Katie’s Reflection
So, we now realize that providing a weekly reflection post was a bit ambitious. To that end, we hope to provide a monthly update instead. In February, we were lucky enough to have some visitors (and went to very nice dinner out with my parents), attended another Hornets game, and we thought that we might be over on our discretionary spending. However, due to being a bit frugal in other areas, we were pleasantly surprised to see that, after all calculations, we were well under for the month! Over the course of the month of February, We spent $441 less than we had allowed for in February.
One of the factors that I attribute to our savings are: less Amazon orders. In fact, Brad has said a few times, “I can’t remember the last time that we had an amazon box on our porch.” We both consider this a win.
Brad’s Reflection:
I was very surprised that we were under budget for the month. We did spend a bit more than usual and treated ourselves to some very nice outings with friends and family, but because we have been doing a pretty good job of dialing it back in other areas, those memorable outings did not put us over budget at all. It is weird how quickly I have gotten used to spending less on discretionary items and how now my newly anchored expectations have taken hold. I totally thought we were going overboard on our discretionary spending this month but the fact that we have been able to successfully draw back on our Amazon purchases, lunches out, random coffees, and mindless online shopping we were able to create some wonderful lasting memories while still coming in about 25% under budget. Which is nice because our refrigerator is on the fritz and is going to cost us about 600 bucks. Katie and I do keep a savings account just for random house expenses - but we may not even need to dip into that some we have been saving so well during our intentional spending adventure.
As an educator and practitioner my one take away for the month of February is that getting your financial life in order is complicated, emotional, and difficult. These factors can all be overcome with the right motivations, abilities, and accountability in place. Katie and I have really cut back on a lot of things we thought we really enjoyed in life but as it turns out we don't even miss the random spending that we used to do. Coffees out are more enjoyable, our dinners are more memorable, and I actually know what's in an amazon box when it arrives. We feel that this is a good place to be in.