fiscal fast: day five

It's started to get rough. Braeden and I have been talking about wedding stuff (my bouquet came in the mail today) and have decided that starting a fiscal fast just weeks before our wedding was possibly not the most strategic choice. After talking about all we still need to do with regards to wedding favors, centerpieces, etc, we've decided to extend our "acceptable spending" to wedding stuff. But, since that means we'll be out running errands it means we'll have to fill up on gas, too. And, while we're out we might as well go buy some milk, since that was the one agreed upon exception anyway (and since both of us refuse to finish off the small amount of milk we have remaining in the fridge since that would mean that the other person wouldn't get any: awe, love). And, since we'll be at the store, we might as well buy groceries so we can get a discount on the gas at the Hyvee gas station, right? It's a slippy slope.

So off we go out into the spending world. We may have failed at having our fiscal fast last an entire seven days as planned (though Braeden points out that we didn't actually spend any money last Saturday and we never spend money on Sunday, so we basically did the whole week, right?). Regardless, it really helped us become more aware of both the things we spend money on without thinking and how honestly little our lives were disrupted by not spending any of the green stuff.

Therefore, we, Cassi and Braeden, resolve to implement the Jeff Yeager-inspired fiscal fast successfully in the month of June for exactly seven days. We can: we will.

fiscal fast: day four

So this is what we had for dinner yesterday. Braeden made it because he is amazing. You know what else is amazing? It cost us less than a buck each. That's right, this delicious meal of corn flakes-breaded chicken legs, roasted baby red potatoes, green beans and homemade rolls cost about 90 cents per serving. My baby is the cheapest. And the best-est.

fiscal fast: day three

Day three, not so bad. I honestly can't think of anything we wanted to buy today, although Braeden almost failed this morning by starting to set up an automatic bill pay for the credit card (meaning that he would have made a credit card payment today) but then realized at the last second that he would be spending money and stopped. It's amazing how easy it is in the world today to spend money without even realizing that that's what you're doing.

Interestingly, we've started to get some wedding presents from our registries in the mail this week, so although we haven't been spending any money we've been getting new stuff. Braeden also picked up a bag full of free books in Spanish from work. Last week we even got a nice queen-sized mattress and box springs for free, though we weren't fiscal fasting at the time. It's really amazing the good quality stuff you can find out there for free.

Speaking of, one of the things Jeff Yeager talks about in his book is how we as Americans spend a lot of our time working so we can earn money so we can pay people to do things for us: if we learn how to do these things ourselves we can skip the money step. Tonight I went to a Center for the Book lecture by Peter and Donna Thomas. They are book artists who are currently traveling across the country, meeting up with other book artists and book making groups. They are traveling in a gypsy wagon (inspired by their Renaissance Fair days) that they made themselves and pull behind their truck like a trailor. I got to take a peak inside and it was just beautiful and old-time-y and incredibly impressive. It took them 3 years but they made it, they built it themselves. I think that is beautiful.

Their books are also impressive works of art. My favorite are the books in their ukulele series. Peter takes these ukuleles apart and makes them into books, then puts them back together so that they are still playable! He played us a few songs during the presentation and it was really fun. What are books without book folk songs to celebrate them?

fiscal fast: day two

Today was a little harder.

We had my friend Dave Buck and his wife Zannah over for lunch (they stopped by road tripping from Georgia to Utah). Braeden and I made our famous pizza, which was no big deal since we had planned on making it so we bought all the necessary ingredients when we went grocery shopping last week (though, to be honest, we had most of the stuff on hand anyway). PLUS it was so great to finally meet Zannah and to see Dave again. We had a really great time chatting with them today and, since they'll be joining us in the midwest for Dave's MBA program, we made plans to do midwest-y things with them sometime in the near future. You know, like after the craziness that is our wedding is over and we can think about other things again.

But back to the money issue.

When I went to my bookbinding class tonight we were talking about our carousel books that are due next week and after determining that magnets would be the best closing mechanism for my particular book I realized that I hadn't ordered any magnets and if I wait until next week they won't get here in time. I could talk to one of the girls in the class who has already bought a pack of magnets and see if I could borrow some and pay her back next week, but that's kind of cheating since it's basically asking someone else to buy something for me this week instead of me buying it (against the rules) OR I could figure something out with some magnets I already have (though they're not as strong as the ones my teacher recommended we buy) but if I use paper instead of book cloth it will probably be fine. ...AND that probably didn't really make sense to anyone but me, but it was a financial decision I had to work out.

I also got paid today and as I looked at my bank account I realized that now I have enough money to catch up on my rent (my landlords are pretty lenient, what can I say?). I was itching to pay the bill right away, but I realized that that money isn't going anywhere and I can take care of it next week just as easily. It's already a month late: what's one more week?

