When I was at the lake, our lake house was at least 17 miles from any shopping (with the exception of a small country store which was 5 miles away). At first, I had feelings of panic...what if I needed to go to the store for something...it would take me 25 minutes! So, on the first night there my husband and I went to the grocery store and spent globs of money on so much stuff "just in case" it was ridiculous. The kids thought it was great..they never saw so much candy, chips, ice cream, soft drinks...etc. We ended up having very few no spend days at the lake because several mornings I would drive to the country store to purchase the local newspaper and "look around".
It was the first time I thought about why it was "necessary" for me to go to the store? Did I really need to read the local paper? or even want to? Or was it because I had this "need" to purchase something?
Yesterday, I almost blew my no spend day with a slurpee from 7-eleven. I was on my way home from work...where I drank the office coffee (no Starbucks stop) and ate my home packed lunch w/drink (no vending machine purchases). Because the No Spend Day had been on my mind, I stopped myself from making that purchase (albeit small) and ended up having a tall glass of ice water when I got home.
Either I'm conditioned to spend or I'm addicted to spending. It will be a challenge for me to come up with 5 no spend days, but I hope to get to the point where I will have more no spends than spends because it appears that stops at the store are more a habit than a need.
1/5 No spend days
0/5 No drive days
4 comments:
congratulations! hey, the first one is the hardest. once you start weaning yourself off the spending habit, it should get easier.
definitely conditioned to spend. it's just so easy! but good job on fighting off temptation!
this post makes me think though, about the things you should have in your house "in case". hmmm.
What great self-analysis! Awareness has to be good.
conditioned to spend is what the "modern world" has done to us. I can really relate, initially it was so very hard to manage a day a week no spending days, I've taught myself to cope with 5 no spend days a week. I'm sure you can do it to. Good Luck!
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