Spending Diary: No Credit Card Week 1

Despite feeling baller with my wallet full of twenty's I miss my little plastic friend for one reason.. fluidity. I think I had the movements of paying with a credit card down to a science: swipe, replace, grab and go. Now, as I try and master a new routine, I am the bumbling idiot trying to shove my cash in one compartment and the change in another all while grabbing my bags and getting out of the way (life is quick here on the east coast).  Maybe I will get a little more coordinated as the month goes on.

Here is how my first week shaped up.

Sunday

Not much to report here. SSBF and I did out normal Sunday stuff and homework kept me away from online shopping most of the day.

Monday

I had to make a tough decision today: buy SSBF a frosty or sacrifice outfit pictures. Bribery is a bad habit to get into. I'm worried that now he is going to want something in exchange for pictures every time. A bloggers got to do, what a bloggers got to do. One Frosty: $1.58.

Tuesday

Tuesday's are always rough.  Not only do I have my personal training session during my lunch break but I also have class at night. When this is my schedule I usually end up having a super late lunch early dinner combination. My sandwich and yogurt was not enough today, especially after running a mile with a 10lb weight so I grabbed some chips and an iced tea from the cafe: $1.33

Wednesday

Good day today! Went to work-- came home. Not a dollar spent.

Thursday

I was too lazy to make my lunch today so spending was inevitable. I had my normal lunch at the cafe a salad with grilled chicken, and iced tea, and a cookie: $6.42. I also had to put gas in my car, which doesn't count towards my no credit card spending but I thought it was worth mentioning: $32.45.

Friday

This is SSBF's week for Chick-fil-a so I didn't have to worry about that. However the air conditioner predictably conked out again at work ( it's been doing that on the exceptionally hot days) so I took a walk with some coworkers over to the cafe to cool off and ended up getting an iced tea: $.53.

Saturday

I've been doing a pretty good job of avoiding online window shopping despite having recently signed up for Gilt. I know that's random but here is what prompted me. One of the girls in my group personal training always has on the cutest dresses and every time I ask here where she got it its from an online sample sale site. Done and done. Now I just need my credit card privileges back...

Anyway, Saturday. I ran to Target in the morning with SSBF to pick up my prescription except we got there before the pharmacy even opened! Clearly, a recipe for trouble. Knowing that I've been wanting a fedora I wandered over to the accessories hoping they would still have the Eugenia Kim for Target's still available. Score one left and double score it was marked down to $11.88. SSBF found some white canvas shoes for $4.98 that he wanted me to buy for him. Of course I agreed, I can't refuse him and he knows it! Oh and then I finally got to my whole prescription thing. Total spent $26.88.

Then, on top of all that SSBF and I decided to go to an Orioles game and I learned one downside of having cash on me. Paying for parking. I guess its the least I could do since he planned on paying for everything else.. still though ugh. Parking: $8. This would have put me at $44.21, 79 cents under my goal but there was a sneaky little Blue Moon (mmm blue moon, best summer ale ever.) vendor that only took cash: $16.00.

Total Spent: $60.21 (cash only)

My goal was $45 per week, which means I was over by $15.21.

All in all not too bad. I'm not really surprised I went over, but kind of disappointed I did. This week I would consider relatively easy since the only tempting place I went to was Target. I feel like having cash and knowing my credit cards were off limits helped me focus less on shopping for new clothes and more on working the ones I have.