The Catfight of the Personal Blogger Chicks; Results Edition & Life Lessons

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Categories: competition, life, saving, Yakezie

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger

 Alright, so this past month of pure spending cuts may not be the worst hardship imaginable, but it was a struggle. And I must give a shout out to Schwarzenegger for knowing about winning, as this guy does not have a college degree, and has a resume that includes a stint as governor of California, actor, and world champion body builder.

 MAIN TOPIC; Lessons Learned

 For those of you just joining, I was challenged to participate in a spending reduction challenge last month by Jacq at Single Mom Rich Mom. We were joined by Christine at Money Funk and Laura at Move to Portugal. The competition was: who could beat their own monthly averages in variable spending categories. The winner would be determined by reducing spending by the greatest percentage; WINNERS for individual categories and overall.

I thought it would be fun, and I was flattered to be asked. Not once did I think I would win, and I really didn’t know how the competition would affect me since I had NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE.

 I’ll start with the life and personal finance lessons learned from participating in the competition. Think about whether they would apply to you.

1. CONTROL: I love control. I like to control myself and those around me. The competition reinforced that there are some things one can control and others you cannot. For example, I could not control my husband’s spending. But I could certainly almost control my own. The fact that my bi monthly hair appointment came in June was out of my control. Jacq at Single Mom Rich Mom couldn’t control when her annual car tax came due.

 The takeaway: Control what you can, accept that you cannot control everything.

2. DO NOT GRADE YOURSELF: Throughout the month I wondered how I was doing. I was even tempted to check my progress. But, I refrained from checking, practiced smart shopping habits  and cut back where I could. I figured that even though I wanted to win; win or lose, I would benefit from the competition.

 The takeaway: My job was to compete, the results would come later. Obsessing about how I was doing wouldn’t make any difference. I don’t need to grade myself.

 3. COMPETITION IS MOTIVATING: If I did not have the June challenge, I wouldn’t have tried to cut my spending for the month. Our family spent almost $500 less than we normally spend. The competition was motivating, but it was also difficult and constraining. There were things I wanted to buy which I didn’t. I cut waaay back on groceries.

 Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme asked if I was going to continue. The short answer is, I might try another competition month, but I will not continue changing my spending to match the June challenge month. Our family has a budget which allows for saving, spending on what we value, and charity. We have emergency savings and investments. And it’s working for us.

 The takeaway: Competing with a partner or two towards a goal is a wonderful way to make a difficult task more fun and up one’s motivation. This was my first time, and I would definitely try it again!

THE RESULTS

If you hung in for the entire post, thank you. Here are the final results.

OVERALL WINNER: BarbaraFriedbergPersonalFinance

with a JUNE decline of 36.56% in the variable spending categories

 I was happy to win and also surprised. I never thought I would be the overall winner. It’s sweet to win, and it’s also fun to compete! 

ACTION STEP

Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.

Ask a partner to join you in a competition; make achieving a goal more motivating and fun. Try it with spending, losing weight, or any other challenge.

Let me know what you think about competing towards a goal. Have you tried it before? How did it work out?

Image credit: McDuck 17

YAKEZIE SHORT CARNIVAL 

Check out these personal finance articles by talented Yakezie writers:

7 Wealth Building Strategies  at Invest it Wisely

How Would $1,000 Change Your Life?  at Financiallly Poor       

 “Enough” by John Bogle – Review & Introduction  at Engineer Your Finances