Well, for this Saving Mr. Lincoln – May 2013 Update, I have a confession to make: I am human after all! I was a really bad girl and didn’t complete ANY of the challenges that I’d made in my previous Saving Mr. Lincoln posts! In spite of NOT following my own advice, I managed to save 14 five dollar bills (Lincolns), which equals $70.00. This brings my total savings to $368.50 since starting this challenge on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 2013!
So while I’ve been a complete failure (this past month) at the challenges I outlined for myself, my failure further strengthened my belief that you can save Mr. Lincoln’s only and build a savings account painlessly.
So, what did I fail at this month?
Well, for starters, I broke my challenge from Saving Mr. Lincoln – March 2013 Update, which was “don’t purchase coffee drinks from coffee vendors when out-and-about.” Bad girl that I was, I’ve had a couple of coffee drinks from Starbucks (BTW – I love Starbucks!).
I didn’t actually seek out going to Starbucks, but instead went to spend the night with my very dear friend, Christin {of my earlier post, An Irish Blessing (or two…) fame}. She lives about 80 miles north from me and while we would like to see each other more often, we really only get that opportunity about 3-4 times a year. So, the middle of April, I drove up and spent two days and one night with her.
Whenever I’m with her, we go out for all of our meals. For three reasons:
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Breakfast isn’t her thing
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Although she does cook, she prefers going out with her guests
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She always knows the BEST restaurants and I’m always treated to new experiences.
So, for one breakfast, we went to Starbucks and then we hit Starbucks’ drive-thru on the way from one place to another.
And then, as if breaking one of my challenges wasn’t enough, I broke my challenge from Saving Mr. Lincoln – April 2013 Update, which was “avoid fast food restaurants and drive-through restaurants.” I’ve broken that one so many times that I’ve lost count!
The first time I broke it was on April 15th, the day I was summoned for Jury Duty (and the day of the Boston Marathon bombing – see post Justice…of the people, for the people, by the people). Although I knew ahead of time that I had Jury Duty, I didn’t prepare and because I had to get up much earlier in the morning than I usually do in order to make it to court on-time, I didn’t have breakfast and instead went through a drive-thru fast food restaurant once I was close to the courthouse.
That was my first downfall with fast food and I’ve been several times this past month and, of course, have convinced myself that it was “necessary”. {grin} How did people ever survive without fast food?
So, I need to get back on track. Because along with Saving Mr. Lincolns, I want to spend less on unnecessary things including coffee and fast food. So, I’m starting over on those two challenges for the month of May 12th to June 12th, plus adding another challenge:
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Challenge #1 (Saving Mr. Lincoln – March 2013 Update): Don’t purchase coffee drinks from coffee vendors when out-and-about. If I want such a drink, I’ll create it at home.
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Challenge #2 (Saving Mr. Lincoln – April 2013 Update): Avoid fast food restaurants and drive-thru restaurants. Plan ahead so that I’m not hungry when out-and-about and, therefore, not tempted.
- Challenge #3 (Saving Mr. Lincoln – May 2013 Update): Use a shopping list and stick with it. Yep, I’m really bad at sticking to a shopping list, even though I created one and shared it with all of you at this post – Making a Grocery Shopping List Clipboard with My Personal Assistant. So, I’m going to make this challenge even more challenging because I’m not going to limit it to a grocery list. I’m going to make a list for every retail store I visit (whether online or in person) and stick to that list. For example, I have to order a birthday present from my aunt to my mother (they’re twins). Their birthday is in May and we are having a celebration for them soon. Rather than try to shop in a retail store, I took catalogs to my aunt and had her choose something. Now I need to take that one step further and do the actual ordering. But, while I’m ordering, I’ll make sure to “stick to the list” and not order anything else. Should be easy, right?
So there you have it – my challenges for this next month. I’ll report back on June 12th and share the results.
But wait; there’s more:
P.S. Want to know the fabulous things Christin and I did when I visited her? Well, here’s a list:
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We sat outside of Petco with her veterinarian and other volunteers with dogs for adoption. Christin is very involved with dog rescues (she makes me so proud!) and works actively to find homes for man’s best friend. Unfortunately, no adoptions that day. And, no, I didn’t adopt one either. We have Coco, our very spoiled Snowshoe Siamese cat, who’s A Boy Named Coco and he wouldn’t integrate well with competition, especially a dog! I just loved the sweet, adorable brother/sister Chiweenie combo (see pictures below) and would have snapped them up in a minute. But, they are much smaller than Coco and I was afraid he would eat them for lunch!
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We went to a movie. Well, it wasn’t just any movie – it was Oz the Great and Powerful! And, it wasn’t at just any movie theater, but the Cinepolis Luxury Cinema in Laguna Niguel. Here’s a link: Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas. Pricier than a normal movie theater, the concept is that you order off of a menu and are served by waiters. A fabulous way to enjoy a movie! She took me to my first one last year, but in a different city. Last year, we went to the one in San Juan Capistrano – a Regency Theater with Rick’s Café inside. Here a link: Rick’s Café. This was the weekend that we went to the Mission San Juan Capistrano so that I could research our swallow invasion. Coming home from that visit, I wrote Operation Swallow Adios in my head (in the traffic!) and couldn’t wait to get home and get it on paper! A fabulous weekend and my very first experience at a luxury movie theater.
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The next day, Sunday, we had breakfast at Dana Point Harbor and then went to the America’s Family Pet Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Mostly about dogs, it was fun and heartbreaking at the same time because multiple rescue operations set up adoption booths in one of the exhibit halls and seeing all the dogs (and some cats) waiting to find their forever homes is heartbreaking. We went late in the day on the very last day of this expo and there were so many dogs still waiting for adoption. So heartbreaking! I love all animals and of course, just wanted to take them all so they would be safe. Some booths had photos up showing the “before” rescue condition of the animal and of course, the “after” was right there in the flesh. The neglect, pain and torture inflicted on animals by some evil people is unfathomable to me and I couldn’t help but cry as I looked at these photos. If you see a pet in your future, consider adoption. The need for good families for pets is so great.
Here’s some pictures of my doggy weekend with Christin:
Above picture is Christin sitting on the ground with one of the rescue dogs up for adoption in front of Petco.
This picture is Niko, one of a pair of adorable Chiweenies up for adoption.
Picture above is Niko and his sister with one of the volunteers outside of Petco. Sadly, none of the four dogs that Christin and her team had for adoption that day were adopted.
The above picture was taken at Dana Point Harbor the next day. This is Christin with two of her three dogs, Amelia and Blue, both female. Her third dog, Zeke, stayed at home. He is quite elderly now, so going out-and-about is a challenge for Zeke. All of Christin’s dogs are sweet and very affectionate, especially Amelia, who is the youngest. She’s such a cuddler and even though she’s a pretty good-sized dog, she’ll jump in your lap for a snuggle.
So, why did I share with you, at the end of this very long post about saving money, the ways that I spent money and dog adoption? Because I wanted to point out that it is possible to save money, save a life (a rescued dog’s life) AND have a good time going out-and-about if you have a strategy like Saving Mr. Lincoln in place. You can still enjoy fun activities with some planning and save, too!
Here’s to the next month of saving and fun!
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(on Saving)
(on other things mentioned in this post)
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