Twenty Something Sense

After my last update, I thought I was set for a solid less than $100 week (click here for details on the $100 Challenge).  I had plenty of groceries and nothing in my sites that would put be overboard.  This all came to a screeching halt when as I sat working from home on Friday, my power suddenly turned off.  I went through the normal procedures of checking the electrical breakers and found that everything looked normal.  Next I checked with a neighbor and their power was fine.  Now I was confused.

I managed to find the building maintenance manager and he informed me that Commonwealth Edison (ComEd, the power company) had come by and shut off power to a few tenants that had not paid their bills.  I was 100% sure I had paid my bill so I gave ComEd a call.  Without going through the ridiculous details, pains, trials and tribulations of dealing with the horrendous “Customer Support” at ComEd, I am still without power for going on 60 hours.  There are only 2 things that are certain, it is not my fault that the power was turned off and ComEd has no idea when it will be turned on (amazing, right?).

Why am I telling you all of this?  Well, it has an interesting effect on the amount of money you spend.  If you can not use your refrigerator or microwave, what food do you cook especially once the groceries purchased that week are spoiled?  What type of home entertainment is available by candle light?  I think you see my point and with that said, here are my purchases over the weekend:

   Movie and Popcorn - $18

   Bars - $15

   Eating Out - $47

   Public Transit - $10

This brings my total to $39.47 (previously update) + $90 (listed above) = $129.47.  This is certainly not a good start, but I would call it a good effort considering the circumstances.  If I had been able to use the groceries purchased earlier in the week my eating out total would have been closer to $15 rather than $47.  On a positive note, I made the most of being forced out of the house and had a pretty fun weekend!  The other piece of the puzzle is that I fully intend to get reimbursed for my lost groceries and food expenditures while not having electricity.  I’ll be certain to add this to the update when I receive the credit!

After 1 week, the challenge is not really weighing on me and I’ll continue forward.  Clearly I’ve had a decent set back this week and although I will not name it as an excuse, we’ll see how it plays out over the course of the 4 week challenge.

Thoughts on how I’m doing thus far?