have to entertain ourselves—the list goes on. Once in awhile the whining is deafening and we cave, but we cave making adjustments. We stopped for dinner on our trip back from Robbinston (I actually packed a lunch for the trip up) and although we didn’t choose McDonald’s, we did limit our entrees to under $10 at Ruby Tuesday’s. Never did that before!
I talk with clients all the time about being financially conscious, suggesting that they put spending gaps between thinking of spending and actually laying out the money. I’ve been reminded that teaching and doing are two different things and that we needed a refresher course. It’s so easy for things to fall into the unconscious spending heap.
Take my $2.30 DD coffee. Pretty innocuous, not worth thinking about; but, now that I’m financially conscious, I’m conscious that (along with my husband’s even cheaper $1.00 cup) we can save $66 a month. My son will save almost $112 just by changing his routine (and that doesn’t even include Megan). Multiply times 12 months and invest over 10 years and you’d have about $15,000. Now, that makes a difference!
The whining seems kind of foolish, when you focus on the outcome and stay financially conscious, but it isn’t easy. We’ll have to do this challenge every few months just to keep our eyes open.
Give it a try and find out when and where your whining begins!
