Something Radical

Well this will be something radical for me at least. I'm reading the book Your Money or Your Life and one of the steps in the book is to write down everything you spend for a month to evaluate how much of your energy is spent paying for those things. I tried it for a few days and was quickly shocked. But I got kind of lazy so now I'm going to blog about it so I can't be lazy anymore.

But there is a larger goal here for me. I want to stop spending. Now I'm not insane, I know I have to buy food and pay bills. I'm not going to become a hermit or totally do without things that are enjoyable. But, I spend a lot of money I don't have to and I want to see if I can cut that down. As I started writing this post my son came up to me with a permission slip that required five dollars. Obviously, he's going on that field trip, but it was just a good reminder that little bits go out all the time. I also hope for this experiment to help me. My oldest son has been diagnosed with severe allergies and the treatment is certainly not going to be free. Just gas getting him back and forth with be more than my current budget can handle, so I hope the cutting back will help offset this.

I'm putting some conditions on this project. First, we are not just going to totally stop all entertainment or eating out, but we will look for low cost options and cut back. I will not cheat anyone out of what they are worth. That means I will pay a fair price for goods and services and not skimp. I'm still going to my hairdresser and I'm still going to tip her. She provides a valuable service to me. Trust me, no one wants me to cut my own hair. As I run out of current products I'll ask for advice on their replacements, so I hope my readers will help me. I'm probably still going to buy too many books. It's a disease I tell you!

So, I'm excited about this. I'll try to chronicle my spending daily.