No, I'm not kidding. I spent almost the whole wad this weekend.
Here's what happened. My son called and suggested that they come down to my place for his wife's birthday celebration. I was all for it. I had a groupon I could use.
Then he said the kids would love swimming in the pool afterwards. I was for that, too, (and I've suggested it to them many times) but I didn't have a suit. I thought it over. I could have opted to sit on the sidelines in clothes, but I didn't WANT that! I wanted to be in the pool, playing with the kids.
So I stopped at Kohl's on the way home from work and found a suit on sale for $46. But I also bought a cover-up (which will double as a nightshirt) for $31. Then I realized I didn't have a beach towel, so I got one for $7.
When the family arrived, I looked up the restaurant for their hours and realized they didn't open till 5 p.m.! So, we all went through my coupons for ideas, and we settled on Buca di Beppo, where I had a $10 off coupon. The coupon essentially paid for the tip. We got a family-style meal for $68.
We went home for dessert -- ice cream -- and then went to the pool, where we had a wonderful time. When dinnertime rolled around, I was too exhausted to cook, so I offered to get Taco Bell. $15 for that.
Before the family arrived, I squeezed in my grocery shopping. That was $66. My fifteen items were:
Iced tea -- house brand
Milk
Orange juice
Greek yogurt -- on sale
Lemon juice
Cat litter
Detergent
Dishwasher detergent
Generic Zyrtec -- on sale
Aspirin
Can of gravy
Wine -- on sale
Cream cheese -- house brand
Ice cream -- on sale
Applesauce -- on sale
I saved only $6 this time.
While at the grocery, I realized that I had to pick up a pair of pants from the dry cleaners which I'd had altered. I wanted to have them for the conference. That was $10.
So that's the story of how most of my money disappeared in one weekend.
I guess since I still have money I won't declare my experiment a failure quite yet.
But I wasn't willing to pass up a good day for the sake of an experiment. And it was a really good day.
$25 left
July 24th, 2011 at 01:39 pm
July 24th, 2011 at 03:04 pm 1311516275
July 24th, 2011 at 03:16 pm 1311516969
Can you still continue the experiment and not count the money spent on your family's visit. In retirement, what would you have done? Taken the money out of savings? Found cheaper alternatives? It looks to me like you only spent $76 out of your experiment money.
July 24th, 2011 at 08:35 pm 1311536146
In retrospect, part of the problem was that I was fulfilling promises that I had made before the experiment -- the lunch, the swimming.
After retirement, I wouldn't have promised to treat for lunch out, and I probably would have said to the swimming idea, "Oh, that sounds great, but I just can't do that on my budget right now. I don't have a suit." And probably they would have said, "Your birthday's coming up. Go get a suit!"
I really DO want to do this experiment, so I will call it $76 spent. And the whole experiment will go on hiatus from Wednesday through Sunday, when I will be at my conference and nothing will be normal!
July 24th, 2011 at 08:43 pm 1311536581
July 25th, 2011 at 02:19 pm 1311599966