November Spending Fast: The Addiction Edition

Listen, monkeys, I know I promised you a post where I'd talk about the rules for my spending fast, but I haven't written that one yet.  But, I promise, that since I am the one making the rules, my behavior thus far has been impeccable under my rules . . . that I have yet to decide upon.  See how well that works?  I could be a politician.

Instead, I want to share with you something that should show you how serious I am about this spending fast thing.  You might think I'm not serious enough, you might get that, to me, this is a big deal.  That's OK by me - everyone has different deal-breakers.  What is gazelle-intensity in Total Money Makeover-speak for me might not be what is gazelle-intensity for you.


I love diet Coke.


But I bought diet Pepsi.

Please don't shun me, fellow diet Coke afficionados.  I had to do it.  Diet coke wasn't on sale, I was all out, Costco was closed, and I could not force myself to pay more than $3.50 for a 12-pack, which is what I can get them for at ze Costco.  If I had had more time, I would have gone to another supermarket, but, per usual, I was running late.

 Pepsi products were on sale, 3 for $10.  $3.33 a 12 pack.  Diet Coke was outrageous at full price - $5.69.  Faced with spending more money or trading my sure fix, my beloved diet Coke for an inevitably inferior substitute, I chose the lesser of two evils: tastebud dissappointment.

If you're not addicted to a particular soda or coffee or whatever, maybe this won't mean much to you, but it was truly a big deal to me.  I can count on my daily diet Cokes.  I love how they taste when they are ice cold, love the cold can, love the snap of the lid popping open.

I know, I'm weird.

But I also know that drinking just water would be better for me and would be a lot cheaper.  I've talked about kicking the diet Coke habit with my nutritionist, and she told me not to worry about it.  And I totally get her point.  I'd like to lose about 90 more pounds, and that's a much bigger priority to me than kicking my soda habit, so I'll focus on making and maintaining the behavioral changes rather than cutting out my diet Coke addiction.

That works until my budget crunch crashes head on with my addiction.  You already know how this has ended: I picked the cheaper soda, addiction be damned.  Maybe soon I'll transition to generic (blech!) and that will help me taper off altogether?  Think of the money I'd save. I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much I'd stand to save if I could get off the crack diet coke, but let's just say I'm feeling more motivated than usual.  I'll keep you posted.



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