I said farewell to my spending moratorium a few hours early on Friday, July 31 with $.35 cocktails and free mini-grilled cheese sandwiches at the Edison. It was definitely one of the best happy hours I’ve been to and very schmancy. Short dresses and heels were standard.
Since my July spending moratorium is done, I’ve been spending a LOT. In just four days I’ve racked up a $230. 23 tab for coffee, lunch out, postage, cash, candy, beer, gas, groceries, and tips. But some of my moratorium habits have stuck with me.
- One of the most challenging things about the moratorium was eating on the go. Not being able to buy a quick meal, I started packing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which don’t have to be refrigerated for a few hours. This saved me so much money – and time – that I still pack pb & j when I’m going to need a meal on the road.
- Go the distance for free/cheap parking. I popped into a parking garage yesterday and gagged at the rates – $2.50 for 12 minutes. IN. SANE. I drove two blocks and found meters for $1 an hour. It’s almost silly how close free/cheap parking is from overpriced garages. Drive a few blocks towards the outskirts – don’t circle the main drag – and you’ll be surprised at your options. It’s worth the walk.
If you joined me in the moratorium, how did you do?
My spending moratorium is over in four days on August 1. Hallelujah!
I told Hubby how well my spending experiment was going and he brought up a great point. You’re not spending anything, he said. “But I’m more in the ‘I can spend’ mindset,” he said.
The possibility that his spending would change during my moratorium had not occurred to me. Once he pointed it out, though, I was nervous that our spending had shifted from the two of us to just him.
Was our total spending in July any less than in past months?
I pulled up our most recent credit card statement, which ended yesterday, and found our total had ballooned to levels not seen since before we started my simple budgeting system.
Uh oh.
What happened? Some of the purchases were in June, before the moratorium started, which I subtracted. Then I subtracted all the business expenses, which were allowed during the moratorium. The total came waaaay down to where it resembled bills from past months.
But Hubby was right. Our credit card bill, which reflects the vast majority of our spending, was about the same. Does this mean I didn’t save any money during the moratorium?
I took a closer look at the bill. Most of the charges were genuinely Hubby’s (a pull up bar from Big 5, a massage, lunch with co-workers) – not him covering for me.
Then I saw it.
A $395 charge from the dentist for a night guard. That expense is paid for by pre-tax dollars we set aside for medical expenses through our Health Savings Account. The money has already been saved. I subtract $395 and our total spending is…REALLY LOW!
In fact, our July spending is less than half of what our lowest credit card bill has been in years. Maybe ever.
I’ve still got four days until I can spend, but so far I’m declaring the moratorium a success!!!
The first time exposed my weakness for coupons. The second time exposed my soft spot for hard-working waitresses. The third time it was the library that did me in.
My library card expired and to get it out of hock I had to pay my $3.50 fine that I incurred last time I checked out a book. Theoretically libraries are free. In practice, they never are.
But I really wanted to check out The Wait by Frank Turner Hollon because the first graph hooked me.
My father almost never got drunk. When he did, it was usually a happy, goofy drunk. But one night when I was nine years old, after a Christmas party, for reasons still unknown, he told me the story of my conception. This is how I remember it.
While standing in line I realized, sadly, that the book was not going to be as good as the first paragraph. But I was already in line. So I paid the fine and endured the indignity of settling my $3.50 debt with a credit card. Charging less than $10 always makes me feel poor. I’m convinced the cashier, or in this case, wannabe librarian, is thinking to herself, “This girl doesn’t have three dollars and fifty cents on her? She probably eats cat food.”
Oh, the injustice of not carrying cash. Perhaps this was the price for breaking my moratorium.
Related:
My spending moratorium has elicited some strange behavior from my family and friends. For the first time in my life, my mother encouraged me to drink. Egads!
I was getting ready for happy hour Friday and telling her about my no-spend plan for the bar: eat before I go, order water, hope no one notices.
“Go ahead,” she said. “Order a beer.”
“But Mom, that’s the whole point. I’m not supposed to spend,” I said. “It’s a sacrifice that will make me realize how much of a privilege it is to spend.”
She wasn’t convinced.
I headed over to the bar on my beater bicycle, the one I bought off Craigslist for $50. It is so old and heavy I never worry about someone cutting the lock. At the bar I kept my eyes off the fried calamari my friends had ordered and asked for a water. No one said anything or seemed to care I was “starting with a water.” Struck up a conversation about food blogging, making videos on YouTube and my new site, BargainBabeLA.com.
The waitress came back with the next round of drinks but had forgotten my water. I didn’t say anything. After she came back a second time without my water, a friend reminded her. She brought it promptly.
When it was time to go I said goodbye and grabbed my bag. I was halfway out of the bar when I remembered I had forgotten to tip the waitress, as reader Terry had berated me to do in a comment.
Do you think bars are in business so you can sit there and visit? At least purchase an ice tea, sometime. That table is costing them money and the poor waitress tips. You are not the only one who has it hard but don’t make it harder on others.
