Belt-Tightening, The Reality

So, week one of my stop spending stupid money on things plan went... okay.

Some highlights:

I had to pay for parking at Bub's field trip on Monday. Unavoidable.

I had to pay for Bubette's music class. Also, unavoidable.

I forgot that I had lunch plans with a friend on Tuesday. She was driving an hour to see me, and doesn't have children, so I think she probably would have frowned upon a lunch of PBJ and Teddy Grahams. We went out.

I went to the slightly less convenient frozen yogurt place because I had a gift card.

I went to Old Navy because I had a free item coupon and ONLY GOT THE FREE THING. Usually I would talk myself into buying something because I feel bad about using a free thing coupon, or convince myself that I should get something because I'm saving so much money.

I went to Target with a list of three things and left with three things. I bypassed the Dollar Spot, but walked through the kids clothes. There was nothing that I absolutely had to have, but there was an entire rack of cute sweater dresses that might work for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, on sale for $10! I didn't commit to anything. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of cute clothes for girls. If I had seen the perfect shirt for Bub I would have grabbed it, because we all know there are 75% fewer boy clothes and they're kept in the dark, cobwebby corner of the store.

I had to talk myself out of buying a few little things to use for a Boo! gift. I kind of thought I might start Boo-ing my neighbors, but really I was just trying to justify spending money on things I totally don't need. Nor do my neighbors. I can always do a freshly baked Boo gift, right?*

I went back to Target (it's *right next* to Bub's preschool and it's open early) and returned a few things. Part of the return went back on a gift card, so that's totally fair game for use during the next three weeks. The rest is cash, and even applying the principle of free-money to money earned on returns, it doesn't count. We'll call that making up for lunch on Tuesday.

Here's the thing. I tend to spend any money that I have ten times in my head. Spending $20 at Target isn't really a big deal, but it is a big deal if I do that every week. Also, there's always something coming up that I need/want to spend money on and these impulse purchases leave me whining that I never get to do anything fun. I've always been this way with money. Oddly, I hoard gift cards, which should serve me well during this challenge.

As for my other two challenges, I don't miss soda at all. I walked, but it was definitely just to check something off of the list, not because I wanted to, AT ALL.

*I can pretty much guarantee you this isn't going to happen.