Lose weight, save money, & it's not a pyramid scheme!

Continuing on with yesterday's theme of what we're spending our hard earned dollars on, I've come up with a new savings plan.  I don't know about you, but I have a hard time resisting cravings.  I guess that's not totally true because if I gave in to every craving I had I'd weigh 500 pounds.  Nevertheless, I know I have a tendency to spend more money than I should on food because I get a hankering for it after a hard day.  In an effort to combat this, I try to cook myself 2 main meals on Sunday that I can then eat during the week.  Saves time, money, AND thought, which I don't have a lof of after a brain frying 10 hours at work.

But I digress.  You don't care about my meal schedules, you saw the words "lose weight" and "save money" and that's why you're here.  So, what's my secret?  I'll tell you.

I've been on a Dove chocolate kick lately.  Something about the texture combined with the extra rich chocolatey-ness has been my drug of choice lately.  But do you know how much a bag of those things cost?  5 bucks and a whole lotta calories.  I'm an all or nothing type girl so if I'm going to indulge in some Dove, I'm going to eat so much I put myself into a sugar coma. This "keep a bag at your desk and allow yourself one candy a day" bullshit that Shape magazine is trying to sell me ain't happening.

The other morning I was doing some early morning mental wrestling with this craving and trying to rationalize to myself why it was a bad idea to go to the grocery store before work to arm myself with a blue bag of Dove.  Rational thought was losing to immediate gratification so I soon resorted to good old fashioned bribery.

Feed the pig, not your mouth.

I've got a big ticket item I'm saving up for to be disclosed at a later date.  (oooh, just what the blog needs: mystery!  intrigue!  What could I possibly have up my sleeve?!  I know, the suspense is killing me too.)  While thinking about how happy this big ticket item is going to make me I thought about what better use the 5 bucks I'd spend on Dove could be put to if I instead contributed it to my "big idea" fund.  And voila!  Suddenly rational thought won out and I was not only convinced not to buy the oh so seductive chocolate, I was downright excited not to be parting with $5 of my corporate slave wages!

When I got to work I immediately transferred 5 bucks from my checking to my savings account.  A little ridiculous?  Absolutely.  A lot gratifying?  Yup.

So go ahead and give it a shot, and if you think it's a bit ridiculous, you're right!  But you can think that from the bus stop while I'm patting myself on the back for my ingenuity as I drive by you in my new car.  Who's laughing now?