I love that idea! I'm going to put $135 in my savings account right now!
My grocery bill was $50 cheaper yesterday and my alcohol budget has gone from $80/month on wine to $25/month for a 2-12 packs of beer that each last me 2 weeks.
The savings pays for my Weight Watchers & now I'll squirrel away a bit of the rest!
That's a great idea!!! I did a similar technique...if I went to the gym and did an honest work out four out of the seven days of the week, then I'd set aside $25 for a new wardrobe. I was living by myself at the time (then-fiance was in Iraq), so in order to stay accountable, I put stickers on each day of the calendar that I worked out. I ONLY put the $25 in the envelope if I had 4 stickers that week. It was a fairly elementary system, but I needed to ritualize it or else it would be too easy to sneak things by myself, hehe.
Oh, and word from the wise...RESIST the temptation to tap into the goal-weight-shopping-spree money until you're at your goal weight. After losing about 30lbs, I desperately needed a few basic garments, otherwise my pants were risking falling down. I had planned on going shopping for one pair of jeans and a few basic shirts. Well I was so thrilled that I had gone from a very tight 12 to a well-fitting 8 that I blew nearly all of my new-wardrobe money. Turns out, when you get smaller and closer to goal, you drop sizes waaaay faster. The last pounds that I lost caused me to go from a size 8 to a 0/2 in the same brand! I had to trade in all of my brand new clothes at the second hand swap store. I definitely should have been more patient, haha.
Now it makes sense; At this weight, a drop in size seems to be 10 to 14 pounds...but way back when I was around 130 pounds, each size was 5 to 7 pounds. Interesting. I never thought about that!
Another version of the same idea is to donate xx amount of dollars to a cause that you *don't* agree with if you don't meet your exercise goals. (For me, it's a PAC of an Alaskan politician who will remain nameless but who I think is absolutely odious.) That way, if you don't meet your goals, you're not denying yourself positive things.
SUm38, I saw your similar post on another thread and commented how much I LOVE this idea!! It is such a great way to a.) motivate me and b.) slowly build up to having a nice chunk of money to spend on the new clothes I will need when I reach goal! Tell your husband I will be stealing his idea!!
I will probably only put $5 aside for each pound. Money is a bit tight since my fiancee's friend moved in with us. He is doesn't have a job, and is bringing no income in at all. We are feeding him etc. etc, it's a big stresser in my life right now. After I hit my goal of losing 43 lbs. it will only be about $215 but hey, that's better than nothing!
LOVE the idea! Especially the stickers on the calendar and rewarding yourself the weeks you have at least four. Thank you! I think this will help me make myself go to the gym!
These are great!
I bought this beautiful hand painted jar and every day that I stay "on plan" (including taking my vitamins and drinking all my water etc) I put in a dollar: To go towards new clothes as I drop in size. The only problem is that during black friday I went a little crazy and bought gap jeans in every size down to my goal size and ended up having to put an IOU in the jar lol
$15 per pound
