Attention is a funny thing. It’s like back when I was trying to be more honest in highschool, and I would see how long I could go during the day without lying or being dishonest. And, I think that the very act of TRYING to be honest made me be more dishonest for some reason. Everything became more tangible and I saw more opportunities than when I wasn’t trying at all.

That’s sort of what happened to my finances during this month of caring too. Of the ten categories of spending, I spent more in eight during January than I did in December.

Categories I spent more in:

Auto/Gas: Used FlexCar more than the previous month… I think to pick up friends who were visiting from Japan for a tour of the city.

Charity: Well, I don’t spend much on charity but I think tickets to the Paul Auster reading got classified as charity for some reason.

Entertainment: Ended up paying for a bunch of tickets to Ride the Duck, and two shows. Money well spent and thoroughly enjoyed.

Groceries: I think my juice fast is responsible for the bulk of the $100 spent on groceries this month. It’s usually closer to $40.

Clothing: Andy Warhol mentioned that he’d rather watch someone buy underwear and socks than see what art they made… as it told more about the person. So I went and bought new underwear and socks. And a few new shirts, and a scarf, and some other things. Clothes are a basic need, right?

Utilities: I switched my phone bill over to use my debit card rather than my credit card, so this is simply being tracked for the first time. In any case, I spent $100 on phone stuff this month… and enjoyed every penny.

ATM Withdrawals: I took a bunch of money out for the Vancouver trip, but ended up spending $200 more in cash than I did last month.

Checks Written: I think the rise in this is due to the increase in my condo dues. Lame!

I tied in the Household category, where, for some reason, my NetFlix subscription is billed to.

Categories I spent less in:

Restaurants: I spent significantly less in restaurants this month than last month. That’s odd. I don’t remember spending less… and the Hideout bills (which are usually the biggest) ended up being almost exactly the same month to month. A mystery! It could be that I went on fewer dates this month than last? Or maybe someone forgot to charge me. There’s no way to know.

Caring is fun. I think it increases the pleasure of spending to more tangibly feel the money come and go. I’m going to simply watch how things go one more month before experimenting with spending LESS and spending MORE.

Nah, why wait. This next month, I’d like to spend 20% LESS than I did in January.