Setting the bar

Recently, while reading Ysolda's blog, I found out about a knitters' retreat that will take place in Iceland in September of this year. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything cooler than that. I mean... KNITTING IN ICELAND!!! I wanted to go. Like, a lot.

The only problem, of course, is that I don't happen to have 287,000 Icelandic Kronas (roughly 3000 Canadian dollars) lying around. Nor do I have the cool grand to fly to Iceland, for that matter. But then again, I haven't checked the pockets of my winter coat yet, heh.

All of this yearning for that which I can't afford led me to a fairly basic question: why don't I ever have any money??? I make a decent living, our mortgage is paid, we're not in debt... So why don't I have any money????

A quick look at my spending habits over the course of the past few months made it fairly obvious: the fact is that I'm a really impulsive shopper, and I buy what I want when I want it. I pay off my credit card every month, I set aside money for my RRSP, but I don't really question my daily purchases. And let me tell you: when you buy a pattern here, some yarn there virtually every week, it really adds up.

So! What to do about this? Inspired by my friend Robyn who's taken up a de-cluttering challenge (you can read about her progress here), I've decided to set up my own personal savings challenge: put aside 2010$ for 2010!

The 2010 for 2010 Challenge!

Goal: put aside 2010$ in savings by December 31st, 2010.

How? Change my spending habits! (DUH!)

I'm going to try to control my spending by separating my purchases into 2 basic categories: Things I Need and Things I Want (I know, you'd think I went to business school, right? Genius!)

Things I Need would be things like groceries, gas, kid items, and personal items of the essential variety (ladies, you know of what I speak). These will continue to be paid for as I've done to this point (although I'm definitely going to be looking at the coupons at the grocery store from now on!)

Things I Want would be things like yarn, books, social activities (restaurant, movies, etc.), wine, and personal items of the non-essential variety (like, say, getting my hair coloured). You know, the fun stuff that makes life worth living, basically. These will be paid for in CASH, and I'm only allowing myself 100$ per week. At the end of the week, whatever's left over (if there IS anything) will be put in my ME pot, to be used however the heck I feel like it.

I'm starting pretty late in the game, so I'm not going to lie, it's going to be TOUGH. But I think I can do it!

Happy Knitting Everyone! I'll be over here, quietly going through shopping withdrawal.