Well, we are officially done the grand experiement that was our first financial fast. Saturday marked the 28th (excruciating!) day of denying ourselves, and we decided to finish the month a couple of days early. We celebrated by having dinner at J's favorite Indian restaurant on Saturday night, and then driving into Indianapolis on Sunday to go whole hog at Trader Joe's.
So, without further ado, I'd like to recap our financial fast.
Money Spent
Week of January 2: $18 for groceries and $12 for pizza
$30 running total
Week of January 9: $109 for groceries
$139 running total
Week of January 16: $52 for groceries, $11 for Five Guys burgers
$202 running total
Week of January 23: $13 for groceries, $545 for Seattle lodging
$760 total*
*Total without the vacation spending, which I think is more to the point: $215
Lessons Learned
1. You can make an excellent pizza at home without giving a major pizza retailer a jingle. (More on my new favorite pizza dough recipe coming soon)
2. If the Chai you find in your pantry is 4 years old, don't feel the need to make an experimental cup before you throw it out.
3. It's REALLY hard to find a recipe that uses garbanzo beans that does not ALSO require other ingredients you do not have on hand.
Bottom Line
We went into this exercise because our credit card was groaning from overuse. Our bill for February was $2100. I generally budget about $1000 for our credit card payment each month, and thus far we have always been able to pay it off every month. Between our money fast, selling a few things on eBay, and some creative accounting (meaning, I used money from one account to pay for something another account would usually cover), we'll be able to have that $2k bad boy paid off by February 8. We'll still need to be a little mindful of our money for a month or two to make sure the card does not get run up again because we're low on cash, but I think we can overall call this a success.
Now the big problem is not going into a spending binge for all the things we realized we needed during the fast. Wish us luck!
