30 April 2008

I'm On Strike!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially on strike!

A spending strike, that is. Back in January, my New Year's Resolution was to set a resolution for each month that I would carry out for the entire month. Some of those, like joining a yoga class (January) have continued. Others, I did for the month and then moved on (like putting away my clothes every night). I also choose a new book to read each month and commit to finish it by Month's end. This has never been a problem for me.

So tonight, I realized that May begins in just a few minutes, and I have not chosen a resolution. And there, on Heather's blog was a post about her month-long spending strike for May. She is giving it all up, going cold turkey on the spending frivolity. And she wanted support, comrades, so I agreed to join her with one exception. My yard has been in process now for several weeks, and the time will arrive before June that I will need to pay for and plant the plants. Since the project began in April and June will be too late, I see this as a justifiable expense. However, the rest is off.

Drive-thru dinners on the way home.
Ice cream at 9:00 p.m. (uhhhh... but that was why I liked yesterday!)
Great stuff on The Hunger Site.
Online clothing "needs."
Lunches out.
Random stuff at the Stadium.
Books I likely won't read.
Scrapbook supplies I just "must have" and will not use for months.

All frivolous.

And all stopping in 22 minutes, though I anticipate that not much purchasing will be done between now and then.

To compound this, I know I am going to have to grocery shop next week (I only go about once a month or more), and I will require that I both make a list and buy nothing except what is on it. Frivolous spending happens most tragically for me at the grocery store with my ridiculously insatiable sweet tooth.

I'm excited to see what this project does to my bank account this month.
Stay tuned, as I am sure I will be posting more in the next weeks.

Who wants to join me? Comment and we'll do this together!

2 comments:

heather said...

Yay Erin!
I think it'll make it a little more fun (and a little less torture :))to have "comrades" to have this little adventure with!

I too am probably going to be spending some money on plants and yard supplies. We got here too late last summer to do much "prettifying" in our yard, so that's what this spring is all about. I've got a couple things out of the way, but am still looking for a couple of bushes and some annuals to place around the yard and that will most likely get done this month. I'm looking at it as an "investment" and a planned expense, so it's kind of exempt from my spending strike.

Are you good at landscaping? I could always use some advice... :)

Anonymous said...

Very admirable. She's socially conscious, compassionate, devout, (a few other things I won't embarrass you by mentioning on your blog), and now frugal too. Am I gonna find out you heal lepers in your spare time as well?
If someone were to say already have something sweet and wanted to share it with you, so it wouldn't go to waste of course, would that count?;)