LIfe Experiment

You know how there are spenders and there are savers?
We have, for our entire life together, been savers.
We've lived on one vehicle for the better part of 15 years to avoid a car payment.
We've done the "load up on coupon day at extra foods" to save the $45 a month.
We buy most of our clothes at costco.
blah, blah, blah, blah.

Then this fall & winter came and we
1) bought a car
2) finished our basement (which is an investment, but still a heafty purchase)
3) purchase a lot of techy/media stuff for that basement
4) bought a hottub (second hand, but hey, it's still a luxury item.)
5) went on a trip (which we mostly paid for last spring when we booked it, but again, big ticket & luxury)

So, inorder to reset our spending habits (i.e. remembering what it's like to say "no" to things)... I did a little wallet experiment for the month of March.
Every Sunday I took $100 cash out of the bank machine and I had to live on it for the entire week. That meant trying to use up all the food we had at home, saying no to almost everything that was non-essential (a dinner out with the girls and a little bit of scrapbooking paper here and there being the obvious exceptions).

I wasn't sure how it would work. I knew I had a lot of food to eat through at home and it would be mostly suplimental groceries (milk & produce) that I'd have to spend on. But what other little things would come up? Would I be able to do it for just 4 weeks??

Week 1: I had 27 cents left at the end. Seriously. That week the little extras were to pay for a kid's haircut and buy a birthday gift for B's buddy.

Week 2: Monday I splurged a lovely dinner out with friends. By Friday I needed to pick up some groceries but that bill took me $4 over so I had to take an advance on my money for week three. Also, I needed to fill up the van with gas, so decided that I would not include gas in my $100. Handy how I can adapt my experiment, isn't it?

Week 3: Was doing GREAT until Saturday came and we made the deadly mistake of going into Kelowna. We stumbled upon an amazing deal on a sectional for the basement that we couldn't pass up, added 6 dining room chairs to the order, got our 11-year old his birthday present (a very nice bike), a pair of shoes for each of the kids, and a beding for the guest room. Cha-ching.

Week 4: Ended up $5 over... darn that Basic Grey paper!


I know I couldn't live like this forever (our freezer & pantry only had so much in reserves), and there were a two dinners out and a couple of shopping errands that Joel paid for, but it was such a good perspective re-set to my spending & saving. Every time I went to purchase something I had to see what was left in my wallet. Every dollar mattered. I couldn't help but put myself in the shoes of a single mom who has to reach for the no-name prepared mustard instead of the "fancy" mustard that we like, because saving a dollar matters. Or saying no to the kids about grabbing Wendy's instead of eating at home. It was a good little experience for them too.

This was a very good excersize for me. I'd encourage anyone to try it. It's nice to be in a place where you can comfortably say YES to a lot of things, the problem is, it's so easy to forget what saying no feels like, and you just stop appreciating the huge priviledge of saying yes.

Other benefits:
- I can now defrost my freezer!
- Our Mastercard bill will be next to nothing! (Oh, yeah, except for the couch, chairs, bike...)
- Didn't have room in the budget for ice cream & chips!