Potential Pitfalls to the Fiscal Fast
Last night, my brother-in-law took us out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Cleveland, Deagan’s Kitchen & Bar (My previous review of Deagan’s). Wednesdays are by-far our favorite nights at Deagan’s because of their amazing vegetarian and vegan menu. However, anything that occurs on Wednesday is now a bombshell in our house because it means all year we are locked out from spending any money, not to mention we are in the middle of a full week fiscal fast.
Now before everyone gets in a big uproar about us going out to eat during a fiscal fast, it was actually decided on that we were going last night several weeks ago. Since my brother-in-law was home alone while my in-laws were on the cruise I was still envious over, he decided on his own that he wanted to treat us to dinner, of which we were very grateful! He needed some company while being home alone, and we needed to eat some amazing Deagan’s food.
Right before leaving, the phone rang and it was the tenant in our rental home. I thought to myself, now what? We have a really good tenant. The last time the phone rang from the tenant, the water heater went out on Christmas Eve, and it was a wonderful unexpected holiday expense. So who knew what could have gone wrong this time? After all, it is a newer home.
This time the news was that somehow, he had managed to purchase a new home and wanted out of the lease early. My only guess is he must be paying for the home in cash, because he had really bad credit from a bankruptcy and some ex-wives. So I do not think there is any way he was going to qualify for any mortgage. The problem though was that it really put us in an awkward situation. We have never been landlords before last year, and we felt very fortunate to find this tenant because for the 7 months we have had him, he has been really good. Now we were being placed into a situation where within a month or two, we will be tenant-less and either need to find someone new or get the house sold. Meanwhile, looming over our heads will be a second large mortgage payment. It is an extremely scary scenario to be placed into out of no-where. Because of various issues going on in our tenants life, we anticipated this guy and son wanting to stay in the home for an extended period of time. Now with four month remaining on the rental agreement when he potentially wants to be out, we prematurely are having to scramble.
The good news was there was not a repair that needed to be made on our rental during the fiscal fast. The bad news is we have a really bad situation to be in when being a landlord; needing to find a new tenant on whim.
So with our heads hanging low, we all headed off to Deagan’s to at least enjoy a meal on my brother-in-law. Upon pulling into the parking lot, we saw a problem we did not plan on. Parking meters. I honestly panicked. Was a $0.75 expenditure going to throw the entire fiscal fast out the window? My brother-in-law did not have any cash on him to get change and fill the meter. So I was having to make a life-altering decision. Do I fill up the meter? Do I lie to my readers and not tell them? Do I just shuck it up and add on another day to make up for it? I am hungry and we were really all looking forward to this meal.
As we all sat in the car staring at the meter and wondering what we were going to do, I contemplated calling it quits and just saying lets skip the meal because I am not one to want to quit or fail at something. However, I knew my brother-in-law was also really excited to buy us a meal. Just then, my wife’s brother said what if we looked at it as he would reimburse us for the expense as soon as we got home? At that point I pretty much had no option unless I wanted to try and beg for change for some fellow patrons. I was about to learn a lot about myself.
As I reluctantly walked towards the meter with my change, and by now my moral was no where to be found, some other patrons yelled we did not need to feed the meter after 6:00 PM. Ta-da! Catastrophe averted. I could not believe it. I had been feeding those meters for years and never knew about the after 6 rule. I would have been regretful all night if because of a parking meter I had blown our fiscal fast.
There is proof-in-the-pudding that we spend money without even thinking about it. In addition, we just can not plan for everything. At times we might need to be more resourceful. The whole experience has really enlightened us.
My wife and I were sitting around talking with her brother and said we almost already have gotten used to the idea of spending no money, and it almost would be worth it to try going for another week, because that is when we would really see some impacts to the bottom line. Maybe we will try that in a future exercise.
Now if only my tenant would call and say he decided purchasing a home instead of renting was not in his best interest.
I think you really hit on something important here. One of the ways that a fiscal fast helps is, not in just saving money, but forcing us to see how easily we spend money and changing those habits. I hope your situation with your tenant works out easily.
@Jessica: So true! The biggest thing we have noticed is where we spend money and how to control it better.
That was a great story! I could totally picture you sweating while looking at the meter. hahaha 🙂
The fiscal fast has the pitfall where it can lure you into being penny-wise and pound-foolish. You might have lost out on a “free” dinner with a friend over 75 cents. Same goes if you see a phenomenal sale during your fast. Maybe there is a way to control spending with regards to getting the best value instead of doing it by the week?
For example, if I normally eat 2000 calories a day but today I eat 4000 calories and tomorrow zero, what have I accomplished? Not only did I average the same, but I am in worse health because I made myself sick with gluttony on day 1 and my body was starved for nutrition on day 2.
Maybe a way to look at it is to make spending categories for the year? Each month see if you’re on target to hit a certain category goal. Gas, restaurants, groceries, travel, etc. Then you can weigh those expenses against the happiness (value) it gave you.
For me, I spend a lot of money on super fluffy toilet paper that feels like I’m wiping my butt with a bunny rabbit. This gives me great happiness. So I do everything possible to save money on that luxury purchase. Buying in bulk has really saved my ass! (hee hee)
I also love to eat at restaurants. I’ve reduced my spending while still maintaining the same level of happiness by primarily going to the restaurant’s discount days and hours. For example, my local ribs joint gives a $5 discount on Monday nights.
Good luck with your tenant situation and thanks for an honest accounting of your inner-struggle! 🙂
@Hogwild: Both my wife and I really enjoyed your commentary and insightfullness, and not only because of the fuzzy bunny comment. Very good analogy, and it makes me feel better if we would have just paid the meter to enjoy a great meal on someone.
I am really struggling right now with a modification to our Hawaii plane tickets because availability opened up out of our home airport that I think I can get re-ticketed. W have to pay a fee to do so, which is fine because it still saves us money from having to get to Chicago. The problem is I am trying to hold strong to the fiscal fast hoping that the flights will still be there come Sunday when it is ok to spend money again. There I go pounding the penny again. 🙂
I agree with HogWild. You need to prioritize your needs lets say you categorize them in three different categories such as primary needs, secondary needs and luxury. Now you can decide where you should curtail and where you simply cannot. Obviously you cannot save against your primary needs, perhaps avoid or delay some of your secondary needs, where you have the opportunity to settle you expenditure is luxury.
You are indeed pretty frank on this. Best of luck.