Hello, and welcome to the third “Minus Month Challenge” here at NMI!
Here I take one of my many indulgences and strip it from my budget for an entire month.
The goal isn’t specifically to save a bunch of money, but rather, to save a little while also learning the importance of delaying gratification for the future good of myself.
A minus month can also come with some pleasant side effects such as: weight loss, more energy, better mood, a fatter wallet and spontaneous bursts of joy (OK, not really).
#truth – I’ve been totally neglectful in doing these.
The last MMC post, all the way back in October of 2017, was a total failure. I was supposed to forego buying pizza for the entire month, and I totally sucked at it, failing five times.
And, after receiving surgery on a hernia I had been dealing with for months, I stopped contributing much to my blog as I was recovering for quite some time.
While I did OK in making sure I posted at least once a month, unfortunately, the minus month challenges pretty much ceased.
But that stops today.
I am restarting the minus month challenge, with the hopes of foregoing another one of my favorite pick-me ups…lattes!
I know it’s not exactly original – #latte factor – but I do love me some lattes.
I usually get one once a week from this cute little coffee shop right down the street from one of the stores I work at, and while I love supporting small businesses, it hasn’t been good for my wallet (or waistline). I regularly get a Starbucks caramel macchiato at least once a week too, which practically borders on an obsession.
But after being routinely disappointed the last few times I’ve purchased lattes, both in price and taste, I decided it may be time to try to curb this addiction.
So, I’m trying not to purchase any lattes at all this month.
This is gonna be hard.
Probably not as hard as the ‘no pizza’ month, but difficult nonetheless.
After the success of the first minus month challenge, I was fired up. So fired up, that I included a really cheesy quote the following month:
Of course, I wrote this before the complete and utter failure of the last minus month challenge.
Considering the failure of the last challenge, and the total avoidance of minus months altogether since, I should probably just keep my mouth shut and try not to suck this time.
THE MINUS MONTH CALENDAR
I’ll be indicating a successful minus day with the hashtag #DB, which stands for ‘didn’t break’, and a fail day with the hashtag #B, which stands for ‘break’.
WEEK 1
Day 1 – #DB
Day 2 – #DB
Day 3 – #DB
Day 4 – #DB
Day 5 – #DB
Day 6 – #DB
Day 7 – #B – I failed! I got a mocha cause it had been awhile (like 7 days), and it was so good! Now that I failed, I feel like a little of the pressure is off, and it’ll hopefully make it easier to go the rest of the month without breaking.
WEEK 2
Day 8 – #DB
Day 9 – #DB
Day 10 – #DB
Day 11 – #DB
Day 12 – #DB
Day 13 – #DB
Day 14 – #B – OK, I got a mocha today. But I haven’t been getting any Starbucks at all, which is a vast improvement over my usual habits!
WEEK 3
Day 15- #DB
Day 16 – #DB
Day 17 – #DB
Day 18 – #DB
Day 19 – #DB
Day 20 – #DB
Day 21 – #B – I got a mocha today. 🙁
WEEK 4 +
Day 22 – #DB
Day 23 – #DB
Day 24 – #DB
Day 25 – #B – And I got one today too 🙁
Day 26 – #DB
Day 27 – #DB
Day 28 – #DB
Day 29 – #DB
Day 30 – #DB
Day 31 – #DB
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m actually pretty happy with how this month turned out! While I did fail a few times, I didn’t have a Starbucks latte ALL MONTH, which, for me, is a pretty big improvement! I was used to getting at least one latte from the local coffee shop and one from Starbucks every week, sometimes even more. The fact that I didn’t get a Starbucks at all, and I didn’t even miss it, is great! I’m going to continue ditching Starbucks for as long as I can manage. I also saved a decent bit of money – my guess is at least $20.00, but probably even more.
WANNA JOIN ME?
Got something you wanna do without for a month? Got a bad habit you wanna break?
Join me as I track my progress with the third minus month challenge!
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