Boy, it’s been a minute since I did one of these! The last time I wrote a report was in early February, as a report on January’s spending. So, I guess it’s been almost four months.
I only spent $36 of my fun money in January, leaving me with $64 to roll into the next month.
Then we add in $100 for February, $100 for March, $100 for April, and $100 for May (since we are at the end of May now!), which adds up to $464.
How did I do on spending that?
Let’s see.
I bought a toolbox ($78)
I have a rather random assortment of tools, some from my marital home, some from Buy Nothing, and some from Book Club Elaine’s husband.
Until now, they have been living in a jumbled mess in one of my kitchen drawers. This made it extremely inconvenient to find, say, a pair of pliers or a particular screwdriver.
Lisey alerted me to the fact that Lowe’s has a line of colorful toolboxes, so I went to check them out, and I was sorely disappointed by the sizing. You can barely fit a hammer into one of these, which is annoying.
(And it also feels vaguely sexist, because is the idea here that women only want cute toolboxes, not serious toolboxes? What if we do actually have tools but also want a purple toolbox? Is that too much to ask???)
Anyway, I was about to be like, “Well, I guess I’ll go hunt for a used red toolbox somewhere.” But then I remembered that I had fun money to spend, and I decided I just wanted a toolbox right then and there, without the hassle of shopping used.
So, I impulsively bought one.
I brought it home, used some old foam to line the drawers, and organized my tools.
This is SO MUCH BETTER.
I also added Snoopy stickers because if I can’t have a purple toolbox, I am at least going to have a Snoopy toolbox, OKAYYYYY?
I bought a car wash membership ($29.95)
It has been a very, very long time since I had a new car, so I was honestly not at all in the habit of washing my vehicle.
But during spring pollen season, it was sort of bothering me to see my shiny new car covered in yellow dust.
So, I bought a month-long unlimited wash membership just for the heck of it. Prior to this, I had maybe bought a handful of car washes in my entire life.
Which means this feels terribly luxurious, and that is kind of the whole point of fun money. Every time I go through the car wash, I’m like, “Ooooh, I am so fancy!”
So, I feel pleased with this expenditure.
$15 on bakery outings
You know how one of my coping mechanisms for my BSN program was to go to some other locales to do homework?
That’s what this money was spent on. 🙂
How much money is left?
If my calculations are correct, I have $341 sitting in my fun money account, with another $100 set to land in June.
The fact that I am doing poorly at spending my fun money tells me that my “treat myself” muscle is pretty weak.
I mean, when I do treat myself, I feel thrilled! I love my toolbox. I am unreasonably pleased every time I get a car wash. My little bakery outings feel luxurious.
But for whatever reason (ok, probably there are many reasons!), I can go months without ever thinking of spending some money on myself.
This isn’t necessarily bad or wrong, I guess. But I would like to keep getting better at injecting some delight into my life because all saving and no spending makes for a dull Kristen. 😉
Are you good at treating yourself? I’m guessing some of my fellow frugal people understand the struggle!
Source: www.thefrugalgirl.com…