Zero Spending Experiment- Week One

How hard can it be to go 30 days without spending any money on unnecessary things?  A simple concept that isn’t so simple in reality.

It hadn’t been 24 hours before I was faced with my very first challenge: friends.  If I didn’t have them, this experiment probably wouldn’t be such a challenge.  Fortunately my life is blessed with good people who want to share their lives with me.  The good news was that the event which I was invited was absolutely free.  The bad news is that no night out with friends is “complete” without dinner. 

I pondered to myself how I could rationalize the expense,  “I have to eat.”  I contemplated ways which I could circumvent my own restrictions,  “What if I used a gift card?”  I could chose to turn my friend down and not attend, however, I would not want to sacrifice relationships with my friends in order to save a couple of dollars.  The solution was to live my life as I would have, but to be conservative in my spending.

A couple of smart-ass remarks were made when I ordered onion soup and a salad with a water at a steakhouse, but was all in good humor.  I must say that I did find it a bit difficult to resist ordering the best steak on the menu, but found sweet irony when much of the menu was unavailable to my friends due to the busy day at the restaraunt.  Total spent was a touch over $10.  I was off to a pretty bad start on my Zero Budget Experiment.

The rest of the week has went fairly well, with only a couple of minor spending infractions.  The day after purchasing my bike I went on a 20 mile ride with my friend.  I took water and a banana with me, but by the time we had finished I was about ready for some protein and sugar.  We stopped at a convenience store and grabbed a beef jerky and a Kiwi-Strawberry Snapple.  I could have easily gone without making this purchase, but desire had set in and I was unable to resist.  My other infraction was on another bike ride when I didn’t bring any water with me and stopped at another store to puchase a bottle of water.

I have had some success despite my failings.  I haven’t spent any money at work on water, juice, milk or any other vending machine garbage like I usually do.  I have been re-using my water bottle everyday and fill it up for free at the water fountain.  The flavor of the water is terrible but I’m hoping that I can adjust.  My tastebuds just aren’t that into chlorine.

This week’s most important lesson is that an ounce of preparation can save a pound of money.  Even though I spent money unexpectedly while out on bike rides, I have done a great job of saving money at work.  I spent less than $5 while on the bike rides, but have saved approximately $5 a day by staying away from the vending machines.

I know that more challenges lie ahead in the 20+ days I have left of this experiment, and I’m sure they will happen when I least expect them.  In order to prevent any spending in the next week I will take what I learned this week and apply those lessons to the situations I will be faced with in the future.

Read the results of Week Two, Week Three and A Month in Review.