Spending Triggers - Do You Know How To Spot Your Triggers and Not Give In?

No Credit Needed has been running a series on 33 Days and 33 Ways to Reduce Debt and Save Money. His most recent post challenges us to identify our spending triggers.

As NCN points out in the post:
"If you are aware of your ’spending triggers’ you can
A) avoid situations where you might be tempted to overspend.
B) discuss your financial goals with your friends and family, so that they will be “on your side” (helping and not hurting).
C) be absolutely committed to living on a budget."

Personally, my biggest spending trigger is the need to spend time with others which usually entails a meal or beverages. Its amazing how much money is spent if I don't keep a stringent eye on this category. Anyone following this blog will attest that I have made this a subject of my monthly goals and it is usually the one that falls short.

So, when you are kicking a habit whether its smoking, eating, drinking, biting your nails, shopping, etc. the first rule of thumb is to know your trigger so you can take steps to prevent it. As an ex-smoker, I knew that I had to change where I had lunch since I usually had a few cigarettes when I finished eating. Instead, I brought lunch to work, saved money by packing my lunch and not smoking. In my efforts to kick my spending habit on meals, I am working on stocking my kitchen with appealing meals and making lunches ahead of time so I don't have to think about it in the morning before work.

Holiday Season Challenge - Planet Friendly Wrapping

For this season, I've made a goal for myself to use only planet friendly wrapping. Think reduce, reuse, recycle. Instead of wasting wrapping paper that's been chemically treated and ribbon that is made out materials that won't break down in the landfill, consider other options.

Reduce -
- Instead of buying rolls and rolls of paper just to get different designs, swap old patterns with friends to get variety.
- Use containers or materials that can be reused for other purposes, cloth bags that can be used again, a kitchen towel tied with a ribbon, or a decorative bowl.

Reuse -
- Save decorated bags and reuse them for other presents.
- Packing materials can be reused over and over again. My office gets a lot of gift baskets. Once everything has been eaten, claimed, and picked over, I grab the seltzer (the shredded paper used for filler) before its thrown away to reuse for packing or my own baskets.

Recycle -
- Use the end of newspaper rolls as wrapping paper and let kids decorate it or pull out your crayons and try a doodle or two yourself.
- Use those great paper bags with handles that you get from stores and cover up the logo with a decorative, fabric cut out.

Even if you only make one adjustment in your tradition it will have a big impact not just on the planet, but also on your budget!

Happy Thanksgiving... the day after

I really want to say how thankful I am to have to opportunity to be part of this great blogging community of debt reduction and personal finance. I have had some interesting challenges lately, but have been able to refocus on my priorities because of the great feedback I've received. I hope that I've been able to return the favor once or twice as well.

This week I completed one house sitting job, started another, and put up Thanksgiving orders for a bakery I used to work for. Thanks to all of this extra work, I am able to reach one of my November goals and repay my step father for money I borrowed in June.

Tis the season to pick up extra work and I will add that to my list of December goals. It will help offset the cost of my visit to see dad especially with such a horrible exchange rate. I'm not sure how much additional debt I'm going to be able to pay off.

Update to the Quiet Time

I have made some very positive steps towards paying off my debt and I've made some very big steps backwards as well. First, I will only complete part of my goal for the "Reduce A Bill Challenge." I will complete my goal of 10 No Spend Days and will even have a day or two more than the original goal but, I have not kept to my goal of limiting my spending on meals out. December will be a great time for keeping that number down as vendor and company sponsored lunches will pay for most.

Next, I spent a lot of money on a plane ticket to visit my dad for Christmas. It was a difficult decision because I feel like I should be using that money to pay off some debt or build my emergency fund, but as a very smart reader pointed out you only have so much time to spend with family. Oh yeah, did I mention he's in Europe so it is even more difficult to pop over to see him.

As long as I'm confessing my spending, I joined a gym again. I got a screaming deal and there is no long term commitment so I'm comfortable in that decision. I need to loose weight that I've been packing on since I quit smoking. Its affecting my health and its preventing me from doing things because I'm self conscious.

Now the good news... I've been house sitting for quite a few people which is helping to pay for my spending choices. I'm also helping out an old employer and putting up orders for Thanksgiving which will also bring in some spending money. At the end of the day, I will owe my dad for a plane ticket, but I will have paid off another credit card.

Sorry for the Quiet Period

I just wrapped up one house sitting job today. That means I will get a large snowball for my debt in a couple of days. My no spend days have been going well and I should reach my goal well ahead of schedule. Finally, I have paid off another debt. I'm not counting it as a true accomplishment as its my line of credit attached to my checking account. The check to pay for my parking space has not cleared for two months so I decided I would transfer it to my line of credit until it gets straightened out.

My struggle lately has been whether or not I'm going home for Christmas. First, my dad's health is deteriorating and he's depressed so I know my trip home will help. Second, instead of the usual two days off for Christmas and New Years I will have four without taking vacation time, so I can schedule a longer vacation and only dip into a week's worth of vacation time. I won't have the same opportunity next year. The draw back... that's a decent chunk of change that could go towards debt. Decisions... decisions...

Weekly Review

It's been a crazy week. I've picked up a few house sitting jobs to bring in some extra money, but they are on opposite sides of the city. I am focusing on paying off another credit card by the end of the month and I know all of this craziness will be worth it when I mail in that payoff!

For posts that really hit home for me, check out:

The Simple Dollar ~ Lying To Yourself About Money Or Anything Else I particularly relate to this post because this is my Achilles heel. If you don't acknowledge it, it can't be wrong, right?!?

Wise Bread ~ Managing Your Charitable Giving, by Phillip Brewer I'm a big advocate of being smart about charitable giving. There are lots of people out there that want to separate us from our money. Let's not fall prey to poorly managed organizations or groups selling snake oil.

Being Frugal ~ 50 Frugal Christmas Ideas You can't ignore it. The holiday season is upon us. Prepare now and you can have a debt free Christmas.

One Frugal Girl ~ Does My Generation Care About Quality One Frugal Girl looks at how different generations value quality and how we are changing more and more into a disposable society.

Working For Financial Freedom ~ Procrastination Is Expensive An excellent example of the games we play with ourselves that help us get into trouble with our finances.

Donating Your Time

Today, I had the pleasure of helping my mom pick up donations from Trader Joe's and deliver them to a needy organization. It's such a wonderful feeling knowing that I can not only give something back to the community, but help to keep perfectly good food out of the landfill and get nutritious food to those that might not have it otherwise. Heading into December, the focus turns to giving. I've never had a lot of money to give, but I do make time. Its frugal and each volunteer hour saves the organization about $40.

Next weekend I'm volunteering at another organization to sort books. The organization gets donations of books from a local bookstore and we get to sort through them to pull out the children's books to send to classrooms. I admit there's a perk. I also get to pull out books that they can't use for other organizations. A small town library is in need of new books and the organization my mom works for teaches parenting skills to teen mothers. She gets any books for new moms.

At the end of the month I'm volunteering for a charity event that will feature a live and silent auction. You may ask why I do so much. Well, I have to admit I don't usually make this many committements in one month, but I find its a great way to spend an evening out and its really easy on the budget.