Selective Spend Summer - Update 1
I started this Selective Spend Summer challenge at the end of May, so I thought I would do a quick rundown of where we’re starting financially. The biggest categories that I am hoping to save money on through this challenge are clothing, food, and home décor. Here’s where we ended May financially in each of those categories:
Clothing: $192.00
Food: $646.00
Home Décor: $155.00
What I’ve bought that wasn't on our list: a blue/white stripped jumpsuit (from a local boutique), bath bombs (at a Farmers Market), a Skims bra, an outfit for Emma (also a local boutique), and wine glass storage
I plan to track my dollar amount and percentage change each month and then my overall savings each month.
AJ and I are pretty good about our finances. We have a budget set that puts each of our hard earned dollars to work and we save a good portion of our paychecks. We have always lived within our means while occasionally splurging on a few things we REALLY want. All that said, we do have 2 areas of debt that we really want to focus on paying down to make our big dreams and goals a reality sooner than previously planned – student loan debt ($25,000 left give or take) and our HELOC ($30,000 give or take).
While we’d like to pay off both like, tomorrow, we are also realistic and have chosen to focus on AJ’s student loans first. 1. Because it is the lower debt but 2. And maybe more importantly, once it’s paid off, it’s an expense that will not come back. We are currently slated to pay it off with a $700/month payment in just under 3 years….our goal is to cut that in half. It’s a lofty goal, and we know that this Selective Spend Summer is really just the tip of the iceberg, but our goal with it isn’t to pay off all the debt, it’s to create good habits and to control our impulse buying going forward.
That’s really the goal of the whole challenge. Control impulse buying (even though this jumpsuit looks REAL cute on). Especially for me – the number of times I’ve purchased something that’s “close enough to what I want” are numerous at this point. And inevitability, I either end up donating those items or trying to sell them (at a loss). So why not just not buy them to begin with? I should be saving up or looking for what I REALLY want instead. It will also help make sure that it’s an item I really truly want. So that’s the goal. I turn 37 in a year and a half, and hopefully on my 37th birthday, we are writing our last check – figuratively because who writes checks anymore – for AJ’s student loans.
May Takeaways: Holy eating out. I’m a little surprised, actually. I thought for sure we had spent more in clothing and home décor than we did. But look at that food/eating out spend! That’s the focus for June … cut back on eating out.
Be sure to check back at the beginning of July to see how June went for us!
