It seems silly to talk about sacrifice when I’m only sacrificing nice things I want now to create a better future for myself. It’s selfish. Not virtuous.
But, still, it isn’t easy and I have been thinking a lot about what I’m willing to give up in order to get myself out of debt. The first to go was buying things I don’t need, so there ended the spending on clothes and DVDs and music and make up and nail polish. I have enough of all of those things anyway, so I’m not really suffering.
Now I’m starting to think of going the extra mile. That is how badly I want to be out of debt. There isn’t a lot of fat in my budget, but one huge monthly expense that drives me nuts is groceries. Up to this point, I’ve taken the stance that, well, I need to eat. And if I’m trying to get myself not to eat out, then I should buy good groceries, so that I have an incentive to eat at home.
November was an expensive month for a number of reasons, and I think it’s brought to my mind that maybe I need to make a bigger change than I was originally thinking. Just the amount of money I’ve spent on food, eating in and out, has been so ridiculous, and now I have about $65 to last me until December 10th if I still want to make my goal of putting an extra $500 toward my credit card this month.
It would be so easy for me to give in a little and just put $400 extra toward the credit card and use the rest for groceries. But, I don’t want to! I want to keep up with the goals I’ve put in writing.
So, I started thinking about whether I could keep my grocery bill extremely low for a while. Until my next pay day for sure and then maybe up until I go home for Christmas (where I won’t have to pay for any food!!). I think I can do it, but it will certainly be sacrifice on a different level than what I have been doing.
To be honest, there’s something fun and very exciting about this kind of crazy motivation. Here goes to spending $25 on groceries this week!
Update: I wrote this at the end of last week. I’m still going strong. One week left and I have about $25 left to spend, including groceries. I think I can do it. If this sounds a little crazy, I know, but it’s just a mini challenge I have for myself. I want that $500 to put toward paying off Credit Card #1.
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{ 3 comments }
Wow, that’s awesome you’re doing it! You should check out http://www.mrsjanauary.com she does couponing and is really good at saving money and is finally out of debt!
I’m really impressed by your determination and dedication. I wish I had some of that!
In cutting bills, I found it’s easier to do with groceries than you probably think.
As lame as it is, check grocery ads and try – as much as possible – to buy things only on sale. I probably go to the store every two weeks with $40 and get as much as I can with my cash. I only buy soda if it’s on sale. I save Coke points (not sure if you drink Coca-Cola or Coke products, but if you do, this is a huge help!) and use them toward coupons toward Coke, ha. Also, it helps to buy more of something and portion it out for one person.
Like you, I live alone, so I buy about a pound of chicken tenderloins, then portion them out to three or four tenders per bag (depends where I shop for them), and I have that many meals out of the one chicken purchase. It certainly helps to think ahead and plan, especially if you’re okay with leftovers. For instance, if I decide I *really* want to order pizza, I only do it if I’ll be able to eat the leftovers for at least one meal the next few days. I get my money’s worth better that way.
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