More Spend March

This isn't a surprise for anyone who knows me, but my no-spend March has already been both a giant failure and the most fun. I mean, the very first weekend after my declaration we bought a 6$ pizza. And then Jordan and I went on a spontaneous and awesome trip to NYC to see two of our best friends, other great friends and some of my former students. New York costs money to be sure, but our friends graciously hosted us and we got to experience some of the most awesome free things ever.

Living in a large city is something I think most people desire at some point in their lives. After living in Boston for the past 6 months, I've become accustomed to things like traveling by train and tour groups blocking my way into the 7-Eleven. Visiting New York (which is, to me, a vast wonderland of confusing train lines and wonderful Indian restaurants) reminded me of how lucky I am to have all of these amazing, free opportunities at my fingertips.

Anyways, as this blog is mostly focused on money, I have to say that every penny spent was more than worth it. What is the point of earning and saving if not to enjoy life?

Also, our hosts gave us two things that make our tiny frugal lives even more enriched: Hope taught me how to knit, and Chad let Jordan borrow Skyrim. These are two things that have made our lives so much sweeter the past few days.

In other news, my SAD study officially ended today. It may have been the great weekend I was coming off from, but the study doctors said that they believe I'm well. I gave back my watch and original light and I received an "open label" light to use for the next 6 weeks.

I'm going to miss my lil' Actiwatch.

Though I'm receiving a little bit of compensation for returning the items, I would've done the study for free. I really do feel that it pulled me from a lonely place. The new light they gave me is bright blue (almost blindingly blue) and I'm going to be using it as well. I also want to track my wake and sleep times. The doctor in charge of the study told me that SAD is sneaky; it starts with sleep that isn't restful. This causes later wake up times, throwing off the body's natural circadian rhythms. It's not easy to recognize it early on unless it is being looked for. This upcoming fall I will probably start keeping a wake/sleep diary to make sure I'm not slipping down again. I will also invest in a light. I think that it's totally worth it. 

Swagbucks and No Spend March

You guys already know about Swagbucks*, so I won't bore you with the details of how it works. But I did want to let you know that my casual use of it has netted me 165 dollars in Amazon money. I imagine I make an extra 5 dollars a month just searching, so that's cool.

If you're not a member, you should be. That being said, my new favorite thing is the Bing Rewards. I used to do Club Bing and that was boring as heck. In fact, I only cashed in points for airline miles. I can never get that time back again.

They just changed to a new system, so go ahead and check it out already. For simply following directions** I was able to get enough credits for 100 xBox live points. There are a lot points flying around.

Bing searches are pretty much identical to Swagbucks searches (try to stay with me) and the point systems are different and award at different levels. Either way you can fund your various and sundry habits hobbies with little to no interest/work/bandwidth.

So that brings us to March. This month George and I have decided to make it one of those classy "no spend" months. We can obviously spend money on groceries, personal care items and bills. We make the rules here.

Here's why: we used to use a cash only system when Jord brought in cash tips from work. In fact, we literally*** used envelopes. Paper ones. It was a great system, but that's just not the best thing for us right now. Fortunately, Mint is my digital envelopes, if my envelopes reminded me about my upcoming student loan payments.

Mint recently reminded me that we spend a little over 200 dollars on entertainment, eating out and other things that aren't necessary.

We also spent a little over 150 on mystery shopping. We'll get this back, but we're not doing that this month. We may wait until I get paid to start again, and use that as a revolving budget for restaurant shops.

350 extra dollars this month would be fantastic, you know? And when I'm in the middle of it, a quick pizza purchase seems to make a whole lot of sense. And sometimes, it really does. But we're going to try to just put that stuff off for this one month. We'll see how it goes.

Either way, it's just the 1st. Things are looking up.

*Gotcha! Or also: www.swagbucks.com
**Very simple. You do need to know how to read.
***Chris Traeger, anyone?