The totals are in from Month 4 of the Spending Diet.
It wasn't too shabby. Not too shabby at all.
April 2011 Savings: $1,243.37!
whoooooo
The disbursement break-down:
$ 512.87 put right into savings account
$ 730.50 from tax return- also put right into savings
(See the Total Savings from the tippy top start on January 1st 2010 to today right here.)
While I'm super excited about the savings that I made this month I can't help feel like I can still do better. I keep thinking about how I didn't spend money for an entire year on anything but “needs” so now whenever I go over my monthly “non-need” limit of $100 that I gave myself at the beginning of the Spending Diet I can't help but feel like I didn't quite do my best.
Maybe that sounds weird.
It feels weird to say that.
Like, how can I possibly not be happy enough with THAT kind of savings!? In a way it feels like my savings expectations are now insatiable! … like my spending and shopping once was.
(It's SO weird to have that reversed)
April is a notoriously spend-y month for me. Last April I managed to save only $30.93 dollars! nuts.
The thing that keeps coming up in my life is the whole “Balance” thing and how I'm no good at all. Really, I'm really-really-super-super-super-no good at it. Before, I was bad at keeping money IN my pockets and now all I want to do is save more and more and more and what I DO save isn't good enough for me (because it's not the goal of only spending $100 on non-needs and therefore not “perfect”).
That's freakin' whack, right?
I know huh.
I feel kind of like a mess and I think some good ol' fashioned balance might help.
Oh, Balance! You unwieldy beast.
What are your tips for keeping balanced? How do you keep things in perspective?
Also, I think it's important to note that despite not feeling like I'm nailing the Spending Diet perfectly that it's about making progress. It's about making those choices every day to decide to keep going forward despite set-backs and it's about realizing that those little choices WILL and DO add up over time and it's about sticking with it.
It's all about the stick-to-it-tive-ness.
P.S. Ready to get out of debt ASAP? Check out the Spending Fast Bootcamp! SpendingFastBootcamp.com