When Treats Become Habits

Thanks to Money Mate Kate for her comment on my post from yesterday. She directed me to this blog post from last summer at Get Rich Slowly and I felt inspired to post about it today.

This article reminded me of my Uncle. Every ten weeks he get's his haircut and then spends the afternoon in his local Barnes & Noble and buys ten new CD's for his disc changer in his car which he listens to for the next ten weeks. He also is an avid reader and will pick up some books as well. He's an electrical engineer and he and my aunt don't have debt so he is in the position to do this. He's just such a creature of habit.

It's true, I have let what was once an occasional treat become a habit. There were months where I visited Starbucks everyday (granted I worked at their corporate offie as a temp at the time). I do truly like their product but I have let a treat become the norm.

This week cutting back has not been that bad. We had the money to go through the drive through but just didn't. We have become really good at making our own coffee and bringing it with us too. Today makes five days without spending at Starbucks. Hoorah!

Other itmes the article states that became a habit for the author was eating out (check), buying books (check), DVD's (check) and games (not really a problem for me but the hubs likes to game).

Eating out is still a challenge and when we do eat out the hubs and I either order from the appetizer menu (portion sizes are more realistic) or go to places that have great happy hour deals.

I have a love affair with books and breaking the habit of buying was hard. I still buy some books cause I know I will read them again (Clive Cussler for example - I have reread all of his books at least once). I have been using my local library a lot lately and that has really helped my budget. I think I may try PaperBackSwap at some point but don't want the additional mailing expense (though minimal) right now.

DVD's the hubs and I still buy. Although we never buy DVD's of films we have not seen or would not watch time and time again. We recently picked up the new X Files film and it had an interesting feature. You can download a version to your iTunes. The hubs has an iTouch and is now able to watch X Files on it. He's just too excited.

As I said before I am not big in to gaming but the rest of my family is. We have a second generation Xbox and a Wii. The Wii was actually my idea and I have played some games on it I love. Can't wait to get a Wii fit board.

What are your treats that have turned in to habits?