Spending Fast

David gets paid every two weeks. More often than not, that means two paydays every month, but sometimes the stars align and we get a Three Paycheck Month.

August is a Three Paycheck Month.

Given that the third check has a little extra in it (nothing but taxes come out of it, since insurance etc. are deducted from the first two) David had a brilliant idea. What if we don't spend any money all month? What if everything--bonus dollars and all--goes right into savings? WE'D HAVE SO MUCH MONEY.

Try to contain yourself, Margot. It won't be SO MUCH, but it'll definitely be more than we currently have. We used to be all kinds of poor, remember? It's hard to get over that. Every little bit in the bank feels like a major triumph.

Anyway, we decided to give it a shot. We're going to abstain from spending money for 31 days.

Naturally we can't just stop altogether; there are bills to pay and mouths to feed and gas to be guzzled. But we've decided to limit our outward cash flow for the month of August to necessary expenditures only. This includes:

• tithing (of course)
• utilities & mortgage
• debts or other outstanding payments
• subscriptions (i.e. Netflix)
• gas
• groceries

That's it.

But Jen, you're thinking, that doesn't sound like very much fun.

You're right. It's not. We've really got to rein in some of our bad habits. David isn't allowed to eat out for lunch, which he usually does every day. I'm not allowed to hit up West Elm or etsy or Home Depot or anywhere else for that matter, online or off. Neither of us can fall back on Cafe Rio for dinner if it's been a long day, and if we have a chance to go on a date it'll have to be a free one. It's going to be a challenge for both of us.

BUT. It'll be good for us to be more mindful of how--and how often--we spend our money. And the dolla bills in the bank won't hurt too much either.

Of course, there's a concert I really want to go to in a couple weeks, and David might be going on a business trip soon and I'm seriously considering tagging along, and my phone is dying so maybe I need to get a new one, and suddenly we're looking at possibly trading my car in too, and we're only a week in but the siren call of Target is testing every ounce of willpower I have.

Oy. Wish us luck.