CHALLENGE #18 RETAIL REBUFFED

'Tis the season for delicious excess...

I will try not to spend any money, on anything (did you notice the emphasis on try?).

“Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are.”   -James W. Frick

Background

I have been thinking about trying this for a while, and want to thank Leo for the nudge I needed to choose the most consumption focused season to focus on it – the month when people BUY MORE STUFF and so many companies are urging us to BUY EVEN MORE, for others and ourselves!    So why am I fighting it?   I basically wanted to become more conscious overall about what and how I spend, and this was a serious way to address this issue.  Although I have been fairly frugal in the past few years and set up a monthly budget here that I stick to for the most part, I still find myself occasionally making purchases I obviously don’t need, and sometimes regret - sound familiar?  Especially during the holidays when temptation lurks around every corner…

How it went

I planned ahead.  I stocked up on household groceries (including several frozen items), filled up the gas tank, and bought some Christmas gifts, stamps for holiday cards, and made a donation to one of my favorite charities.  November 30 was quite the shopapalooza day, including lunch with a friend.  I spent the big bucks, and it was exhausting.  By that night I was eager to get started and give the credit cards a well deserved rest for the month. 

My rules were simple:  Try not to spend any new money (cash, check, or plastic) on anything.  Recurring necessary expenses that were already set up for auto-pay, like cell phone, Netflix, etc were exempt.  This was pretty unrealistic as I discovered and I ended up allowing myself a $100 emergency fund for new purchases.  Generally I resisted temptation – especially the holiday shopping special emails, which were instantly deleted from my inbox before even reading them.  I noticed more of them than ever this year – it seemed every company I had ever bought anything from online was trying to entice me back into their customer fold.  I also avoided physical stores even more than usual.  What was difficult was going to a charity event the first week of the month where raffle tickets were sold and not buying one.  And not chipping in at the monthly dinner with friends (I am going to cover next month instead).  And no occasional splurging - like lunch, or a new shirt, or anything else just because I think “I deserve it.”

Cool FREE Stuff

Yay for free parking (after meter hours) in the City of Angels!

Not shopping freed up some time in my schedule, and I took the time to appreciate all the freebies, like:

·      Walks on the beach - cliché yes, but so much better than a walk through the mall, and less risky too

·      Connecting with friends and family in person, just sharing stories and spending time together

·      Online book recordings and streaming TV shows (I only watch a few of the good ones, really)

·      Parking in downtown Los Angeles – I hunted for a (metered during the day) spot at night, and actually found one

·      Holiday cookies – they were everywhere this month, and alas I took full advantage!

The Downfalls

Although this experiment was mostly a success, I did exceed over my $100 limit a bit:  I spent $50 on an early entry to a running race next year and saved over 30% by doing so, $20 each on gas and groceries, and $15 on a Groupon to one of my favorite local restaurants (splurge weak moment on Christmas eve).  A few other small purchases included $1.95 for a domain name (a screaming deal!) for my upcoming website, and a few more dollars to send a holiday package to a friend in Italy, a few dollars for a tip on a gift card meal, and a few quarters to a friend for her parking meter for a total of  $122.73.

A Shout Out to our Major Sponsor

A few friends helped me along the way in various situations this month which I sincerely appreciated, and I have to especially thank my other half for his patience and extra help with the household groceries, as well as expenses during our travels to visit family for Christmas - I couldn’t have done it without you!

Overall I found it hardest to resist the truly useful bargains, but easy to resist so much else.  And each of the purchases I did make were thoughtful and conscious, which I intend to carry forward.  How about you - want to try something like this?  What's your motivation, and your rules?

P.S.  I did accomplish the 30 hours of working on my new website task leftover from last month - including (finally) deciding on and buying the domain name.  I had some excellent help and will be moving forward and launching this project in the new year, so stay tuned...

CHALLENGE #17 WEBSITE WANTING

I will work on my new (currently in incubator stage) dive-travel-fun website for 30 hours.

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." 

 - Jacques Yves Cousteau

How it went (or rather didn't) 

Remember when I didn’t quite finish the first meditation month, and had to extend it to the next month?  Well, that happened again.  I didn’t have the time.  I didn’t make the time.  I had a lot of work to accomplish.  I didn’t make it a top priority as I should have, etc, etc, excuses o’plenty.  I realistically only worked on it seriously about four hours, making minimal headway.   BUT I did actually GO diving (yay!), and led another great trip of REEF dive volunteers counting fish in the British Virgin Islands, check out the photos.