Conclusion? Money is a bigger part of life than I thought. It can sort of sneak up on you sometimes.

PS Braeden has no thoughts to add to this summary, although he notes that the car is getting a little low on gas: he asserts that we will NOT break our fiscal fast to buy any. Wish us luck!!!

fiscal fast: day one

So far, so good. We made our lunches (left over rolls and ham from Easter dinner with carrot sticks, crackers, and fruit-by-the-foot Easter egg candy), took the free shuttle to and from campus, and for dinner we had omelets made with free eggs from the neighbors, ham from Easter dinner, green peppers, and cheese. Yum!

Today wasn't so hard not to spend any money (since we don't usually spend money on Monday anyway) but I'll bet that it'll be harder on days like Tuesday where we usually run errands, or Friday which is grocery day. Stay tuned...

On another note, here are some pictures from Easter! Braeden and I made surprise baskets for each other which was really fun not only because we got Easter baskets but also because there was almost a month of secrecy as we snuck around getting special things to fill the baskets with. We agreed on a limit of $30 per person, including the baskets themselves.

I bought Braeden's basket from the dollar store but they only had ones that were pink and purple and yellow, so I spray painted it green and painted some grass on it for fun. Inside is Easter grass that I made by folding up pieces of scrap paper and cutting them into strips (I'm not wasting one of my precious 30 dollars on silly store-bought paper strips!), dinosaur transformers, a leather beta fish key-chain (Braeden loves beta fish), peeps, eggs filled with candy, and a lil piggy bank filled with the left-over cash.

The dinosaur transformers all transformed! Braeden split them into teams, The Twins (the green and red dinobots behind) and The Dino-Crotches. Obviously The Twins are the evil ones.

This was Braeden's basket for me! Inside is candy, eggs filled with candy, the first season of Modern Family, and a book that he made all by himself called Why She's Perfect (for me at least). So cute. He says that there is another gift on the way that he ordered on Etsy but the lady didn't mail it until like 2 days before Easter because she'd been on vacation (good trick) so I'm excited to see what that is, too!

We had our dinner group over for Easter Dinner—normally one person hosts and makes the dinner and another person brings dessert, but since Easter is a big deal we did it potluck style this time. I made the rolls from scratch (which I had never done before) and they actually turned out great! I used a recipe I found from AllRecipes.com and not only was it the least time-consuming recipe I could find, it was also delicious! I was a little worried since no matter how much flour I added the dough was just really sticky, but I just went with it and it turned out just fine. Our other friends brought ham, green salad, fruit salad, mashed potatoes, and sugar cookies for dessert. Also Eric (who also made the ham) brought a bunch of eggs that he had blown out and filled with things like small chocolate eggs and a few were "weapons grade" which we think means they are filled with glitter but have been too afraid to try... It was a really delicious and fun dinner.

We also had the missionaries over for the dinner and we all pitched in and made them Easter baskets too. Braeden and I went to the dollar store and bought them candy and toys and, deciding that they wouldn't keep or want to keep wicker Easter baskets, made them little paper baskets out of the bags that we always buy our apples in. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Elder Watkins and Elder Crocket with their baskets. They were really excited to get them. (Can't you tell from their faces?)

the ultimate cheapskate

Braeden and I really like reading aloud to each other. During our many recent road trips we've read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, Alice and Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and gotten part-way through Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. At home (well, at my home) we just finished The Dinner Diaries (and decided that the lady was a crazy person) and are almost through The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches by Jeff Yeager and tell you what, this book, above all others we've read together so far, has changed our lives.

In honor of good ol' Jeff Yeager this week Braeden and I are embarking on a week of fiscal fasting. What is a fiscal fast, you ask? It's and entire week of not spending any money. Braeden and I have tried variations of this by celebrating No Money Mondays and other single days where we tried not to spend any money (and were more successful some times than others) but this time we're aiming for a full week.

Since we just decided to do it today (which means no stockpiling preparation for our money-less week) we've decided on one agreed-upon exception: milk. Due to a series of events during grocery shopping last week we only ended up buying a half a gallon of milk as opposed to a whole gallon, so we both agreed that when the milk runs out this week, if we decide we need more, we can go to the store and buy a gallon. But that's it: nothing else.

The idea is that through this fiscal fast we'll become more aware of our spending habits and those things that we can easily (or not so easily) live without. And, since we're in the "lean graduate school years" as Janet Nelson calls then, we figure a week without spending any money can only help our financial situation.

I'll keep you updated. In the mean time, check out Jeff Yeager's book for yourself. Trust me, it'll totally change the way you think about money.

PS HAPPY EASTER!