House buying, no-buy May and Whole 30-ish too.

We’ve been talking about buying a new house here for the past several months and have started driving neighborhoods and crunching numbers. We’ve been deciding what really matters to us (me: 4+ bedrooms, pool or community pool, fireplace, sidewalks. Him: good deal, office, space, no major immediate updating needed).

So for years we’ve lived far within our means, which means that we can dine out when we want and order from Amazon when we want and generally not worry and even still save money. It’s been lovely, but now we need to get real. I decided to do a no-buy this month because honestly, it’s out of hand. I need to just say no to Amazon. Make a meal plan and stick to it. Not run to Target and accidentally spend … well, you know what we all spend at Target on an unplanned run.

It helped that Stephany blogged that she was going to do one, so here I am. Admittedly, it hasn’t gone perfectly so far, but I can at least say that I thought about every dollar spent and how to change that for the rest of the month.

5/1: we had plans with the baseball team to go to Culver’s, so that was $25. This was already a planned expense because we’re going to do the kid stuff. It is what it is.

Also, midday a friend messaged me to ask if I wanted to go to a musical with her. I didn’t have to pay for the ticket, but I did buy myself two glasses of wine. $16.

5/2: I stopped at Starbucks for coffee and breakfast, but I have money in my account so I’m not sure yet if this counts. But anyhow, $11. My sister had her baby, which was unexpected, and I picked my mom up and took her down to the hospital. Coffees and waters at the cafeteria $6

5/3: I forgot to pack myself a lunch for work, and with the insanity of some professional stuff, I did not take a lunch and ate from the vending machine. Cheetos and Dr. Pepper: $2.

Today I brought my breakfast and lunch and my water bottle so hopefully even though I left my La Croix at home I’ll be good.

I did my grocery shopping for the week and only forgot one thing, so I’m going to make myself a very specific list to get in and out without buying up the store. I’m trying to decide if I want to buy bath bombs or make comments tonight about needing them and see if they show up for Mother’s Day.

So obviously also, my expectation to try to do Whole 30 has not worked out well either. I’ve been a bit more purposeful in my carb-loading that’s a lie. I haven’t made pasta or rice with dinner. That’s the only truth. I want to try. That’s a truth. Once the rum cake my MIL got me in the Caribbean is gone, I’ll see what I can do. Tomorrow is another day. Truth.