Sometimes, stuff happens. Someone gets sick, or you just need a mental break- or a world-wide Rumpus breaks out and you go into TREAT YO SELF survival mode because everything is a dumpster fire and THAT DIET DR. PEPPER BRINGS ME THE ONLY JOY I HAVE RIGHT NOW. And you fall off the wagon when it comes to saving, or being money smart.
It happens guys. It happens to all of us. As you can guess, it’s happened to me- right now actually. Shocker, I know.
It’s time for a bit of a budget reset. That just comes from being aware of not only your spending, but things like your eating too. For instance, my comfort- Diet Dr. Pepper. Once upon a time, I drank only water until dinner, then I had a Diet DP with dinner, and maybe one the rest of the evening- my tv treat. That’s two a day, meaning a 12 pack would last me nearly a week. Factor in sales, that’s about $3.50 a week on my habit, or $14 a month. It’s a cost I totally deemed acceptable to treat myself. Since the Rumpus, I drink exclusively soft drinks- comforts, you know. That means I am drinking up to 5 Diet DPs a day. Not only is that terribly unhealthy for me, that is changing my cost from $14 a month to $10.50 or so……a week. $42 a month on soft drinks guys! Unacceptable. Remember, these are just my numbers. My husband is just as guilty, if not more so, because he hates water in a normal year.
You see how slipping into a bad habit and not paying attention to it can add up. Now, maybe your treat is ice cream every night instead of a few times a week, or grabbing Starbucks a little more often because everything is hard. I’m not telling you how to handle your mental health. Maybe you think $42 a month per person on soft drinks is perfectly acceptable- you do you, always! The point is simply to know what you are spending where and decide if it’s acceptable.
As part of my budget reset, I’m scaling back to my pre-Rumpus habit. Water until dinner. I’m also cutting back on those ice cream treats and comfort snacking. Not only will my budget thank me, my waistline will too.
Take a look at your habits this next week. Have you slipped up since *waves hands wildly* all this happened? If so, no worries. You can always do a reset, now you’ve identified places you’d like to cut back.
Goal: $5500
August 28th- September 4th
$52- Crafts
$12- Field Agent
$10- Shopper Panel
$10- Kids Panel
$10- Kids Panel 2
$6- Panel
Total earned this week: $100.00
Fund Total from last post: $2176.25
Current Fund Total: $2276.25
Still Needed: $3223.75
I’m averaging $108.39 a week!