Thoughts on Arianne’s Challenge
Posted by Victoria | Filed under Victoria
As you probably know, last week Arianne challenged us all to have a no-spend week this week. As I mentioned in my comment yesterday, I failed at this challenge — but actually I don’t mind very much because it wasn’t a real fail.
I took out $60 at the beginning of the week, my usual amount since the other $40 worth of food money is tied up in the monthly payments for the CSA box. (I paid for that on Sunday so it wasn’t coming out during the week!) I decided that although I knew I wasn’t going to be able to have a complete no spend week, because I had a meeting set for a coffee shop, I decided I would try hard to spend less than $20.
So even though I have spent a small amount every day this week so far — $10 at the grocery store on Monday for the extra ingredients I needed to make kimchi with the cabbage I got in my CSA box last week and hadn’t done anything with; a bit for tea with a friend on Tuesday; another bit for tea at the coffee shop meeting on Wednesday; bread Thursday morning — nevertheless I am still well under my budget, I got movies from the library instead of the movie store, I was very good at sticking to my list in the grocery store on Monday and Thursday.
I also avoided a snare of book buying both in a bookstore and online, which is a big thing as it’s been a while since I last bought a book and I’ve been hankering after it. Not that I need any more, and indeed should get rid of some, but . . . this is a hard one in my life.
Fortunately, the book store nearest me only accepts cash, so although I saw a few things I didn’t have the money on me and didn’t go back. As for the online challenge:
I did not buy the $100 worth of books I wanted to get, even though there’s free shipping, and, since the books in question are heavy and coming from England, this is a substantial savings. One of the two books in question — if you’re curious, they’re Christopher Alexander’s The Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language, both on architecture, city planning, life in general really — I have had out from the university library for literally the last four months. (Ah, the glories of having faculty borrowing privileges . . . but don’t worry, if someone requests it I have to return it sooner!)
I do want to buy it, but . . . obviously no one else wants it all that much, and if I want to read it again, I can borrow it from the library again. Also, I just finished reading it. So I am going to hold off on that purchase for a while. It’s very definitely a want and not even a strong want.
With regards the other one . . . I think I will buy it. A Pattern Language is available in the library system, but I have to get it through Interlibrary Loan and so only get it for three weeks at a time. It’s also more of a reference book, talking about the patterns that make up buildings, neighbourhoods, towns, what makes some of them wonderful and alive and others cold and dead. I want to educate my eye by going around Halifax with my camera and looking for examples of each of the patterns in the book, which means having it around as a reference.
And since I have $40 I didn’t spend, I’m going to use that for this purpose. I am also going to give myself this same challenge for next week — and plan to put whatever I don’t spend into savings. I know this is basically just having a budget, but it helps me to break it down this way, too. I’m all right with saving for the bigger things, but I do certainly bleed away money in drips and drabs, usually at the grocery store, the book store, and Canadian Tire. But not this month!
Working on finishing up a PhD in Medieval Studies, what Victoria really wants to do is walk around the world and write books. Twenty-nine and single, Victoria lives in Halifax and is trying to balance work and life.
May 5, 2012 at 9:19 am
Good job, Victoria! I also spent some cash, but overall, I don’t usually spend much money during the week. Weekends are my cash kryptonite. It’s helpful to recognize that fact though, since it means I can take steps to try and alleviate the amount to which I spend.
This week’s goal is to limit it to a movie this morning with a friend (cheap tickets!), and have a date night tomorrow to see the Avengers with my fiance, where we can get cheaper tickets from Costco.
The only other spending will be on groceries – we haven’t gone for two weeks, other than picking up some fruit this week, so we’re running low on meat, bread, and the rest.
I think we need to make a list today though. It is SO easy for us to see things that we want to consume and buy them, even though we should be limiting these things, so while on transit to meet my friend this morning, I think I’ll be generating my list of needs. We normally don’t bother with the list, but I think it’s going to help curb our “gimmees” (you know, like the Berenstein Bears book).