Going for Not Broke

I made it through yesterday without spending anything, which, of course, I should be able to do for just one day. The real test will be when I get through an entire week without shelling out any dough. I think all of the incidental spending I do contributes the most to us not being able to make any more progress than we do, and if I don't cut it out, there's no way I can make my goal of being debt free by the time my daughter starts school. Odds are, she'll start school in fall 2016. That's just four years and two months away. I've got a lot of debt to whittle away between now and then.

Yesterday's post about taking a spending break weighed on my mind for the rest of the day. I kept thinking, "Why wait? Why put off taking a break from spending?" So, I've decided to make today a dry run. I will make a conscious effort not to spend anything at all, not even pocket change to buy a Diet Coke out of the breakroom at work. Tomorrow, I'll need to put gas in my car, and my iDisk, which I use for freelance work will cease to exist on the 30th, so I plan to go ahead and try out the GoDaddy replacement, but I can consciously do this for just one day. I say I'm making a "conscious" effort not to spend because, while I know I've had days when I spend nothing, I can't say when they were. If I've got change on me, I don't stop myself from taking a walk down to the breakroom when I get bored at work or when my eyes start to get a little tired. Making not spending anything my goal for the day, hopefully, will help me to think twi...

I've read several articles lately about people taking spending breaks during which they buy absolutely nothing. Not gas for their car, not food for their pantry, nothing. I've considered setting aside a week to see if I could meet such a challenge, but to not spend anything, not even buy a soda out of the vending machine at work, sounds a little daunting. Maybe I should start small -- spending nothing for a day, then two, and maybe by day three my momentum will be building enough that I could stretch it into a weeklong endeavor. I have no idea how long it's been since I've gone a whole week without spending a cent. Right now, I'm eyeing the second full week in July to give it a try.

On Saturday, I went to an arts and crafts festival to sell some beaded jewelry I made. I didn't take much because I didn't have much, but I sold five items and made $19. Unlike many other festivals, the booth space was free. I'm hoping I can get a little more stuff made so that I can eventually open a store front on Etsy , a website that sells handmade items and supplies for making handmade crafts. It will take me a while to get enough stuff to turn a profit; beads can be kind of pricey. But it was encouraging that people were interested in my jewelry. Sidenote: It's Another Woot-Off Typically, the Woot website features a single product at a discount each day. Once the product sells out, Woot waits until midnight Central time to feature another item. Every now and then, though, the site has a Woot-Off, when another item is posted as soon as one runs out. I love keeping track of Woot-Offs to see if anything that I can use for gifts comes up for sale.

I can't hardly wait to see my phone bill next month. Because a technician had to come out to our house to make the adjustment to our Internet, we'll probably have a rather outlandish service fee for this month, but next month ... well, I'm very much looking forward to it. Not only will it be under $75 for the first time in years, it will even be under $50. The cost of the service is usually $48. For the first year, though, it will be only $25. Of course, once all of the taxes and surcharges and whatever else they add in are accounted for, I'm sure the bill will be a lot closer to $35 than to $25, but either way, it's still better than $110.

People who read this blog regularly might remember that one of my freelance sources dried up. I've been dragging my feet about finding a replacement for it, and there are quite a few reasons for that: I'd like to concentrate on my hobby, beadwork. I really liked the freelance work I was doing through that company (Demand Studios) and still have a slight degree of hope that maybe, just maybe, there will be more work coming soon. However, DS has changed how it handles projects, and as a result, hasn't needed my skills for about six months now. It's probably time for me to just write DS off. I've tried a few other places that just didn't pan out, and the thought of going back to scouring the web for legitimate, reliable opportunities just makes me tired. I'd rather spend my time at home playing with my daughter rather than working. Well, it's time I weigh my goal against all those reasons for not replacing the work. The hardest reason to get past...

As I've been planning for months, I finally called my phone company, dropped the landline and boosted our Internet speed. Unlike my previous calls to the phone company, the woman I talked to never once tried to talk me out of dropping my phone service or selling me a "cheaper option." I did, however, spend more than 30 minutes on hold waiting for a customer service rep, which was starting to wear my patience thin, but if it results in overall savings, I can take it.