Its all in my head

While reading a multitude of financial/debt blogs, I decided to incorporate a couple of tips -- No Spend Day and $5 Deposits.

No Spend Day
I read about how some people picked the work week or the weekend to NOT spend any money. ?!?!?! Ummmm...I know myself...that would be a SERIOUS undertaking and damn near impossible. I wouldn't even attempt that one. Instead, I decided to pick one day out of the week to not spend money. Whatever I would've spent, I would deposit into my savings account. What day did I choose? Tuesdays.

I did allow myself one exception -- the cost to get to work in the morning. I live in NYC so it's just a matter of me jumping on the subway or the bus for$2. I could walk to work but I don't like getting sweaty on the way to work. And right now, it's just too dang cold. So I've allowed myself to take public transportation in the morning. Otherwise, that is it.

I was prepared this past Tuesday. I took my breakfast. I prepared lunch the night before. I already had milk at work for my morning coffee -- due to expense cutbacks, my company no longer offers milk for coffee and, as of late, no more starbucks coffee machine. Thank God the regular ole drip coffee is decent.

All was going well on Tuesday. Then lunch time rolled around. Someone close by opened a can of diet coke (insert the noise of the can top popping). I HAD TO HAVE ONE!!! I will occasionally have a diet soda every blue moon but normally not until late afternoon. It's never a "I MUST HAVE IT". However, I knew I couldn't because it was a no spend Tuesday. Shoot. I swear I could hear soda cans popping open EVERYWHERE. Moments later, my cube mate opened a bag of chips for lunch. I wanted that too.

It's all in my head. The second you tell yourself you will be denied something, you just want it. That's exactly what was going on.

I was talking to my cube mate about the whole thing. We were both laughing about it. She said that she was going to grab a soda later and asked if she could get me one. I declined -- that's just cheating the system. The money would still be spent.

LUCKILY, my cube mate had a meeting on the 15th floor - where most of our sr management sit. On that floor, the sodas and water bottles are free -- obviously for them and guests...but every once in a while, we're able to snag one. When my cube mate came back from a meeting, she brought me a surprise - diet coke can. It was the best tasting diet coke. Okay, that was an exaggeration. I was quite happy with it though.

I hope I can mentally get over this.

As for the $5 deposit, I read one blog where some decided to put in the piggybank any $5 bill that came across his hands. Interesting concept. $1 bills would be too much -- you can come across $1 bill too many times. $10 bills would be too costly as would $20. So I picked $5. Oddly enough, since the beginning of the year I've only come across one $5 bill. Then again, I don't really deal in cash.