Inspirational Savings

When it comes to saving money and exercising a little fiscal discipline, Don and I tend to follow the pattern of a crash dieter. We will be really good for a few of weeks, and then go on a splurge and undo a lot of the work we did to get ahead. Cursed credit cards! Well, the saga continues in our personal goal for paying off the credit card debt we took on to finance our sudden move.

The truth is we are making a decent income. We have enough money to pay the bills with a decent chunk left to spend, save, or apply towards our debt as we see fit. Which sometimes makes it difficult to stay on track. It's hard to put off buying something you want when you CAN afford it but really should be spending your money on something else. Especially if it falls into the category of something you can convince yourself that you NEED or that it is an INVESTMENT. Like new bras, new hiking shoes, celebrating with friends you haven't seen in a long time at a fancy restaurant or a trip to wine country. O.K. None of those things constitute a NECESSITY, but you also have to live your life a little. I guess good fiscal management is like a healthy diet and lifestyle where you have to allow yourself a treat here and there without going overboard. And the more you can pinch pennies here or there on daily basis, the faster you are going to reach your goals.

So, as a tool for helping me to reach my goal of getting our credit cards paid off (once again - seems like every time you pay it off, something else comes up), I decided to start a journal this morning. We had some cute little message pad tablets in our office supplies that are the perfect size to carry around in your purse. I titled my new journal "My Little Booklet of Inspirational Savings,"and I'm going to carry it around with me during the day to write down all of the ways that I succeed in saving money on a daily basis. For me, this is a very good motivator. I am a person who loves to see my own progress in written form. When Don and I did our Premarital Counseling tests and scored really high, we both said that we understood that the test results were not the be all end all predictor of the quality of marriage that we were going to have, but we were still really excited to get a good grade!

I am hoping that the process of writing down my little successes will help me to be motivated to keep on track and will also bring more consciousness and thoughtfulness to how I spend money. If this turns out to work really well then maybe I will have to start one for my diet and exercise too!

So far I have written down the following, "today I saved money by ..."

1. Eating groceries on hand for lunch and breakfast instead of going out.
2. Lowered electricity bill by going around the house first thing this morning and turning off all the lights that Don left on when he went to work.
3. Bought the cheapest DVD player I could find at Target ($30!) to replace the broken one by my treadmill, instead of one with lots of cool options.
4. Picked up a large bag of cheap dog food while I was at Target, thus saving on overall cost and saving on gas by turning one errand into two.
5. Did not use the airconditioner in my car or my house today.
6. Did not go around accelerating or speeding and wasting gas on my commute.
7. Will eat leftovers for dinner before they go bad.
8. Planned two more dinners this week using grocery items we already have in the cupboards.