Temptations

Starting in the month of June the paisley penguin household is going to tighten the belt another notch. We have already taken measures to save $109 in expenses every month. Now we are going to be very tight fisted with our weekly mad money. Whatever doesn't get spent gets transferred in to our savings account at the end of the week.

We started with $90 and tomorrow we will be transferring $68.

In the past two days I have been tempted four times. I would track categories of how much we were spending but after the past couple of days my eyes are really open to not only where its going but what brings about the wants.

• Wednesday some co workers were going out for Greek food for lunch. If you know me even a little you know that I love Greek food. It was tempting to be social but I ate the lunch I brought with me.
  
• Wednesday evening the hubs and I went down to the boardwalk in the cooler evening hours to walk the dog. On the way down I was craving ice cream. The hubs said we could stop on the way home and get some. On the way home I decided the ice cream would do nothing for my waistline and I would rather have the money in savings.
  
• This morning I woke up with the beginnings of a headache (and no not from red wine, beer or vodka). On the way in to work we stopped at a grocery store so I could pick up some Excedrin Migraine as I didn't want it to escalate. On the way in to the store a woman was walking out with a nice big grande iced mocha. I wanted one so bad and did cave in to the chocolate craving by picking up a cliff bar for the hubs and I.
  
• This evening the Seafair Pirate's were having a fund raising event at the Outback steakhouse. A friend and co worker of the hubs is a pirate and we really wanted to support him. I hope that next year we will be in a better position and this event is on our list of "things to do when we are debt free". We probably won't be 100% debt free but our credit card debt will probably be gone by this time next year.
  

Total we could have spent is probably $49. Before we would have done all of these things without question. After all, we were working our debt reduction plan. We were allowed to have some fun right? That is usually our reasoning behind the things we decide to do.

Tomorrow we start over with another $90. The hubs wants to go to the BMW picnic on Sunday and he will need a little gas which might be outside our gas budget. It will also cost him $10 to attend. I have a planned project for my patio that will require a few things but I think they will be pretty inexpensive. I am budgeting $10 for that. I meet my walking friend on Sunday morning and afterwards we go to Starbucks and I get a drink and breakfast then get the hubs a coffee before heading home. That will be another $10. If we don't go to Starbucks on Saturday then I think we should be able to put another $50 in savings next Friday.

Wish us luck!