New Thing Number Twenty-Two

I did not make any purchases for a week.

Not even gas or to pay bills. I got all the bills taken care of beforehand and I lasted on half a tank of gas.

It really put a few things into perspective for me. Normally when I'm out running errands or coming back from the doctor (I'm a total pansy at the doctor), I feel that I deserve a treat. But with this goal of not spending any money, I was able to keep myself from "nickel-ing and dime-ing" my money away on tiny pleasures, and I made something yummy at home, which usually tastes better anyway. 

I'm also a huge fan of buying things to save myself the trouble of making them. What's the point spending 30 minutes making my mom's delicious spaghetti sauce when I could pick up a jar of okay spaghetti sauce while I'm at the store? Needless to say, I had some amazing spaghetti this week. And lots of leftovers.

I kept myself from stopping by the store to pick up that one ingredient I need, too. It's actually a fun challenge, making do with whatever you have in the pantry and fridge. Sure, you probably can't make that incredible dish you've been craving, but you get to exercise your creativity and experiment with substitutions. More times than not I end up with something really good, and I feel like a professional chef from one of those Food Network shows.

When it came to gas, I found myself thinking, Do I really need to drive there? Is going to that store necessary? How can I run all my errands using the least amount of gas? I never pulled out a map, but I was mapping out my errand route so I could get the most done on half a tank. The last couple days of the week I had to drive about 100 miles to and from cities, and because I had rationed my gas so well I got home with enough gas to get me to the gas station on Monday. (I actually didn't fill up my car until Tuesday. That's how awesome I was.)

I wouldn't recommend not spending anything for an entire week, but it was a good habit to rethink my spending tendencies and ask myself if what I wanted was really necessary. I'm probably not going to learn from this as quickly as I should, but I can honestly say I will attempt to think like this from now on.