Prior to the last two weeks I was keeping one credit card on me "just in case of an emergency." Between June and early July, I put $1,000 onto that sucker. That does not include a $200 plane ticket for a planned vacation.
Needless to say after overspending that much, I had to make the bleeding stop. I have hung the card up to dry in some drawer at my parents house, where it can stay safe and sound and far far away from my budget.
During the last two weeks, I have not adjusted well to not spending at my leisure like I had been doing on the Amex. I blew my dining out / grocery budget by $50 already, and I still have 4 days to payday. Part of this is to blame on the longer days to spread the check over - we were paid the 13th, the next one still won't come until the 31st - so 17 days rather than 15, which happens to include an extra weekend.
But excuses are for addicts - I must get past the denial and accept the fact that I blew it. So I have started looking for a solution. One point of major bleeding I found is lunch & drinks. Almost all of my "dining out" was spent on one of these two. Overall, I spent an average of $15 a day on dining out, and $20 on food in general.
For this next week, I have a few challenges for myself to achieve an overall goal of $5/day average for dining out and $7/day for eating in: 1. Eat breakfast in, every day. 2. Only eat out for lunch 1 weekday and 1 weekend day. 3. Dinner - same rules as lunch.
Let the games begin!
