Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Just a Splendidly Sunny Wednesday

This morning I woke up with the idea that since today was not going to be a no spend then I should get out the house as quick as possible and treat myself with a stop at the McD's drive thru for some coffee and a $1 sausage mcmuffin on my way to work. I know, silly. Right? That little "treat" would have cost around $3.65, maybe closer to $4 (I don't know the exact total) And honestly $3.65 is a lot of money for a coffee and breakfast sandwich when the alternative is brewing a cup at home and grabbing a nutri-grain bar on my way out of the house; probably around $1 if not less on the cost for that.

I was hoping to spend around $35 on groceries today. I ended up spending $45.44. I didn't buy anything crazy but there were several items that we needed that I just couldn't manage to put back in order to get the total down. If I had spent the $3.65 at McD's this morning (which I didn't) then I'd be almost $15 over my planned budget for today. $15 is a lot of money. In summary I did the wise thing this morning, did not stop at McD's for a treat, and am very happy and proud of myself for sticking to it.

Now I've a huge freshly made, from scratch, pot of chicken and dumplings soup waiting to be eaten. I had some cilantro left in the fridge from the pulled pork chili I made a while back. The dumplings recipe calls for chopped parsley (which I've never added before, even so). I thought I'd substitute the cilantro for the parsley. Well, let me tell you that was not an un-wise decision. This is by far the yummiest pot of chicken and dumplings soup I've made yet! And now that you have all been filled in about my dinner I will leave you be and go eat my soup while reading my St. Patrick book (for about the billionth time; I read it every March).

Average daily spending for 2015: $17.59
$245.97 left to spend in March

4 comments:

  1. Great job!!! It is hard when you want the instant gratification (which I am FAMOUS for), but when we can look ahead and work toward improving our future, it is those little victories that help us move on!

    In the big picture, is $4 really going to make or break us, no, but if we give that up even once a week for a year, that is over $200 - to me that is a huge deal!

    My new mantra..... baby steps :)

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    1. Yes. Yes. And yes! Baby steps for sure.
      And see $4 is a lot. $4 once a week is $200 a year. That is a lot.

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  2. I know just what you mean - if the day won't be a "perfect" no spend, what's the point of trying? But you have a very good scheme - as well as recording your no-spends, you also record your average daily spend for the month so you give yourself an extra balance. Brilliant

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    1. Recording the average daily spending actually works really well to keep me on track. It's a lot like the baby step model for progress; I really need small daily reminders to keep me focused. An average daily spending does that for me, definitely.

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