personal change project--day 1

so for my sociology class, i have to do a personal change project. what is that, you might wonder? to quote my syllabus "to make a personal change in your lifestyle for two weeks. if we can make a change, no matter how small, in ourselves, then it is possible that we can effect positive change in the larger social world. a great deal of sociology is done to foster change in larger society, but making a change in ourselves is the first step."

it took me a few days to decide what to do... several of my choices were put in a hat by my coworkers and, at first "do something new every day" was drawn. after allowing them most of the morning this morning to think of my "new thing" for today, i decided it would be too hard to think of 14 different "new things" to do. so i changed it to "spend no money needlessly" i decided that that is an area of my life i definitely need to curb, plus mat has no faith in me. so..i'll show him! i'm limiting myself to $10 cash for each week, and after that, i'm done spending. i have to journal about it every day, so i thought...what better way to journal than on my blog, to share it with...whoever is reading this. :)

so far today, i haven't spent any money. i guess in all fairness, i've only been "not spending" for 12 hours or so. i haven't even gotten my allowance. and mat did take me out for lunch. but i'm interested to see the change--no more going to target after work to avoid homework. no more online shopping. no more buying stupid things that we don't need, just because it's on sale or pretty looking. i say "no more" but really i'll likely only make it the two weeks and then have a list of things i'll want to buy. but this should prove to be an interesting two weeks. i already took all my credit cards out of my wallet. i kept my debit card just..in case. it should be an interesting two weeks.

i was talking to one of my coworkers about it, telling her i was thinking about limiting myself to just $10, and she said "i can spend that in, like, 30 seconds... that's hardly two starbucks!!!" i said "that's kinda the point!" we'll see how i hold up. thanks for coming along for the journey. i'll try not to disappoint :)

i found this article on msn money today. it's a little old, but the idea is still the same. and i think this is the message board relating to it....interesting to hear how much $$ people saved by not spending for an entire month. and considering our savings seems to be at 0--what with a major plumbing issue, buying a new truck, and subsequently paying sales taxes on said new truck--our savings could definitely use a boost! and here is a fun blog i ran across...she does a month of not spending every summer. definitely inspirational!! thanks for bearing with me. any encouragement is welcome....stay tuned!