When I initially read this article, I reacted a bit skeptically because celebrating vigilance with regards to travel spending is irrelevant to me right now due to the pandemic. However, if I lay my skepticism aside and simply read the suggestions that the author makes, it takes me back to my initial budgeting days which have long-since become ingrained habits. Way back when, I used to impose “no dollar days” on myself: days in which I deliberately used no cash or credit cards to curtail my expenses and remind myself of what I was fortunate to already have available to me. This is very similar to item #5 in the article “Going credit card-less for days”. To this day, my husband’s favourite days are ones he calls, “no car days” because he loves to walk in our neighbourhood and detests traffic.

I would add another strategy to the author’s list that I would call “Slow and Steady Wins The Race”. I used this strategy when we renovated our home in 2012 and am implementing this strategy again as I work on updating the furnishings for our home. The “Slow and Steady Wins The Race” technique involves a lot of dreaming, list making and comparative pricing. Then, as each item we need goes on sale, I buy one at a time, see how it fits in with the décor I am trying to build and then move to the next item when it comes on sale. While bare walls make my husband crazy, I have a running list of what we need (window coverings, furniture, picture frames and assorted chatchkes) and I insist that we not shop for the next item until the first item is purchased, shipped, assembled and installed and this has saved us thousands of dollars.

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