Pages

Thursday, September 30, 2010

October's New Year's Resolution Experiment

I feel great!! My change for the month of September was to be less connected throughout the night. To not have access to my iTouch and be able to check email or Facebook once I went upstairs to bed. This actually wasn't as tough as I thought it would be. I didn't have any kind of withdrawal symptoms nor did I miss not being able to see what was going on online. For the most part, I slept better and when I did wake-up, it didn't take as long to fall back asleep. I am going to keep this change going. I am so glad I finally got some perspective on how obsessive I was getting with needing to check email and Facebook.

Now, to announce my change for October. I am going to not use credit cards (including the checking debit card) for the entire month. Talk about a challenge! It's cash all the way baby. I will take out $250 a week and live off this. This includes groceries (yes, paid in cash), gas, and any incidentals that come along. If I don't have the cash for it, then I won't get it. I think the key for this succeeding is to go grocery shopping first and see what is left to spend the rest of the week. And my last priority is going to Target, because if I made this my first stop early in the week, then there wouldn't be anything left for groceries. :)

The only downside to this plan is that we won't be earning any reward points for money charged on the Amex card. This is a tough one for me to swallow because I am all about getting points and using them for things we wouldn't normally be able to do; like Jeff and I going to Mexico right after Thanksgiving and saving points for our dream trip to Australia. But, I have a feeling the reward will be even greater when Jeff reads this October challenge and knows that when I do something, I do it all the way.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Impressive, Robyn! Can't wait to hear about it (and maybe try it myself). :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a great idea. Michelle Singletary (financial writer for Wash Post) espouses this concept as a way to be more mindful about what you spend your $$ on.

    I predict you'll feel hassled by the end of Oct., b/c it's so easy to swipe and go. (i.e., think about the diff of swiping your card at the gas pump vs. having to go into the station to pay)

    ReplyDelete