Posted on 08/31/2022 9:03:48 AM PDT by grundle
Standing in my kitchen on a recent morning, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch later that day, it occurred to me that what would appear to be a fairly mundane (albeit delicious) task was actually so much more.
Maybe that’s because, during the previous month, I spent close to $700 on restaurants alone. That’s like a million peanut butter and jellies.
It was that revelation that inspired a month-long no-restaurants-or-shopping challenge I assigned to myself in July. I could not continue to ignore my mounting bills, and I could not go on living with the constant reminder and anxiety of my $18,000 of credit card debt.
Looking at my expenses, I made the difficult-to-me decision to cut restaurants and shopping out completely for a full month. No shopping for non-necessities. No takeout. No dinners out with friends. No “Let’s grab a drink!”
Aside from the ubiquitous PB&J, I found myself trying out new recipes, like this miso-glazed salmon and a kale Caesar salad I cannot stop making. And, as an unexpected bonus, I feel... really good. It may not be sustainable to make myself every meal for the rest of forever, but having a basic idea of everything I was consuming for a month really made me feel like I was taking care of myself.
I’m not sure what comes next. But as this month comes to an end, I have spent over $2,000 less than the month prior. I paid $1,000 off my credit card balance, put money away for taxes, and felt no anxiety about what my balance was while handing my debit card over to pay for some essentials. I didn’t get sick of peanut butter and jelly, and I have yet to miss a restaurant.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Better to just find a better paying job or more income.
But then I discovered that Biden cancelled $20,000 of my student debt, so I started spending like a drunken sailor again.
Peanut butter and banana is better for you...toast the bread. Good way to get rid of slightly overripe banana.
I got through college buying one bunch of bananas, one jar of peanut butter, one box of cheerios and one gallon of milk each week. It was the only way I could do it. Sometimes every OTHER week.
At wok now I bring lunch (approx $2) instead of going out to McD’s or something (10-20 dollars including gas). I eat dinner at home.
I figure I save about $400 a month.
He doesn’t need to live off peanut butter.
Even when I wasn’t working from home, I would bring leftovers in for lunch, warming them in the microwave there.
I’ve brown bagged it for years at work. Only on a special occasion like my birthday do I treat myself for a lunch at somewhere like Montana’s.
If you don't have a spending budget and don't watch where every dollar is going, it can be amazing how much you can save when you cut out the frills.
Annual subscriptions for software or other services you barely use, for example. It adds up.
When is Bidumb going to cancel our car loans?
I don’t have one but, I think we all get my point.
Try peanut butter and Swiss cheese on raisin bread toast. I have been eating it for breakfast and some times lunch since I was 6 years old. I think that computes to 72 years ago. Delicious!
While I can applaud the move to decrease discretionary spending, this person is by no means a believer. Just someone who's hit a financial realization. Mizo-glazed salmon and kale Caesar? The realization of MY financial reckoning in this devolution caused by Biden came with "you just can't afford that steak, thick pork chop cuts, eggs, milk butter and all the rest anymore - Nancy has to have her twin $10K subzero refrigerators crammed with ice cream."
I have zero debt. I haven’t used a credit card in three years.
“during the previous month, I spent close to $700 on restaurants alone”
Yeah, there’s definitely a reason this person racked up 18k in debt. Sorry, but I don’t take financial advice from financially retarded writers.
I found out, after four years of eating it constantly in college, peanut butter turned my stomach. Especially the real cheap stuff that had an oil slick on top of it when you opened it.
Took me over 20 years to get over it.
I work in an area that is a desert for decent restaurants, only having fast food chains on every other corner. I have sworn off that “food” for good, it’s just nasty.
That gives me more of an incentive to bring lunch or just go without until I get home. A little fasting never hurts.
Once the bananas start going brown, they are even better for making banana pancakes, bananas foster, that type of thing, since they actually get sweeter when they are browning.
Geez, fast food is expensive as hell now. My husband and I like to go to the pub on Fridays. About $35 bucks for the two of us but still cheaper than a fast food place.
Dawns the light…….
...during the previous month, I spent close to $700 on restaurants alone... I could not go on living with the constant reminder and anxiety of my $18,000 of credit card debt.
$18K? Amateur.
The best way to alleviate anxiety is to go out to eat in a very nice restaurant. Assuming you've prepaid your funeral, who cares how much is owed? ;^)
“When is Bidumb going to cancel our car loans?
I don’t have one but, I think we all get my point.”
I wonder what they have to agree to and sign to get the debt forgiveness? ‘I promise everything I own belongs to the government now and in the future. And to submit to everything we tell you or else.’ Something like that?
Trust nothing from the Mafia (aka government).
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