Hi, I’m Lise. I bet you remember me… I used to write this blog, Frugal in the Fruitlands, and… yeah. So I’ve been away for a while!

Classes are to blame–I seem to have underestimated how tiring working full-time and going to school in the evenings could be. Unfortunately, this means my frugality efforts have been slightly derailed, as well. Which brings me to a simple conclusion:

It’s hard to be frugal when you aren’t at your best.

Since the beginning of September, I’ve been living on 5-6 hours of sleep a night and a diet of coffee and baked goods. These go hand in hand: when you’re bleary-eyed, nearly falling asleep at the wheel, it’s hard to avoid the temptation of a pumpkin spice latte. I’ve followed this insaaaane schedule up by filling my weekends with games, visits from family, visits from friends. This led to further expenses: gas to drive to Waltham, dinners out, new gaming books.

Unsurprisingly, this schedule made me sick. Literally. It was just a minor cold, but when I was scheduled for another back to back weekend, I decided that the worst thing I could do is push myself more. I called off my Saturday plans, and just stayed at home. I gave myself permission to laze–but in fact, I got a lot of work done.

I learned a couple of things from this:

  • I’m not good at listening to my body. For me, it’s hard to tell the difference between the usual resistance I feel at tasks I don’t want to do, and real resistance from my body telling me that it can’t take anymore. I often mistake the two. I didn’t realize how worn down I was getting because I had forgotten what it was like not to be worn down.
  • When I’m worn out, it becomes difficult for me to keep track of how far off the path I’m getting as far as expenses. I remembered the trips to Dunkin Donuts, Panera, and Starbucks, but I didn’t remember the expensive dinners at Thai restaurants, German restaurants, and brewpubs. And I didn’t have time to sort through my weekly finances, so I didn’t have that extra reminder, either.

I’m trying to get back on track as far as expenses go by making my October challenge to avoid dining out for the entire month. This is also an item on my 101 Goals in 1,001 Days list, not coincidentally. We’ll see how I do.

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