Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Last year I wrote about what a lousy Catholic I am, but I do keep Lent. I’ve been really busy this year due to Daylight Savings Time changes this year. I’ve had a lot of upgrades scheduled midweek at odd hours, etc. It’s why I never posted yesterday. (BTW, you guys in the PF Blog world do know about this right? Your computers are all fixed?)

Bear with me here. I promise this post really is about personal finance, but you have to get through some of my personal history with Lent to get to the good stuff.

Anyhow, traditionally, I give up soda and pretty much all bubbly effervescent drinks including and not limited to, champagne, beer, sparkling water and Guinness. This is especially a bummer since my birthday is during Lent and I’ve never celebrated it with champagne. It’s vodka shots all the way because tonic is bubbly. This year, to save money, I’ve put a case of Coca-Cola in my file cabinets instead of buying tasty coffee, or drinking the yucky free stuff at work. I really enjoy canned Coke. It just doesn’t taste the same out of a bottle.

Right now I am torn. I’ve done the soda sacrifice for so long, it’s not really a sacrifice. I started the new year avoiding french fries. I’ve done pretty well with that. I think I’ve had french fries once when I ordered fish & chips at an Irish bar a few weeks ago. It’s actually not that difficult as long as I remember to cover up the abandoned fries on other people’s plates with a napkin. Otherwise I will eat them till they are gone. It’s a very bad habit of mine, but one I’ve found rather easy to control recently.

I cuss like a sailor, but I’ve tried giving that up before and I’ve failed too many times that I’m not interested in failing at it again this year.

I could save money like last year in the Chinese food container piggy bank. But I am saving regularly enough that I don’t see it as much of a sacrifice. At $5 a day, I could just put away $200 upfront for the 40 days of Lent and be done with it. The point is to do something daily to remind yourself of Jesus’ 40 days and nights in the wilderness with nothing but the devil to keep him company. (Or delusions from starvation, but I digress, and do not wish to discuss that here, so don’t you dare do it in the comments.)

I’ve given Lent about 2 days of thought. The best I can really do is think about how I can save money in my daily choices. I figure I can try to save $3-5 a day in the choices I make, or else have as many Buy Nothing Days as I possibly can. The reason is that I frequently don’t spend anything on the weekends since I have no reason to leave my home and buy anything. I’m a bit of a hermit and can easily drive home on Friday night and only leave again when I have to go to work on Monday morning.

The first part about making a daily choice to save money when I buy things is key. I’ve been minding my spending by writing things down in my Moleskine. Now that I’m in the habit of doing it for about 3 weeks, I feel I can start making deliberate choices about when to stop spending money much more easily than before. For instance, last night at Mardi Gras I was out with friends at a bar for dinner and my last beers before Lent. At one point of the night one of my friends is fishing for a drink. I’m contemplating another beer myself, but I’m not sure I want a whole pint of Guinness. It would be my third and that’s a lot of liquid. Instead I ask my friend if she’ll drink half of a shot for me. She says yes and we split a shot of Jamesons. But really, I could have skipped that last drink and saved myself about $7 from my bar tab.

Even lunch earlier in the same day shows a small deliberate choice you can make to spend less. I had a late lunch from the cafe at work. My boss and I haven’t had lunch together in a week because of the bad weather and usually we use lunch as an impromptu meeting a couple times a week. So I follow him downstairs though I know I am full from juice and a breakfast sandwich. If I don’t go with him, I won’t eat lunch at all and end up going hungry till work ends. While looking at my options, I decide to pass on the hot food and just get a little cold pasta salad. Not much, just a few ounces, with no protein. I know it’s just a snack so I’m not starving to death before my evening Mardi Gras jaunt. Usually lunch costs me $5-8 at the cafeteria where they charge you by the pound. This time lunch was $3.11 on top of breakfast at $5.32. I still ended up spending $8.43, but I easily could have spent much more had I not actively chosen to dish myself a small portion of salad.

So I think this year for Lent I’m going to do three things:
1) Give up soda like I always do.
2) Try to save money by making one conscious choice to spend less when faced with a buying opportunity.
3) Try to have as many Buy Nothing Days as I can for the next 40 days.

I will try to keep a tally and report the results here, or at least some of the results. I don’t think you need a daily play-by-play.