Tag: failed plan

I swear I’m not a gambler~!

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Welcome to week 4! This week, there was an interesting development as the Roommate was sent off to work at another location, essentially leaving Froggy and me to our own devices. In my first week of unsupervised shenanigans, I paid bills for the month and headed to the casino for some shops and an impromptu Bingo session.

I spent a bunch of time this week at the four casinos near my house. I wasn’t visiting them to spend all my hard-earned money. Instead, I was earning some. The locations needed a mystery shopper to assess their cage-handling process. So sign me up to earn $150 for about 20 minutes’ worth of actual work. A quick and easy way to supplement my part-time income, and I don’t mind doing some fieldwork.

While at one of the casinos, I went to bingo. I kinda love it because I know exactly how much I am most likely going to lose. $8 doesn’t seem like a bad amount to spend to be entertained for a few hours. I used some coupons I got from going with friends earlier in the month, and we went on a discount day. I stacked some other frequent bingo points on the receipt, and voila! My bill went from $53 down to $8 due to all the discounts I had. If I used the players’ points, I think I could have played for free!

While I don’t mind playing bingo for a few hours, I always have an issue with playing some slots. It just seems too easy to whittle down my funds. I always feel guilty after playing, even if I lose $10. That $10 could have gone to something else…like an investment. I am finding that when I go with other people, there is much more influence to play other games I did not plan to play. This time I guess I was lucky as I was down to $5 out of $40 to play slots with, and I hit a biggie (well, a biggie for me, my sister would tell it I was chump change!). Something wild and special started happening and all the lights and sounds were going off. I won $400 and I was excited! Typically I would have cashed out right then and left, but because I was with other people, I felt compelled to spend and play more. I can’t say I particularly enjoy that feeling. I still took home about $280, putting me $232 to the positive. I planned to save this for my bingo adventures so I am playing with house money for the rest of the year.

As a side note, mentally, I feel like I am doing the best I have been in about a year! It feels so good to finally feel like myself again. I am not sure if the missing Roommate or the small windfall are playing a role, but I really like feeling this good again.

Hope you are all doing well!

-Chick

Week 3 Spending recap!

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Well, friends, I keep telling myself I am going to do better by not spending frivolously. I thought I was doing ok sticking to that. Turns out it was hobby week, and not really all stuff I needed or wanted.

I was going to head out with Froggy early in the week for dinner since I could pick up a mystery shop. Dinner for the two of us cost $47, but I was reimbursed $35, so the net cost was $12. Not terrible for when I don’t want to cook. I know I should really stick to our casserole plan to ensure we aren’t eating out, but mystery shops are hard for me to turn down.

Since the restaurant was close to Dollar Tree, I needed to stop in and see if they had a small cutting mat. They did, and I bought enough to cover my dinner table with them so I could cut the fabric for a bunch of projects I am working on. Perhaps I might even sell for some additional income.

I also picked up some fat quarter rolls of fabric to try with my new Accuquilt Go cutter. I decided that I will utilize it as a mechanism to bring me additional income in the summer, where I can sell crafted items at a farmers market. Since I am in the middle of the winter doldrums, chasing the dies I am after is proving quite fun to find at a discount.

I also picked up some potting soil to replant my plants. They were looking a little worse for wear and needed a new home. I grabbed a small bag since only a few plants needed to be done, and I still have half of it left. If I had really planned ahead, I could have used the compost pile at the dump I had to go to anyway to bring my trash.

The restaurant wasn’t the only mystery shop I picked up. A scheduler reached out and asked if I would pick up some casino shops too. I did spend some gambling, $31.01, to be exact. For someone who really isn’t into gambling, I feel like I do it a lot since I am usually there conducting a shop. Normally I only go to play bingo, which costs me less than $10 once a month, but I have been finding myself adding some to a slot machine here and there. My rationale is that I would be harder to discover as a mystery shopper if I had an uneven amount on my cash slip. I’ll have to consider doing fewer of them so I am not tempted to think I can hit it big at the casino.

Here’s to hoping next week is better!

-Chick

Three days into my new plan…

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….and it’s all gone to hell!

At the start of the year, I vowed that I would do better about spending money and eating at home. Annnnnnnd….then my mom came to visit. My mom took the four-hour trip from her house to mine to drop off some extra items she had from her house. I have wanted to turn my garage into a family room since we moved to this house, and with my mom deciding to leave her apartment, she needed to rehome some items. I was pretty happy about her visit.  No one from back home has come to see me in the 18 months since we left. 

After we offloaded the couch and shelving she brought, we decided to go out to dinner. Well, she wanted to, and I just went along with it because it made life easier. So we drove out to Texas Roadhouse and ordered a few things to share. We came back and hung out, talking about some projects I would like to work on. I was hoping getting her to talk about these would encourage her to want to stay longer than just one night. After crawling into bed, I thought about where the day was going, and I felt bad about spending on eating out when I had a perfectly full fridge at the house.

The next day, I had a planned night out with some friends from work. We went to play bingo, and I told myself I would limit my spending to $30. I was able to stay pretty close to that budgeted amount with a discount for the bingo hall, it was a surprise that I had it, and it put me in a good mood. I went to the onsite bakery and food hall at intermission and purchased additional food with my friends. Another $36 later, and I knew I was screwing up my plan. 

I watched my friends spend more money on additional games and then additional gambling after leaving bingo. I am not typically a big gambler at a casino, so it wasn’t a hard thing to stick to. As I walked back to my car, I thought back on the night and how it made me feel. It was nice to have a night out with friends and enjoy their company. I was proud of my restraint in not participating in additional activities outside my plan. 

So tomorrow is a new day. I am going to try to be more resolute in my choices and deliberate about my actions. 

Have you ever assessed how failing to meet your plans and goals made you feel? What missteps did you make, and how did you correct the course?

-Chick