Consumption

C and I have been discussing our spending habits recently.  On weekends when we go out with other couples and families, or when we plan vacations with other families, or when we talk about finances with others, we notice one glaring difference - we could do a lot with our money.  I've identified our families' main downfalls when it comes to spending:

Starbucks and the Like


With the boys being so young, the other thing that gets us is convenience. I try to limit my Starbucks spending to a few times a week and the weekends. On the weekends, we take a walk to our local Starbucks (which one?) to start off teh day and then it's a free for all. I actually didn't notice this about our family until I was at a Starbucks by myself and observed a mom with her 3 older kids. She ordered a bar drink and each of the kids went to the food case to pick out their chocolate milk and different snacks. You know how Starbucks has those prepackaged healthy snacks for kids that include crackers, cheese, fruit, etc.? Anyway, after all was said and done her total was over $30. I cringed when she handed over her debit card. Why did I cringe for her and not myself? The boys are used to getting their Odwalla juices at $3.75 a bottle plus DD's favorite "cake!" (a plain old-fashioned doughnut). Throw in a pastry and breakfast sandwich for C and I and we're over $20.  That's when it hit me that if we work more at preparing for our outings, even quick ones around the block, we can shave some off our tab.  Now I know the latte-factor has been much written about and I'm not trying to rehash it here.  But I do notice that I rely on prepackaged and individual serving snacks and drinks for the kids when I should try to do more of the prep work at home.  It's healthier too.

Target

I'll fully admit that I can drop $300 at Target every weekend.  Some of it, of course is necessary household goods (have you seen prices for HE detergent? not cheap).  But much of the other stuff is just cute Target-y things that individually are well-priced, but when hoarded can send your bank account plummeting.  I sometimes go to Target twice in one week (different stores) and still find no shortage of things to purchase.  Here is a sampling of my purchases this past week:

• Boys clothes
• party supplies
• some fun clothes for me
• paper tablecloths (I buy them whenever new designs come out)
• the aforementioned laundry detergent
• stationery
• aquaphor
• razor blades
• crayons and markers
• candy and snacks
• sandwich baggies
• neosporin spray
• benadryl for kids
• Liberty sleepwear

See?  Some of the items are easy to cross-off but others are necessities or like-necessities.  You tell me, what do I cross off from this sample list?

Sport

We love spending time with the boys and because we rarely do things by ourselves, save the annual birthday and anniversary dinners, I find that we like to shop and buy things.  We like to treat ourselves to clothing and shoes and, for me, design-y things. 

So what is the point of me laying all of this out?  I guess it's in the hopes that I curb some of the spending and move towards the paradigm most of our friends are practicing.