With a new month, comes a new home budget. Last month, we managed to keep the spending right where I wanted it mostly due to the fact that I monitored our spending like a hawk. What is it about a new place that makes you want to throw all your old spending habits right out the window? Budgets be damned.
Sometimes I think, I should chill out. It’s not like we’re living paycheck to paycheck. What I’ve found out, however, is when I let loose and expand the budgets to allow for more consumption I ultimately regret it because a lot of it is wasted or not maximized. When we moved, I bought stuff to complete a multitude of projects that were “urgent.” We’re only now getting around to those projects, months later.
I believe the best way to execute large bouts of spending is over a longer period of time so you can make the necessary adjustments, do the research and then the work. This is one of those things that I mostly practice, but occasionally forget.
I have to remind myself that going zero waste is a process. I can’t just stop making trash, no matter how guilty I feel about it. I also can’t accelerate this process by throwing more money at the problem because the habits behind the problem won’t change.
So I’m going to slow down our transition to zero waste and only replace things as we need them so it will fit within our existing budget, giving us more time to research, adapt and ultimately change, so the swaps will be sustainable in the long term.
June 9, 2016
