Wednesday's Story

How many days could I go without shopping?

In January I put myself on a no spend month. The only thing I could spend was $100 for groceries for the entire month. I am really stocked up so $100 was reasonable. I actually ended up spending $150 on groceries because Fry's ended up having some super great deals on items I wanted for my food storage.

The first couple of weeks I did really well. I was actually kind of tired of shopping from the Holidays. I didn't spend a single dollar on anything that was not a necessity. No nothing for those two weeks.

By about the third week of January I was itching to go shopping and find some deals!

One day I was at Costco as I needed to make a return from Christmas. I knew it was dangerous to walk in to Costco during my no spend month. My sister told me to check out a great light fixture they had for a great price. I want to replace the fixture in my Dining Room. I saw the fixture and it is perfect, just what I want. I thought the sign said $189.00. As I looked closer it really was on sale for $89.00. What a deal. I put it in my cart. I walked around and had a couple of samples and checked out the vitamin selection.

I couldn't do it. I rolled the cart back to the light fixture display and put the box back on the stack. I walked out of Costco with the cash from my return without spending a dime!

What a satisfying feeling.

You know how Costco is, if you don't get it today then it will be gone tomorrow. I was disappointed but felt good about my decision. I figured I'd come back on February 1st and buy it. If it was still there then it was "meant to be". I have been back a couple of times since then and the fixture is still available but my need for a new fixture has now passed. I'll just wait.

I did purchase hair trimmers in January that wouldn't be considered a necessity. I justified this as both Mister's needed hair cuts that we would have shelled out $30 bucks for. I purchased the hair trimmers instead so no more paying for hair cuts.

I'd like to say that I stuck with the no spending perfectly. But, I didn't. I did purchase some Valentine craft items (on sale with coupon) that were not a necessity.

I did learn that a dollar hear and a dollar there does go really fast when you're not paying attention. The experience was hard at times but empowering as well.

I'm not sure I'll put myself up to the whole month thing again. Maybe no spend weekends would be good. How about a no spend Spring Break!! Ha!