I saw a post on another blog that talked about being on a saving spree. I thought this was a great idea because it really keeps the concept of saving fresh in your mind. I got excited about doing this and then approached my wife.
“Hey honey. I picked up a great idea from a blog. Instead of going on a spending spree, let’s go on a savings spree”. She looked at me with a smile and said, “That’s a great idea” and then walked away. I could tell she liked the idea, and since there is no time like the present, we were off and saving.
About an hour later, my wife yelled from the kitchen. “I think I’m going to go down to the flower/produce/beauty bark, dirt place and see what their prices are on beauty bark.” We have been needing to put down weed block cloth and put in beauty bark for about 2 years. We spend a lot of time out weeding and my wife is tired of it. I can’t say that I’ve been resisting this, but it’s fair to say that I haven’t been cheering on the project either. She finally figured out that if she bought the landscape fabric and started putting it down on the ground, it would be so ugly, I’d have no choice but to go get a couple truck loads of beauty bark. Regardless, we were on a saving spree, so there was nothing I could do about it until the saving spree was over.
About thirty minutes later, the phone rang. As I picked up the phone, I just knew this call was probably going to cover all the reasons that we needed to break the saving spree ALREADY. Sure enough. “Hi honey. Produce is REALLY cheap down here. I’d like to get a few things. I know we weren’t going to spend any money but we need the produce and there are some fantastic prices.” Well, how do I argue with that. It’s not like she wanted to buy a new Lexus or something. “Okay, do what you have to do”. So, that was a nice try. The saving spree lasted over 90 minutes. Now, just so I don’t paint the wrong picture. My wife is pretty frugal. She doesn’t go shopping and pick up a few new items at Nordstrom or anything. I have to darn near beg her to go buy some new clothes etc. She’s definitely a great partner for living within our means.
As I sat in my chair, I realized that this probably isn’t the ideal time to start a savings spree. There is a family wedding coming up in 1.5 weeks and lots of family will be coming in and staying at our house. We really need to get the backyard all fixed up and will obviously have to buy some stuff for entertaining. As soon as this is over I’ll start another saving spree.