Embark!⌗

Reasoning⌗

After finally finishing my 2023 taxes – a year late due to issues at my accountant’s office – I’ve found myself on a bit of a personal finance kick. Faced with a full year of uncategorized transactions to play with and no reconciled data to screw up, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on beancount workflows, reflecting on money saved (or not saved), and generally just taking a long, hard look at my finances. The end of the year is always a time of reflection for me, and I’ve caught myself thinking about all the things I could be doing with my time other than selling it to someone else. I’ve decided that my most important goal is to find a way to live a life that makes sense to me without working 40 hours a week, and to get there before I get too old.

Of course, I have a ton of other wants and needs that conflict with that goal, but at this point I’ve set myself up in such a way that I have plenty of runway to work on those things without additional spending. Even so, switching to a pattern of saving will require a sea change in my outlook on spending. The last two years have been very expensive. I bought a house about two years ago, spent what was left of my savings renovating it, and have since spent each paycheck on one project or another that I never had space for in the past. For the first time in my working life, I’ve neglected to actually set up an IRA or save anything for my future during this time. To the contrary, I currently have a little over 10k in credit card debt just from a failed furnace and a tree removal. I also don’t have enough equity for a lower rate HELOC loan, at least until I get the house re-appraised, and even if I do that the loan will potentially require thousands in closing costs.

Faced with a total debt that defies comprehension, more expenses on the horizon, and rampant inflation, it’s not surprising that I’ve fallen into a lot of bad spending habits in my day-to-day routine. I’ve slipped into a mindset that encourages me to spend without thinking. I’m hoping that by doing a somewhat extreme period of abstinence I can change my outlook on spending and re-calibrate my understanding of my budget and what it’s possible to save. I’m starting by weeding out subscriptions and recurring payments I don’t need anymore, and am thinking the sparcity of transactions should shed light on what’s really going on and give me a clearer view of the big picture.

Supplies⌗

I’m starting with a full tank of gas and no shortage of the medical supplies I need for the week. I haven’t done any special grocery shopping, but I should have plenty in the pantry when I need to eat. I’ve also decided to start the money fast at the same time as I start a 60 hour dietary fast. This should make it much easier to refrain from spending while also providing the illusion of things getting easier rather than harder as I go into the fast. Currently in my fridge and pantry I have plenty of slices of cheese, a ton of dry / canned goods, a lot of fermented products, a little milk and kefir, some bread, and even a few fresh vegetables and mushrooms (which won’t be so fresh after 60 hours, but I can still cook with them). I also have enough tea to last me for months, some electrolytes for the fasting days, and in general am well equipped for a period of depravation.

All in all, I expect to eat well during this time. I hope to keep up the habit of eating through my pantry storage for the rest of the month if I can. I’ve also recently paid my mortgage and should have enough in my checking account to avoid looking at it at all during this period. I’m not counting bill payments as part of this experiment, but since all of my bills auto-debit from my checking account it will still psychologically feel like a total freeze on spending.

I’m going to document every time that I would have normally spent money in this post, as well as the outcome of not spending, in order to encourage mindfulness.

Day 1⌗

The Boxes⌗

I’ve been in a long-term process of organizing all my spaces with a box-and-label system and am kind of kicking myself for not stocking up on boxes before starting this project. These are plastic sterilite boxes I’m talking about, and are mostly replacing much more haphazard piles stored in too-large bins or cardboard boxes. It would have been the perfect time to really make a big push for organization. I did find, however, that I was able to find enough extra boxes I’d forgotten about to store the things that were causing problems today.

The Post Office⌗

I have a few synth modules that I wanted to get boxed up and ready to post on reverb today. I found out that the cardboard shipping boxes at USPS are free, and went to pick some up. It’s one of the few times I’ve gone to town to run an errand, spent no money, and then returned home, which felt weirder than it should have.

Paperwork for IRA⌗

Our company’s IRA requires us to use printed and scanned paperwork to set up an account. Luckily, I printed the paperwork at fedEx before swearing off spending. Normally I would have gone there to scan it to a USB drive as well, but since scanning is not free at fedEx I just used an app on my phone to convert it to PDF. I’m not crazy about scanning sensitive paperwork into an app, but it seemed trustworthy enough. I’m on the fence as to whether this was a net positive or not.

The Weed Whacker Cord⌗

Went downstairs to grab the weed whacker and found the cord was short from overuse. This is one of those times I normally would have driven to the hardware store without a second thought to buy a new cord, which I was convinced were about a foot long. On further examination though, the cord seems to be a much longer, wound cord that can be pulled out farther, and I in fact did not even need a new cord. Crazy.

The Lemonade⌗

I have all the electrolytes I need for a fast, but ran out of zero-calorie powdered lemonade to mix it with. Rough. After scraping around though, I found some powdered gatorade zero in the back of the pantry, which I was able to use instead.

The Finance App⌗

My beancount setup is pretty far from ready. I’ve been watching personal finance videos in the backround of what I’ve been up to lately, and decided to give rocket money a chance to see how it works for general financial awareness. It seems pretty ok, although their ’negotiation on your behalf’ feature is sketchy. Overall, it has useful visualizations and a budgeting tool that isn’t as good as ynab, but also doesn’t require reconciliation, which I’m so far behind on in ynab that I’m not sure what to do at this point.

Day 2⌗

The Boxes Again⌗

I have no boxes and I must box. I ended up re-purposing some of my old boxes after re-thinking my organization scheme though, and it’s actually a huge improvement that freed up a few boxes that could then be assigned. Overall it’s way better that I took the time to do this instead of buying more boxes right now.