Terry was harsh but his/her last sentence rang true. And it goes back to the frugal v. cheap debate. I may chose to live frugally by going on a spending moratorium, but when I force my choices on others I become cheap.
I turned around, pulled out the dollar I had brought just for this purpose, and found the waitress.
“Thank you for bringing the water,” I said.
When she saw the dollar her face turned sad.
“Oh, thank you so much,” she said in a way that I knew meant my single dollar made a difference.
It was the second time I broke the moratorium and I’m glad I did.
I don’t recommend making a regular practice of going to bars and only ordering water, but if you are on a spending moratorium, recently laid-off, or in serious money trouble, it is possible to go to a bar, enjoy your friends and spend next to nothing. If you have a guilty conscience about taking up space, go with hard drinking friends who rack up a booming tab and tip your waitress.
I’m making a list of all the things I am going to buy as soon as my spending moratorium is over August 1.
1. Hair ties ~ $2. I’m down to three, including one that has lost all its stretchiness. If I run out entirely I can use rubber bands, but that’s not fun.
2. A new tire for my road bike ~$25. I have been having problems with flat tires. At first the inner tube deflated over a few weeks. Then it lost all the air overnight. I found and patched a small hole that held for a few days. Saturday before heading out on an ambitious bike ride to drop flyers for the Frugal Fe$tival at libraries across the Valley I found a second hole.
Why is my inner tube getting so many holes, I wondered. I inspected the 
tire and found two cracks, including one that is about a quarter-inch across, between my fingers usabove. Since I couldn’t buy a new tire I used a trick my dad showed me. Take a dollar bill and fold it in half twice so it is about 1″ x 3″. Tuck that into the tire so it covers the crack, below. Then put in the inner tube and inflate. The folded dollar is strong enough to protect the inner tube for short periods. I used this trick twice so I guess you could say the fix cost me two dollars!
3. Maintenance check up for my MINI ~$750. She only needs it every 15,000 miles and I have a coupon from the dealer for $100 off. I’m tempted to go to a non-dealer but the dealer has does solid work, has great customer service, and washes my car!
It feels a little bit like I’m about to start seventh grade and my Mom has stashed my new clothes and pristine new shoes into the hall closet where I can pull them out one by one and day dream about the first day of school when I can wear them. Actually, she always gave me permission to wear them ahead of time but she laced her approval with a caveat, “If you wear them now you won’t have something new to wear on the first day of school.”
Any other day of the year I was happy with hand-me-downs, but the first day of school? Even my underwear was new. I still remember in the tenth grade a friend wore dirty, black hi-top converse on the first day. That, I thought, took guts. It also made me realize that not everybody could afford to have new clothes.
But I digress. The stash that I am currently excited about is not clothes but a huge bag of toiletries. I used my coupons from TheCouponMaster.com at Target!
I redeemed 15 coupons totaling $17.25, bringing my bill to $32.74. (Incidentally, I still had to pay 9.75 percent California sales tax on the full, pre-coupon amount.) I paid $1.79 for the coupons, bringing my savings to $15.46 ($17.25 – $1.79).
Yes, I broke my moratorium. But I decided letting a wallet full of coupons go to waste – the ones I used all expire in July – was very un-Bargain Babe-like. However, as reader Tammy suggested, I am going to hide these items away until August in observance of the moratorium. This is the most sensible solution, I decided.
I would not have gotten this big of a deal without befriending the Target cashier. Most of the coupons say only one can be used per purchase. I was prepared to make separate purchases if need be. Turns out my placement in line set the stage for a score.
The person in front of me was a Target employee buying clothing with her employee discount. She started talking to the cashier about a local celebrity that had walked into the store wearing a *very* short skirt and a *very* low-cut top revealing her fake “pillow bags.” Naturally, I joined in the conversation. As soon as the celebrity left, everyone surrounded the cashier, who had rung her up, to gossip.
The cashier swiped the employee’s purchases and asked for her employee number.
“How big is the employee discount?” I asked. “Should I get a second job?”
“It’s not too bad,” the employee said.
“But they are getting more strict,” the cashier chimed in. “Now you have to show your ID card, not just the number.”
“Oh yeah?”
“My son tried to use my number – he is my designated shopper – but he didn’t have his ID card on him. I asked him how much it was. Just $30. I told him I would give him the $3.”
So the Target employee discount is 10 percent, I thought.
“Every little bit counts,” I said.
The cashier, who has a second job, agreed. She works 7 days a week but has Friday evening off, she told me.
Then she started to ring me up.
“Speaking of every little bit counts,” I said, “I have some coupons I’d like to use.”
I had set out my 15 coupons with my odd collection of deodorant, shampoo and facial cleanser.
She looked at the coupons, then she looked at me. I smiled.
“I guess I’m in one of those moods,” she said, scanning all the coupons. “But you know you’re only supposed to use one coupon per purchase (per item).”
