The Addison Cafe

I stumbled across a blog the other day where a family said they put themselves through “The no spend month challenge”. Each year during the month of July they try to go the entire time with virtually no spending in addition to their recurring bills (except for $250 for bare essentials such as gas, food, etc). What’s impressive is that they are a family of three. I could see that challenge not being too difficult for a single person, but having a family is a whole different game. 

Do you think you would save more by trying something like that? Knowing myself, I would feel like I did such a good job I would blow any money I had saved in the following month. Still, might be worth a shot…

Sometimes we get so used to life that we start to trust everything and question nothing.  Specifically, we forget that every company wants the same thing and they will do anything to get it: your money. Sure, they can be nice, quality, and ethical. But at the end of the day, they just want to make a buck off you. I have been taking some advertising classes and realizing how hard people work to get you to trust a brand name. Don’t get me wrong, this can actually be a good thing. It’s just amazing to look at the psychology behind consumer purchases.

For instance, you know that new car smell that you love so much? Turns out it’s fake. They manufacture a scent that they spray into the carpet to give it that smell. Cologne for cars. Sure, the car will naturally smell new to a degree, but you are primarily smelling a chemical designed to appeal to your sense of smell and entice you to buy the car. Sneaky.

I wonder what would happen if people started wearing it. I probably could have benefited from some in high school.

Careful how quickly you trust; sometimes you have no idea how bad people want your hard earned money.

My wife loves Christmas music. I love Christmas music. The difference is that she likes it about 3 months earlier than I do. Starting on Halloween, if not sooner, the sounds of Bing Crosby and Charlie Brown’s Christmas album fill my living room. For some reason, it feels like eating dinner for breakfast; as if there is some unspoken moral code that prohibits it. But we put that in our wedding vows so I can’t complain (just kidding).

My point is that for some of us, sometimes it is hard to think about Christmas early, especially when it comes to buying presents. Usually I wait until the last 2 weeks and frantically put everything together – it feels so natural.  However, that is usually the recipe that leads to people a) putting themselves in debt from big spending and lack of budgeting, or b) all of a sudden they find they don’t have the money to buy anyone else anything.

Technically, now is the best time to start shopping for Christmas; picking out a gift here and a gift there and being pleasantly surprised by how much you have left in the bank when the holidays actually roll around.

So will I change my habits? I don’t know, but it’s something to think about…