The Lemonade Again⌗

I was about to run out of the gatorade zero, when I found a box of zero-calorie powdered lemonade in my closet! What?

The ‘Spend Later’ List⌗

I went ahead and made a ‘spend later’ list. It kept occurring to me to buy various things, some of which I do actually need, and writing it down helped me move on from that thought. It’ll be nice to judge this list against my budget at the end of the month instead of just spending as things come up for once. I added the plastic boxes, a trash can for the back yard, and a corded leaf blower to the list. Back yard trash is something I always think I’ll handle later but never do, so I’m looking forward to that one.

Recurring Van Fantasy Expands the List⌗

Lately I’ve been back in the headspace of badly wanting to convert a van into a camper. I actually started on this plan back around 2016 and even bought a van, but it didn’t work out. I’ve been coping by preparing simple, small meals in a rice cooker out of shelf-stable ingredients to build skills to one day make that move when I can afford it. At any rate, these items on the list won’t be purchased any time soon, but it’s good to dump the things that are taking up space onto paper so you can move on. Here I added a reasonable camp pan and a portable propane stove to the list.

Breaking the dietary fast⌗

I broke the food fast about 10 hours early today, making it a total of 50 hours. I was just feeling kind of obsessed with food and decided to call it quits.

Day 3⌗

A day of few wants!⌗

I think fasting at the start of this was a good move. I felt very satisfied by my rice cooker macaroni recipe (which is getting pretty good!) and the canned fish products I’d already had stocked up. I also made an intersting snack using some chunkier parts of a broth I made and some dehydrated shallots I’d put in a can and forgotten about.

The ‘Spend Later’ List expands a bit⌗

I had been planning to send my synthesizer off to Greece for repair, but upon examining it today I noticed I’d been providing it with 9v current (or at best 12) when it requires 15. That’s a weird standard, and I don’t have the plug, so it’s on the ‘spend later’ list. I also learned about a really cool small, cheap flash unit made by flashQ which can be detached from the camera and still fired remotely.

Day 4 (Technical End of Money Fast)⌗

Today I went to watch a movie at a friends house, and we all went to the liquor store to get some snacks beforehand. I decided to pick up a six pack, technically breaking the fast. I did remember that I wasn’t supposed to be spending money just before going to the counter, but in the moment it seemed like the right move. I felt some regret afterward though, and on reflection felt that the effects of the money fast were beneficial enough that I wanted to continue the experiment anyway. I don’t think it’s totally against the spirit of the exercise to call this an exception and continue, but either way I’m gonna try to make it the rest of the way to day 7.

Day 5⌗

This is the first time I’ve bartered for something in years, maybe I should do it more often! I only drank two of the beers from the movie night, so I traded the rest to my roommate and told him to bring back a case of sparkling water from the grocery store. Sparkling water is the only thing I’ve run out of so far that I’ve felt truly tempted to just go buy more of, surprisingly.

Day 6⌗

There’s less and less to report as this becomes more and more normal. I feel like my brain has been drained of an addictive substance. I added nothing to the spend-later list today. I’ve also been spending my time a little more thoughtfully and learning new skills that don’t cost anything. Lots of time spent learning to use darktable and keeping up the house. I almost broke down and went to the corner store today to get some caffiene due to work stress, but decided that getting energy drinks from the corner store is one of my absolute worst habits and didn’t want to end it on that note. Instead I’ll probably end my spending freeze tomorrow with a trip to the coffee shop, which adds a lot of value to my Saturday for me. It’ll also allow me to finally pick up some god damn boxes this weekend.

Assessment of finances so far⌗

Checking on rocket money, I’m surprised to see my savings for the month aren’t that much more than this time last month

  • Spending is $162 below last month
  • Expenses so far:
    • PMI premium ($66)
    • Prime subscription ($16)
    • Beer ($14)
    • Uber subscription ($10) (cancelled after noticing)
    • OpenAI subscription ($20)
    • Linode services ($5)
    • DigitalOcean services ($22)
    • Around $100 of late cleared transactions from outside the fast period

Thoughts on this info:

  • I’m not sure what I’m currently running on linode and DO. Those things can probably be eliminated or paused
  • Not sure if I need the $20 openAI subscription
  • Probably keeping the prime subscription, need to ask the bank if I’m at the point where I can cancel PMI
  • All in all, ‘amount-spent-month-to-date-this-month-vs-mtd-this-day-last-month’ is a bizarre metric and probably not very useful, but it’s the metric I have ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Takeaways⌗

During the money fast I found it easier to:

  • Take time to tend to my environment (leaf blowing, putting things away, re-organizing things)
  • Take inventory of what I have
  • Eat diverse meals
  • Plan long-term
  • Get things done in general

If you’re saying ’no’ to eating out or taking the path of least resistance for the night, it begins to feel ‘weird’ to doomscroll or just veg out and do nothing

  • This led to more productivity and mindful use of my time

I felt:

  • More self-sufficient
  • More creative
  • Empowered by the things I already have

I experienced:

  • A sense of cleanness from the dropping of the addictive behavior of purchasing
  • A better understanding of how I should be spending my days
  • A mindset shift away from stress at work caused by:
    • A sense of direction towards more stability and a purpose for the money I am earning
    • A sense of increased control from choosing to go without
  • I want to continue:
    • Eating primarily out of my pantry until I run out of food
    • Keeping a ‘spend later’ list and organizing my wants
    • Grocery shopping way less, maybe at aldi
  • Things I might add
    • A system for organizing my wants by cost

Were there any negatives?⌗

Not really. But I do really need to go buy some boxes.