Financial Heaven

Turns out A "Financial Fast" is heaven for me.  It is done, and I loved it.  I loved not spending money, I loved not shopping, window shopping, or even thinking about shopping.  I have been anti-shopping for most of my adult life, and I like it fine that way.  Not that I don't go on the occasional spending spree or have my spending weaknesses, but overall I do just fine without it.  It gave me fewer things to think about and make decisions about.  I like not spending and also saving.  We saved a ton of money, I do not even know how much yet, but it was close to $1000.  Some of that was selling off unused stuff, some of it was extra work, and some of it was just stopping all spending for 21 days.  Of course that last one will result in some extra spending as we get back to it, just not too much I hope.

So, we fasted.  And we cleaned.  Or actually we cleared.  Cleaning will come next.  But we are still finishing up the clearing.  Wow can a tiny house hold loads of junk.  LOADS.  More on that another time.  There are a few things left in the Fast.  We are following the next step by writing down all of our purchases for the next month, down to the gumball.  I need to balance our accounts for last month, and tweek the system so we can keep track in real time, rather than ignoring finances until they shout to be heard.  I need to pass the book on so it can be used by another (and another, and another).  I have a dream of leading a group of folks in a Financial fast next year, and then leading Financial Peace University, too.  It is a very good thing, and would be fun to lead and hear other peoples experiences.  Since I am an avid NPR listener I do feel a bit guilty since I am doing nothing to help the economy right now, but that is really just a great rationalization for unnecessary spending anyways.  I always like a good rationalization.   

Unfortunately my whole life is not heaven at the moment, but at least I have one little corner of it.

Peace Out.

Week 1- Financial Fast

So far, so good.  Actually really good.  I will do this again in the future.  So far we have saved $500 and the outcome from the garage sale may put us over the $1000 mark for the month's savings.  I have not been perfect, and have had two big cheats and one small one.  The big ones were pre-planned, because I was not going to cancel my hosting of book club, or the play Rent.  I did spend about half what I usually do for book club, and managed a great meal.  I generally put on the Ritz for the event, going all out with imported things (like $15 cheese) and fine wine.  This time around we had Cheeze Whiz (super fun) and beer, hard lemonade, and hard cider.  Plus I fed 10 with my meatloaf and mashed potato casserole, with three meatloaves left over.  I did not worry at all about tanking my Entertainment envelope for the $25 for Rent, because there is no other entertainment to pay for.  And it has not been painful.  It just simply is not on the radar to run out and rent something, or go out to the movies.  The things I have done include going with my boys all over town on the Gallery Hop, my first time ever.  I have wanted to go for Years.  I debated if it was a cheat or not since we were in "stores", but I called it looking at art and getting inspiration instead.  Plus the trolley was free.  We met up with a ton of friends and their kids at my favorite gallery, and when one parent decided on the spur of the moment to buy a $145 necklace I did not have the tiniest bit of jealousy.  Usually I might have, cuz who doesn't like to treat themself, but instead I felt very content.  Very.  This friend makes a big salary, and has a beautiful house in the woods, and I have been jealous of her family in the past, but maybe part of that was just feeling they had everything together and we didn't.  Now we are getting ourselves in order and I know we will make our mark in a good way.  Plus we got really good news at that gallery,  a local artist has agreed to make a new logo for us for barter.  It's gonna be sweet. 

Because we were not running over to the candy shop to buy Alex some Swedish Fish, or to the ice cream shop for some instant bliss, instead the kids all played on an outdoor banister for a good half an hour.  Going down, squishing each other, rolling out of the pile up, running up the stairs to do it again.  Then we all went over to the beach and the kids threw rocks in the lake for another half an hour.  And I had no deep need to run over to the coffee shop and miss part of the action, like I have in the past.  It was bliss.  We also had our friends stay over night this weekend and I did not run out and buy a ton of groceries like I usually do, yet we still ate crepes with strawberries and chocolate for breakfast.  Partly inspired by the fast I picked up a double this week I would have usually passed on, so there are 200 more dollars to throw on the pile.  But that does lead to my other minor cheat.  When I was on the double I charged my lunch, and a glass of tea, and then threw all caution to the wind at change of shift and bought three pieces of chocolate at the gift shop.  I call it all one cheat since it all snowballed off itself.  To top off the week, I went for a run.  Oh, and I started to learn to surf, but that is another story.

So there.  The first week of the financial fast, and my cheat confessions.  That is the fast so far.  I have not kept an actual journal, as the book suggests, and have not completed my budget or net worth statement, but I have time.  Two more weeks of no cash spending, I am psyched!

Just Mites

Our house is filled with Just Mites.  We are overrun.  We are infested.  I am going to get rid of them.

We are having a huge garage sale in 3 weeks.  All of the Just Mites are going in it.  If I look at something and say, "Hmmmm, I just might use this one day...", then I know exactly which pile to put it it.


For Sale.