“Thank you,” I said, swiping my credit card. “Enjoy your day off.”
A friend invited me to a happy hour Friday and I instantly said yes. Having a drink with friends is one of life’s great pleasures. Then I remembered my spending moratorium. Ug.
I could bail, but this presents exactly the type of situation that makes the moratorium a worthy experiment. The point is not to sit at home for an entire month holding my breath until August when I can spend. The point is to live my life as normally as possible while not making an discretionary purchases. That means socializing with friends.
So far I have found plenty of free activities to do with my friends, including a game of pick-up Ultimate Frisbee, a picnic on the beach, and yoga (I buy classes in bulk to get the best price so it’s already paid for).
But going to a bar is going to directly confront my non-spending initiative. Luckily, I have a plan.
1. Eat before I go so I can honestly say I’m not hungry.
2. Leave my wallet home, except for my ID. No cash = no temptation.
3. Be very engaging so nobody notices I’m sipping water.
Apparently many folks are joining me on my spending moratorium. This morning news outlets reported retail sales are worse than the dismal expectations. GAP is down 10%, JC Penney is down 8%, Target is down 6%.
A reader named Emily, who joined me on the spending moratorium, wrote in with this update:
One purchase that I did make an exception for myself is a used copy of the South Beach Diet cookbook for use at home as I am redoing phase two at present and my father, who is a diabetic, should be eating fewer carbs anyway. As I considered it a health investment, I figured the $2.00 the store was asking for made it a worthy purchase. I’m glad to see your moratorium is still happening, albeit slightly challenging.
Who else is observing the moratorium this month? Email me an update, please.
The coupons I purchased from TheCouponMaster.com arrived yesterday in the mail, sorted neatly with a receipt for $3.95 ($3.01 worth of coupons plus a $.94 shipping fee). But now that I’m on a spending moratorium I’m not sure if I can use them. In fact, I’m pretty sure I cannot use them.
The problem is 22 of 31 coupons I purchased expire in July. $*%&#!
My spending moratorium puts the kabash on spending money on anything but groceries, basics like rent and utilities, and business expenses.
Three of the coupons are for a legitimate grocery item (ice cream), but the others are all for toiletries, which I often buy at the grocery store on sale but they are not truly grocery items.
My plan – before the moratorium – was to use the coupons at Target, which has really good prices on toiletries. Now I’m stuck between a rock and this friggin’ moratorium, which, until now, I have had no trouble observing!
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In the final hours before my spending moratorium kicked in today, Day 1 of 31, I made three purchases.
1. I paid $.68 for a Twix bar at CVS on my way home from the library. (To me, candy should still be $.50. I won’t miss paying retail.)
2. I charged $31.65 for a Thai dinner after my dancing lesson with Hubby. Had some very tasty fresh spring rolls and curry at Chili Thai in LA.
3. I spent $12.61 filling up my gas tank at the 76 station. I’ve got a full tank to last me the month – roughly 400 miles.
Now it’s no more spending for a month!
Two brave souls stepped forward to join me on this frugal experiment.
Emily said:
I will be joining you on the Moratorium although I will have slightly fewer restrictions as I have recently moved and am not ruling out the possibility of unexpected expenses.
Tamara said:
I am going to join you on your spending moratorium for the month of July! I do have one question though, and I will post it in the comments, what do you think about buying wedding gifts? I have two weddings to attend in July and am not sure how to proceed with “counting” the spending on gifts. Am I allowed to, or not?
I wanted to make it easy on Tamara so I put her question into a poll.
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BB considers going on a spending moratorium
Votes are in! BB goes on a spending moratorium
Spending moratorium starts Wednesday
The spending moratorium that I argued against but was persuaded by readers to embrace starts Wednesday. Thanks, guys! But seriously, I think this will be an interesting experiment in saying no to discretionary purchases.
To prepare myself I am:
- buying toiletries like deodorant (I ran out and used an extra of Hubby’s. It’s no fun smelling like a man.)
- filling up my tank (getting through the month on one tank in LA will be a stretch)
- treating myself to a salon treatment with the extra cash I have this month
For those of you who think my spending moratorium is hurting the economy (there were 6 of you at last count), I encourage you to spend more in July to make up for my cutbacks. And please, let me know what you buy! I’ll include it in my regular updates about the moratorium.
If you are joining me on the moratorium, please email me!
Ground rules for my spending moratorium:
Allowed purchases include rent, one tank of gas, groceries, utilities, my Internet and cell phone bill. My automatic monthly savings withdrawal remains unchanged.
Business expenses, such as flyers or postage, are allowed.
During the moratorium I’m allowed to use any gift cards I have currently have in my possession (either previously purchased or received as gifts).
I’m allowed to receive gifts as long as they are a true gift and not a way around the moratorium. In other words, I’m not going to ask my friends to pay for me during the moratorium in exchange for paying them back come August.
