"Winter" is almost over as April gets closer everyday. Our Florida winter has been terribly mild this year, full of weeks with Mondays in the 50's followed by Friday's in the 70's. Despite, the lack of winter we've had, I still can't help but get excited about spring time. Strawberries, sunny days, and lots and lots of flowers. Spring time is always a pretty time in Florida. Fresh and new, before the oppressive heat sure to come with July and August.
This past month, Josh and I undertook a big challenge. In efforts to become less wasteful, more appreciative of what we have, and refocus ourselves and spending habits, we began a fiscal fast. For the entire 31 days of March, the only thing we would use our debit cards for was gas for the car. No shopping at Target, no ordering on Amazon, no eating out, no impulsive last minute trips to the grocery store. In fact, no stepping foot inside Publix for the entire month. Since 2011, we've been apart of an organic food co op and get weekly boxes of fresh produce. I found myself throwing away so much food gone bad each week due to poor planning and not getting used. Grabbing a roasted chicken and potato salad from the grocery deli was so much simpler on crazy busy days when I hadn't planned or prepped dinner. The problem is, most of our days are crazy busy days, so this simple convenience quickly became a habit and we continued to waste both food and monetary resources. Josh and I are blessed with the ability to not only purchase the items we need, but also the items we want. And our 7 month old son has more toys than his little bedroom can even hold. We found ourselves taking this luxury for granted. So we decided to do something about it. To radically change our focus and be the example we want for our child. We decided to do a 31 one day fiscal fast.
The prep for the fast wasn't very extravagant on purpose. I bought an extra box of diapers than I typically do and an extra gallon of the coconut milk we drink. Everything else was supposed to still fit inside my normal grocery budget that I hadn't been sticking too for months. Our produce is automatically deducted from our account each week so we would continue receiving fresh produce, but not going to the grocery store would force me to get back into the habit of relying on the fresh foods again. So clean eating was jumped back into with both feet.
We are 17 days into our fast, and honestly, it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Its actually created positive pleasant results that we've enjoyed. 1st, our food has been planned, fresh, and energy giving. Our "spare" time has been more focused on quality family time since we haven't been out spending money on a distracting event. Family time has consisted on a lot of playtime with Jack in his bedroom, family walks around neighborhood, and even taking the dogs with us to the lake. Its been wonderful. I find myself grateful we have more than what we need already. The lack of errands has freed up a bit of time in my weekly schedule which has allowed time for a few other projects I've needed to focus on. We're also $200 ahead in our budget than we typically are at this point in the month. We knew we'd save money during the fiscal fast and while its nice, it pales in comparison to the other positive changes we've seen. We've decided that its going to be something we do every March, in order to remind ourselves to stay focused on what's important and as a way to raise thankful kids. After our fast, going out to eat will be a 1x a month special event. More thought will go into frivolous spending and family time will remain slow paced, full of conversations and laughter.
Its been an great 17 days thus far, we'll see how the next 14 days go! :-)
