Weekend Challenge

I think I started this idea on my own. Being married makes it difficult to fulfill total lifetime changes if your journey partner is not part of the game. I tend to forget that for several reasons. First, I’m a very independent woman, second, I’m recently married, and so this sharing decision-making is still a work in progress. Thank God I have a great understanding husband that usually think that my ideas should be presented at NASA.

So I finally had a long conversation with the man about my idea of back to basics. I know in theory he agreed and was fascinated with the idea, but in the day-to-day practicality, I think we’re going to have some challenges. If he had the resources, he would buy the latest gadget that comes out on the market every week, just because it is the latest gadget.

This is one of those low money weeks, like many that we have. This weekend I wanted to approach it with a different attitude. When hubby saw his paycheck he was very disappointed. We decided to deposit the majority of it, but keep $42 for the weekend. He said, that’s for today, right”… I said."No, for the weekend” He looked puzzled. I explained that this plan was developed into several parts.

Part 1 Detox- this is the part where we see where the immediate cuts can be made and what are those unnecessary expenses we currently have. Of course, everyone wants to have fun, but we’ve been having fun beyond our means that’s why we can’t afford to pay our bills and our credit cards are suffocating us. From now on we have a budget. I don’t know how long this phase is, but I think that if we can do it for 2 months, we’ll be good to go.

Part 2 Learning how to budget- I’m pretty good with numbers although I’m not particularly interested in them. I guess all those statistics and math classes are going to come in handy. I think that once we get over the current hump, at least be caught up with the bills that are behind, and then I can make a realistic budget and live within it.

Part 3 Debt Free- That’s our greatest goal. We estimate that once we enter into a tight budget and we put any extras into the debt and not the “fun”, we should be out of this hole in two-three years.

Part 4 New Place- Once debts free, we know we need a bigger house; we just can’t afford one with our current finances. It is our hope that if we have cancel our debt, we’ll also be able to build some savings for those things that we’ve been wanting. It’s my hope that our hard training from living with the essentials doesn’t go away. I don’t want to be debt free so that I can afford to harbor things again. I do want a bigger place, where I can have a place for my four legged child or children by then to have a place to play and share with their friends. I want more space so that I can offer my house as a center or collection for assistance to others and a place where others in needs can find refuge. I do some of that now, but we would all be more comfortable with an additional room and some backyard.

Part 5 my greatest dream- to give back- and I have to say it’s our dream, not mine alone. I’ve heard my husband on plenty occasions say how he wishes to help others. He does what he can with what he has, but if we could do more, we would love to. To live the rest of our lives enjoying making others smile and that when there’s a need we can supply, having a provision to do so. It would be so amazing.

Back to the weekend challenge. To make matters worse, it started on my mother’s birthday. I told my husband that I would exclude gas from the budget as I was running real low and I had already separated different money for it. As I’m typing this we have 1.1 day to go. Part of the challenge was not only to stay within the $42 budgeted, but to have fun in the process.

As soon as the challenge was on, the first obstacle came to place. We were going to take my mother to lunch. She decided on her own that she wanted to eat at a sandwich place. Whew, I thought. How did we make it healthy and budget friendly? Hubby of course asked for a foot long sandwich, but no sides. My mom and I asked for combos, the combos bring a side and a drink, but the drinks are unlimited. We shared the drinks, all diet sodas (not healthy but better than regular), my mom and I chose apple slices for a side and we share them, we let hubby chose the other side and gave it to him. In all we spent $15 and everyone was well fed.

We spent the rest of the day with my mom, which was in essence what she wanted as a present. My brother had sent money and she wanted to go shopping with it. I bought her a sweater that was previously budgeted for, so that was separate and help her spend the rest of her gift. I cooked a home meal for diner, which was also what she wanted as she doesn’t like too much the food from the senior place she lives.

Later that night we had a sweet craving, we wanted dessert. To save you from a long story we spent the night looking for a sugar free apple pie that we never found. We used some of our money to buy our puppy her food, and a few groceries, about $12 total. Our search was more fun than craving as we were still bouncing stores at 3am, without spending anything but steps (hey, that’s counts as exercise!)

Today we went to the dog park. It was freezing, and we hadn’t had breakfast. This is a bad habit that needs to be worked on. We stopped at the gas station and got coffee and a hot dog. Not the best meal, but better than burgers and fries, just a plain ole hot dog with a bit of mustard.

We went to the park and stayed there for two hours. Came home and I cooked us dinner. We were still looking for that apple pie. We went back to other three supermarkets and Eureka! $5.99 and we have a whole pie, plus the husband decided to be bad and buy glazed donuts. It is Saturday night and we still have more than $7. To me, that is very impressive, considering that usually by now we would have spent $200 on a typical weekend. Yes, the $12 in desserts was totally unnecessary in our financial and physical plan…but it served as more than 12 hrs of entertainment, laughs and giggles.
I’m headed to play bowling and tennis with him. Not a dime more to spend, it’s in the Nintendo Wii. The dog is exhausted from all the excitement and it’s snoring in my bed. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring.