Hellobee

Okay, at the beginning week two of the spending freeze:
Food was still abundant.
Cars were at just over half tank of gas respectively.

January 8 – I went to the climbing gym after work for a half hour of power as I like to call it and Mr. Gumdrop got a ride from a friend and met up with the guys for a longer climbing session later in the evening. We have been spending a lot of time in the house together (from the cold and not going anywhere that involves money), so I think it was good to spend time doing different activities. We are running low on yogurt, so I used a small portion of it to make more. My mom used to do this for us growing up so I am looking forward to seeing how it turned out. And I made more muffins!

We had our first disagreement about the experiment when I figured using credit card cashback money to order our year in review book online was a clever loophole and he thought it was betraying our goals. Apart from that, the experiment has been very unifying and I think it will continue to be.

January 9 – We had a low key evening in. Discovered that the yogurt making experiment didn’t work out. It definitely solidified but tasted more like milk pudding than yogurt. I’ll have to dig up my Mom’s recipe and use the ingredients she does after the spending freeze.

January 10 – Mr. Gumdrop started his alternative early morning carpool this morning, so we got home at the exact same time for the first time ever. As for our evening, our friend who is a musician got us on the list for one of her local shows. My buddy agreed to shoot the show for them and we helped out, manning a camera here and there and grabbing free drinks backstage. Hooray for work-trades!

photo by Mark Hanson

 January 11 – Cleaning, house projects and reorganizing. I ate the yogurt from the sides of the container for the first time ever. Mr. Gumdrop had a free dinner for a work function and brought me home some fancy tasty cheesecake.

January 12 – It was such a nice day, we took a 4.5-mile walk loop through the broader neighborhood, which tired us out more than we expected. I wanted to get a latte or hot chocolate before we walked home but alas! A small sacrifice to make. Since food is so much more abundant than gas, Mr. Gumdrop’s folks came over to our place Sunday evening instead of us traveling to them, and he made a huge chili that will keep us going all week.

January 13 – So far this month has been a good exercise in letting go of control and self-reliance and being willing to ask friends and family for help, for fun, for carpools and more. Monday night, we didn’t even ask – another friend offered to get us all free tickets to see a movie because she works at a little theater in Uptown. We parked for free a quarter mile away and took a short walk to the theater in the big fluffy snow flakes. After the movie, we met up with a friend at the climbing gym and then stopped by his place to pick up some tile caulk – our only tube of it split open right after Mr. Gumdrop started finishing up the shower resealing project. We can shower again!

January 14 – This morning I brought Mr. Gumdrop to a conference downtown on my way to work – it’s a rare day that we get to carpool together. My boss decided to cater lunch to the office just because. We’ve been living in luxury this month! I’ve eaten most of my salty snacks at work and have had to move on to the purely healthy stuff – apples and peanut butter and almonds. If that’s the extent of my sacrifices, life is pretty sweet! On another note, I have a habit of regularly checking our bank because we’re in trying so hard to pay off debt, and it’s been very strange to have no changes to speak of.

One of the best things about this month has been that it’s long enough to break habits (ones like stopping at the thrift store on the way home from work, going out for coffee or tea, and our frequent restaurant bills) that tend to suck away at our savings over time.

And it’s long enough to starting new habits – keeping homemade food on hand for lunches, making healthy muffins so I can grab one to go in the mornings, finding creative fixes since buying a solution isn’t an option, finding free activities and hosting people at our place, and grouping our excursions together to save on gas. The funny thing is that it doesn’t feel very different from normal life. We’re just not spending any money.