100th post!

Mmmm back from vacation less than 24 hours, and already I’ve taught a yoga class, spent the day in the office (sending out contracts, e-mailing clients, signing up for Farmer’s Markets, writing class descriptions, advertising) did some brainstorming & research for a volunteer non-profit project, met with the steering committee of the project, and am putting in one last blog post for January before calling it a night (which according to my blogger stats, is my 100^th post! I feel like there should be confetti and celebratory music) … who ever thought easing back into the swing of things was a good idea? I am headed into the week full steam ahead.

  

Here we are on the cusp of a new month… I always feel old when I say this, but time really does seem to speed up as we go through life. How is it that January is already over? My dear friend is challenging her blog readers to spend the month of February (the shortest month of the year) realizing and achieving some of their thrifty goals. So here it goes.

Firstly I know there is a lot I could do without, and things I could choose not to indulge in… But I also acknowledge that as a single-twenty something who doesn’t have to worry about supporting a family I do allow  myself to splurge a little bit on reasonable things. I put money in savings, I pay my bills, but I also eat out more than I should, impulse buy things more than I should, and am not great about taking advantage of local resources like the Library. So in February I plan on tweaking things a little bit, and am hoping some healthy habits form.

Let me just say that I will not give up going out for coffee… this is more of a sanity thing than a thrifty thing. Yes, I have a coffee pot, and a French press at home (both of which I currently use, I still supplement with a second store bought coffee) and now that I have Quicken on my computer I am VERY aware at how much money I’m spending on coffee a year. (for some reason that number doesn’t make me feel as bad as the amount of money I spend on burritos… though they are similar). I can honestly say that my coffee purchasing experiences are more social than anything else. It gives me a handful of moments every week where I can interact with people who aren’t my co-workers or clients, or even my closest friends. I get to have small talk, and flirtation, and an extra dose of caffeine… all of which are undeniably valuable to me. So, no, I will not give up my coffee habit; however, I will try to stick to ordering regular coffee rather than a latte.

I mentioned that depressing burrito category in my finances… lately I have been terrible about making meals at home. It seems like I am lucky if I get out the door with a balanced breakfast, and a lot of the time eating breakfast mean sacrificing the time to make lunch… And it is so easy to not take lunch to work when the best burrito place in the world is ten minutes a day, and you can order a vegetarian burrito for $3. It’s heaven. But this month I am going to make an effort to cook more at home, plan menus, go grocery shopping more regularly, and make sure that left-overs are packaged and ready to be grabbed on my way out the door. This is a win-win, because cooking can be a creative outlet, as well as a healthy one, and I know I’ll be saving money (not to mention I will feel better about how my monthly “fast food” spending is way down).

I am also going to utilize BOTH of my athletic memberships. I know, it seems slightly ridiculous to have two… but one is for the gym, and one is for the yoga studio.  Over the past 7 months, I have practically lived at the studio, and essentially neglected my gym membership. I was running outside prepping for the half marathon, and spending the rest of my time getting yoga hours. I know I could have easily justified getting rid of the gym membership, but I’ve had it since I was in college, and I’m on a yearly contract at a really great rate, and the idea of letting it go, and then possibly later wanting to re-join at a higher price somewhere down the road seems lame. So I guess the only sane thing to do, is actually get my money’s worth and work out, rather than letting another month go by. Especially since one of my resolutions in 2011 is to get more cardio. Already this week I’ve been slightly depressed because my schedule is so full of classes and meetings, and outings and appointments that most of my regular yoga classes aren’t going to work into my schedule. Rather than giving up on exercise all together this week, I guess I should get my butt in gear and use my gym membership. Realistically I might not be “getting my money’s worth” but I do plan on getting to the gym at least once a week this month… which is more than I can say about the last several.

Will these few adjustments make a huge difference in my February spending? Probably not… but they are still choices that are putting me a step closer to where I would like to be in life. Making better and more conscientious choices about how I spend my money, what I put in my body cannot be a bad thing.

What are your thrifty goals for this next month?