Superfluous Spending

I am sitting on the chair and a half watching the Super Bowl just for the commercials which really is a testament to our consumer driven society. December was definitely a consumer month for us, as it was for most people. By the end I just couldn't help but think about how much money we were spending and how much stuff we had. We spent a ton of money on food throughout the month too for all kinds of celebrations. I mean, if I had to do it over again I would probably do it mostly the same. We had a great holiday season and with how busy everything was with school you just gotta do what you gotta do. After thinking about the expenses I decided that January was going to be a different story.

My friend Kristyn pinned a cool app on Pinterest called "Cash Strapped." It cost $0.99. Each month you set a budget and then you subtract from it as you spend. I was working with cash so I already knew how much I had left, but it would be especially useful if you're using your debit cards and want to keep track of a specific kind of spending.

At the beginning of the month I had $80 in cash from people paying me back for random things. I usually don't keep a lot of cash on me. Although I do think all adults should keep $5 on them because... like who doesn't have $5 in a pinch?

My rules were to only spend that $80 on superfluous spending. Matt said, don't you mean frivolous spending? No.... I meant superfluous. 

And to Matt's credit, it's not that frivolous wouldn't work but I really wanted to get at the heart of my purpose which was trying to correct for spending that has just been in excess.
So this meant that I could only use that $80 for the entire month on things like coffee, clothes or other non essential goods purchases, and non essential service likes nails or massages (which I really don't do often but come the end of the year I was looking a little rough...)

I kept a note in my phone so you could see what I spent:
$2 McAlister's Tea (getting so close to a free one!)
$4.20 Library book fee
$3.00 tip at Interurban (Matt was short on cash... Not sure this counts as superfluous)
$1.92 coke for dad
$1.99 Starbucks Bottled drink (which kept me up all night)
$1.50 Dasani bottle of water (I refilled it 6 times before recycling)
$5.00 Tip for Facial (used a Groupon I bought in the fall)
$7.00 Panera paired with a $15 gift card our friends gave us (bought my brother lunch).
$40.00 Haircut
$1.52 Starbucks (nix the espresso and you can go far)
$1.40 Library book fee (AGAIN!)
$2.16 Panera Cookie (somehow I ate here a lot)
This came to $71.69

I came in  under budget! Now I'll take that extra $8.31 and put it in our trip jar.
Sometimes this was hard because I really need to get my eyebrows done. I can maintain them myself... but the shape is all wrong. Those ladies with the threading know what they're doing and I consider that $11 well spent. I also wanted to get my nails done because they too were awful. But I did them myself and they still look just a little less awful. I didn't really have a problem with not buying "stuff" because I have spent a lot of time at home and I really have more than I need of pretty much everything.
I made good use of gift cards if I did have Starbucks or like my lunch above at Panera. I used my built up Groupons and just made a conscious effort to conserve spending. Honestly, that's really all that it takes to really cut back-- just think about what you're spending and whether or not you actually need to. Now that I am working from home I am eating lunches here all the time and it's cheaper AND so much healthier. I get to be in control of what goes into my body (I can be a little paranoid about random additives to food that other people prepare. I got a salad at McAlister's one day and noticed there was sugar sprinkled over the top. Really??)

I hope to carry this approach as a habit in the coming months. I'd like to save save save now that I am home and things are less erratic. I also don't have to pay rent anymore so ideally I would store that cash away in a saving's account.

Posted in: saving money