my personal two week challenge
In my previous post, I talked about goals for 2010. Of course, like many other American’s, one of our goals is saving more money. Or at least being more careful of how we spent it. So, friday being payday, I challenged my husband to a budget. I told my husband that if we could live on a budget for just two weeks, how much money we could actually save. He was intrigued. (it was alot) I told him, you have to be honest about how much you spend each week, because that would be the amount he would be given. At first he said about $25 (ha!!!) Then he agreed on $50. I thought to myself, if he could live on just $50, I’d be saving a lot of money. As part of the agreement he has to pay for his dry cleaning, coffee, paper and beer. Now considering he’s on the road 4-5 days a week, that’s not bad. He asked me “If I have any money left over at the end of the week, does it roll-over, or do I just get to keep it?” It’s funny, even as adults, we had already started thinking about ways to cheat. We had already planned a date night of dinner and a movie. We had a $50 gift card to Longhorn Steakhouse, so we figured we had just saved $50 there. Problem is, we’ve tried to use the gift card twice. Both times the wait would be an hour and half. (I thought there was a recession???) We thought about giving up and just going home, but, we don’t have that many opportunity’s at date night. So, I agreed to pay for dinner and a movie out of my grocery fund. Great dinner at a German Restaurant, and a just so so George Clooney movie. Most of our money, like a lot of other people, gets spent on the week-end. So, here it is on Tuesday morning and I have just $60 left to last until Friday. I know I’m a creative person, but darn, that’s no fun. I have to remind myself, that it was my idea. And thankfully enough, I’m choosing to take this challenge. Many people out there are taking this challenge not by choice but by neccesity. Wow, that puts a lot in perspective. I’ll let you know how I end up next week. It’s definately been an eye opener.
My daughter’s home for another day, so today, we’re going to go out for lunch (I promised) and we’re supposed to get creative. Hopefully, we’ll have some pictures tomorrow of the stuff we made.
Have a great and creative day,
Sue
1-19-10