I mainly simply had a case of trepidation trying to figure out exactly where to start.  The dream board above was done in October, to summarize in a visual nutshell what I want to accomplish with this website that has been floating around in my head for the past four months or so…I want to share the wonder and fun and beauty of diving (and all of the great places to do it) and create an engaging community for sharing these experiences, but I just didn’t seem to have the head space available to get going.  So, here I am at the end of the month with not much to report (are you still reading? thanks!), but serious intentions of getting a lot more done in December, and meeting this thirty hour total goal.  I have started a list of action items to accomplish, I have cleared out time on my calendar each week for working on it, and I actually hired a web strategy consultant (who I am really excited about working with) to help me. 

Oh, and yes I am also doing another challenge for December – it is about NOT doing something rather than doing something, so it shouldn’t take any time at all.  I will report back on this as well at the end of the month.

P.S. If you are here because you clicked through via LACOT or (the generous and thoughtful) Jennifer Miner from the Vacation Gals - thanks for stopping by!  I hope to meet you at the Passports with Purpose event in downtown L.A.  Or to see you around the internet 'hood otherwise sometime soon.

P.P. S. Happy Holidays and all that jazz - I am truly grateful for so much this season, I hope you are as well.

Challenge #16: SUNSET SIGHTING

Yes, I did have to run up behind them to get this shot

I will get outside every day and mindfully watch the sunset.

“Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!”   

 - C. JoyBell C.

Why

This month is a companion to last month’s sunrise every day challenge – pausing to go outside and take notice of a simple daily event.  The only real “challenge” was to mindfully plan for it in advance, or as I figured out, use the handy trick of setting an alarm on my smart phone for about ten minutes before sunset to remind me to get out there - it worked!

Why did I pick such an easy focus for this month, even easier than getting up for the sunrise?  Planning on (and definitely experiencing) a very busy work month was the main reason.  It only takes a short amount of time, and actually slowing down to get outside at the end of the day and close out (most of) the work from my brain helped me appreciate these moments even more than usual.  I am lucky to live a few blocks from the beach and like last month, this is where I traveled to watch the show most evenings.

How it went

Yes Virginia, there is a green flash…and I saw four of them this month, including two on consecutive nights!   This October happened to be a perfect month for this challenge, with exceptionally warm weather so it was truly pleasant to be outside at dusk each night, and the clear conditions most nights made for some good photo opps, mentally or digitally.

Planning my schedule around the sunset was fairly easy, but I did miss a few of them - two nights I simply forgot (didn’t start using the alarm idea until halfway through the month) while I was involved in something else, and two nights I abandoned it purposefully due to fog.  The sun was obviously going down through the fog, but there would be no show - no great change of light and color and texture which had accompanied most of the other evenings.  I didn’t bother going to see the wall of pure gray out over the ocean, if I could have even seen the ocean from the strand.

The People

Front row seats

Like the morning people last month, I noticed the evening people.  The regulars who were out walking their dog, or enjoying their glass of wine on the deck, or sprinting across the sand, board tucked underarm, to catch a few refreshing waves before dark.  Fewer of them were working out like the morning people, but they definitely had their routines.  I saw many of these sunsetters from my usual perch on one of the two benches at the end of my street.    Once I overheard a father telling his son “Look isn’t that pretty, the sun is about to evaporate into the ocean.”  The 5 or 6 year old urgently replied, “What does evaporate mean?”  Which took the father some time to explain, and I think he actually regretted his word choice.  I giggled to myself listening to their conversation for the next five minutes. 

A few times I walked while the show was going on, and noticed how so many tourists (lots of German, French, and Japanese these days) captured the moment with their devices, and it reinforced my appreciation for living in such a beautiful area where I could watch the often idyllic scene unfold just about anytime I desired.  

A sunset with the other half in Kauai (not this month)

Almost half the time my other half joined me, and the ritual became a great way for us to connect together at the end of our day.  My favorite was in Cambria, where we celebrated ten years together at the Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill, sitting at the railing table outside where we could both face west and watch the sun melt slowly into the calm central coast sea, while enjoying a great meal - highly recommended experience. 

Local youngsters

It was also fun to randomly run into people we know at sunset, like on the pier the first night when the director of the Roundhouse Aquarium, and his family opened the cooler in the back of their truck and showed us what they had collected on their dive that day – baby halibut and lobster – very cool little creatures I had never seen this size before.

What I learned

Overall, the (almost) full month of sunsets was another good exercise in slowing down and taking time to enjoy the beauty of nature outside every day.  The most rewarding days were when I was actually walking on the beach at water’s edge listening to the gulls and terns, and waves, and watching the light change, the moonrise, and the tide coming back in, along with the main show of course.   It’s calming, and rewarding, and well worth it to carve this sort of time out of our busy days, don’t you think?  Can you make a point to do more of this?  I’m going to try...