Keeping Up With My Resolutions

My weakness!!

For once I am keeping up with my New Year’s resolutions and I am even still buying cute things!  My primary resolution this year was to cook more and save money on food.  Overall, I had hoped really to stop being so free with my money, still enjoy myself, and focus more on quality than quantity.  A really really tall order for me!!!!!!  (I know more than one exclamation point is not grammatically correct or necessary, but I really feel a whole lot of them get my point across better.)

I have been doing really good with the food resolution.  I haven’t eaten out for lunch since about mid-January, I have been baking bread instead of buying it, buying natural foods and not overly processed chemical laden stuff posing as food, and I have been curbing my shopping addiction.  (The last one probably being the hardest one for me.)  Now, I have my weaknesses…I almost fell in my shopping resolution just yesterday and I fell big time in my not eating unhealthy foods with bad chemicals resolution last week.

Last week I tried to justify buying two extremely expensive end tables for night stands.  My justifications were pretty good:

1. We haven’t had night stands since we were married 4.5 years ago.
2. The size we need is tricky because of our bedroom shape and the ones I saw would have worked perfectly.
3. They were on sale for 50% off.
4. We have been saving a lot of money!

However, despite all this, I had reasons I really didn’t need the night stands including:

1. We have been married 4.5 years without night stands.
2. They were still $139.99 each even on sale.
3. We are trying to save money for my husband’s car.
4. They were not all that well-made.
5. I didn’t even like them all that much.

So I ended up resisting the end-tables.  I did not fare so well with the four cans of Mt. Dew that my brother placed in the communal refrigerator.  I drank three of them all in the same day.  The next morning when I went downstairs and saw that there was one left in the refrigerator I had to convince myself to leave it alone.  I had a momentary rush of pride in my self-control.  However, this was momentary as my brother made his way upstairs.  As I began issuing an apology for drinking all his sodas what came out of my mouth was, “I owe you four Mountain Dews.  I drank all of them”.  (Remember at this point there was one left sitting in the refrigerator.)  As my unsuspecting brother, who had already graciously forgiven me for drinking them ran upstairs to the top floor, I ran to the refrigerator and stole that last can!  I sneaked up the stairs and then drank it before he could find out.

I guess I will have to keep trying to eat better and stop telling falsehoods, but at least I am keeping my money-saving resolution.  A trick my husband and I have found helpful for saving money and staying on budget:  We take out a predetermined amount of cash every week for food (groceries and eating out included) and for spending money for the each of us.  Once that cash is gone it is gone…no using our bank card.  We really think before we buy something now…and we have run out of cash before the next week.  The second week of this practice we were living off of fried egg sandwiches because we didn’t have any more food cash. 

One of my awesome sale purchases... at $2.00 these and two other pairs of wild pattern tights were worth the buy.

Advertisement