A friend of mine recently had dinner at Alinea, a very fancy 3-Michelin star restaurant in Chicago.
People describe meals at Alinea as “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences so I knew it would be expensive, but when he said it was $600 per person, I thought to myself, “I would NEVER spend $600 on dinner!”
But then I thought about all the fast food and restaurant meals I’ve had that I can barely remember a week later. I did some math and realized that, if you went every other year, that $600 meal would only be $25 a month—less than one Doordash!
And I started to think that maybe my friend hadn’t done such a dumb thing after all.
Now, a fancy dinner may not be your thing. But is there something you would love to do, but have never even considered because it seemed like too much of a splurge? How much would it actually cost? If you took a close look at your budget, is there something you don’t really care about that you could cut out to help you save up for it?
Being intentional with your money … and your life!
What I’m really getting at is being intentional with your money. And the first step to being intentional is actually thinking about what you want.
Is there someplace you’ve always wanted to go? Or a luxury item you have always wanted to own? Or a memorable experience that you want to try, even if it is only one time in your life?
This is also about being intentional with your life. It is so easy to live on autopilot. To get stuck in a rut where you just do the same thing day in and day out. If that’s your jam, great! But if you feel like life is passing you by, now is the time to start dreaming.
Once you know what you want … price it out. How much would it actually cost to do? Then take a close look at your budget. For example:
- When was the last time you compared prices on your phone plan, internet, car insurance, or homeowners insurance?
- Subscriptions can be sneaky! Review them and cancel anything you don’t need or want.
- Look at your spending on fast food, restaurants, and meal delivery. Are you spending more than you want or need to?
- How about clothes? Makeup? Crafts? Home decor? Children’s toys? Pet toys? If there is an area you want to cut back on, try giving yourself an “allowance” that you can spend each month, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Then you can still have the fun of shopping, but without going overboard.
- Are there things you are planning to buy that you could get for cheap or free from a thrift store or “buy nothing” group?
- Could you have a monthly no-spend weekend by taking advantage of free events, free trial classes/memberships, free things to do (like going for a walk), and free books and movies from the library?
- Try cutting down on grocery spending through meal planning, using your store’s sales app, going to discount stores like Aldi, and always shopping your pantry and fridge first.
After going through all of that, how much can you save per month? Can that money turn into something really memorable?
You might have other goals you are working towards, like paying off debt or building an emergency fund. But you still have to live while you are doing that! Taking a small amount and putting it towards something really special can help you get through the lean periods.
Don’t let your new savings disappear!
Let’s imagine you found $50 worth of savings in your monthly budget. It would be very easy to let that money get lost in your normal spending! That is why you also have to be intentional with your savings. Set up an automatic transfer each month into your savings account. Add up how many months it will take to reach your goal, put that date on the calendar, and then get ready to start making plans!
And when the day finally comes you will be able to fully enjoy it because you know you afford it! And hopefully it will seem even sweeter because it was paid for by random extra money you were giving to Comcast, or to the drive-through at Wendy’s, or whatever it was that you used to be spending it on.
What do you do when it is over? You start thinking about the next dream in your life that you want to fulfill.
About dinner at Alinea
In case you are not familiar with what dinner at Alinea is like, here is a description of one course:
“A block of ice was delivered to our table with a bottle of clear liquid and a pear inside. This was soon to be a pear Italian ice made in front of us with liquid nitrogen. When we asked about the sorcery behind getting a pear into a narrow rectangular bottle, our service explained that Alinea sources the bottles from a local farm and then they tie the bottle to the tree so that the pear actually grows into the bottle – talk about effort! The pear ice was the perfect pallet cleanser.”
So, suffice it to say, it is a very fancy place to eat!
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