Blogging Away Debt

No spending on coffee, snacks, or meals

I like to think I am pretty good about this stuff, but lately I’ve been atrocious. I will make my iced coffee at home, and prepare my lunch each night before work. There are meal replacement shakes and a can of nice, hearty soup in my desk if hunger strikes. No excuses. Every single meal I have this week will be homemade or out of someone else’s pocket (i.e. if my work buys lunch).

One trip to the grocery store mid-week

This will be tricky, because I often have the perfect meal in mind, but tell myself I need to shop for one or two things to complete the meal. In reality, this turns into a $30 to $40 trip, usually with some fancy cheese or (unnecessary) exotic vegetables making their way into the bag. I’ll need to plan my meals and the things I need for the house in advance.

No drinking during the work week

The summer of hedonism must end, unfortunately. Nothing gold can stay. I was reaching for the odd glass of wine with dinner, or a cold cocktail on my west-facing porch at sunset, but it’s become a little more frequent than I would like. Cutting back on the adult social beverages should help me with my finances because alcohol is an avoidable expense. I also have less time to spend money when I’m active and then exhausted from being active!

Hit the pavement and the gym

My (cheap!) gym membership is deducted from my paycheck and I think I’ve only been once all summer. YIKES. It’s a waste of money right now. I have a corporate discount and pay $40 all in ($20 bi-monthly) for access to a nice gym franchise. It includes access to all locations (and there is one across from my office and one a half-mile from my house), towel service, swimming, fitness classes, etc. I need to use this. I want to lift weights twice a week in addition to my outdoor run training, which I will commence this Wednesday. Historically, fitness activities really rein in the excessive grocery and entertainment money. And the best part is, none of this adds money to my monthly expenses.

WIll goals help?

I like making SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. I think my goals for the week fit the bill, and I’m looking forward to this little achievement. After that, I would LOVE to try a no spend work week!

Has anyone else had success with no spend challenges? I’d love some tips before I consider how to set myself up for success with that goal.

Time for some New Entertainment

by Hope

One of the ways we have saved the most money over the last few years is by completely cutting out entertainment costs. We were once a movie going, popcorn loving, amusement park addicted, dessert having family.

Now movies are a true treat as they don’t happen very often at all. And we no longer live within a few miles of Busch Gardens and Water Country. (Some of you will remember my off the cuff splurge on Universal passes when we first moved to Georgia, thinking, we could easily traipse down to Florida for some fun. I think we did that twice.)

We have also cut down eating out…and ordering any extras when we do eat out. So yeah, our regular entertainment budget is pretty much $0 all the time. And I don’t think we miss it much, I know I don’t. The kids are at an age and maturity that they would prefer to hang out with friends or be on their phones to the fun adventures that I used to plan on a regular basis.

BUT…Quality Time is Still Important

We do still have regular family nights or days or hours. It’s important to me that we spend some quality time together at least once a week. Lots of times this involves visiting a free Saturday night concerts downtown, going to the library (I’m so grateful that all my kids are avid readers) or most often, playing a board game or doing a puzzle at home.

Our current collection of board games. The buckets have card games, puzzles and more small games in them.

I’m also excited to start exploring some of the many mountainous park areas around here. I have recently been given a tour of some “local only” areas. And they are gorgeous! Can’t wait to take the kids and have picnics or just let the dogs roam a bit.

However, until it cools off a bit more, I am not interested in any outdoor activities. This high 90s every day is killing me! (And I had to see my electric bill, ugh!) This is why I’m here today…

Our currently collection of games are getting stale. And with only 3 people now, some of them just aren’t as fun to play anymore. Our go to games over the last year or so have been Ticket to Ride, Catan and some card games like Uno. But we need some new ones! Desperately.

So BAD community, tell me your favorite board games. We prefer strategy type games to anything else. And don’t mind some of the “mature” themes since the kids at home are older and mature. Hit me with your best recommendations in the comments. And if you have other “free” entertainment that your family loves, tell me about it.

I’ve just scheduled college visits for 3 of Princess’ school holidays, do you think that counts as entertainment? Georgia Tech, Clemson and Spelman, here we come.

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