Two new things: a no-bed-rotting trial + a fun allowance
These two items are pretty unrelated but I'm gonna throw them into the same post because I AM THE BOSS AROUND HERE.
A no-bed rotting trial
Ok, so, you guys know I typically set my morning alarm early enough to allow for some time in bed spent rotting on my phone. I do things like play my New York Times word games, check my social media, scan the headlines, read my email, and so on.
If I just did a quick run through these things, I think this would be relatively harmless.
But you know how it is when you are comfy in your bed with your phone...it's easy to just KEEP ON bed-rotting far longer than you mean to.
And this is especially true on days without a "Get up!" deadline, such as days when you don't have to go to work.
Sooo, I am in the midst of a self-imposed two-week trial of Not Rotting in Bed When I Wake Up, just to see if it makes a big difference in how my days go.
Why?
Well, mornings are honestly when I'm at my best. So I don't want to spend that time of day rotting on my phone! I can do that later in the day when I am already rather spent.
Also relevant: I started actually working on the floor as a nurse this week.
I have to be ready to get report from the night nurse at 7 am, and since I am new and slow, it is recommended to get to work a half hour early to read through patient charts and get report paperwork ready.
Sooo, if I want to do that without having to get up even earlier, I need to skip my morning bed-rotting.
After my two-week trial is up, I'll let you know how it went and what I have concluded.
A fun-money allowance
I had considered this idea in the past but never followed through. So I'm announcing it publicly!
Sometimes, we frugal-at-heart people have a hard time actually spending our money.
Of course, I think saving money is good. (Duh!)
But there are also joy-inducing ways to spend money, and it's a bit of a shame to live life without experiencing that sometimes.
Of course, I recognize that not everyone is in a position to budget for fun-money spending. But there are definitely cases where we frugal people do have some wiggle room and still fail to take advantage of it.
I now have my nurse pay, which means I'm in the happy position of having wiggle room.
So, I'm going to give myself a little fun money allowance and then let you all know how I spend it each month!
I was thinking of $50/month to start with, and I can see how that goes.
Or hmmm, maybe $80/month would be good, because that basically gives me $20/week to play with.
Oh Kristen, hurkle durkling is one of my weekend guilty pleasures, I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up yet. So many habits we adopted calling it self care I've since given up to improve my health, but not sure I want to do that yet. Curious to see how that goes for you. 🙂
Oh, I don't want anyone to feel pressure to do this! And also, a weekend morning is quite different than a working morning anyway.
@MommaJo, I am NOT a morning person when I first wake up. Once my feet touch the ground, I'm all go and don't sit down for 12 hours (usually 8am to 8pm, I'm on the go), but before 8 am...I am very happy to hurkle durkle. I'm a nicer person if everyone just leaves me alone for about the first 30 minutes that I'm awake. It takes my brain a bit to get going. I don't want to make conversation (opposed to DH who is a morning person from the moment his eyes open). Since I stopped working a few months ago, that 30 minutes has been a highlight of my day. I used to hate when the alarm went off and I had to jump up. I have no plans to give it up 🙂
@MommaJo, I haven't the phrase hurkle durkling before! What a great expression!
@Marlena,
You are describing my husband perfectly. His favorite refrigerator magnet says “ Coffee pairs nicely with silence.”
@MommaJo,
Can I just say, I now have a name for what I do on weekend mornings, and when I get home from work during the week? 🙂 When I get home from work, I'm usually spent, so a few minutes of quiet time (hurkle durking) is needed. I hurkle durk in our double recliner in the living room.
@Liz B.,
sorry, "durkling".
@Jenn,
Oh the series of photos we have trying to engage my mother in conversation before her 2nd cuppa. lol
@Marlena,
I understand! Another reason I'm slow to get up is DH talks non stop.
With QUESTIONS. I need to be fully awake before I can handle that.
Ohhhh, I would feel the same way. I prefer not to be talked to incessantly. 🙂
Good Luck!
I'm one of those people who is up within five minutes of waking. My British mother was very much a get up and get going kind of person and I could never break the habit.
I'm also a very technology-challenged person. How did you all get so competent with your phones? Embarrassing confession: I can text and make phone calls but the logic of doing everything else baffles me. I hear that I'm a "dinosaur" all the time--or worse!
@Darlene Too, There are worse things than not being savvy with a phone. Trust me, it's all too easy to get addicted to it! I see some of my fellow students scrolling on their phones while walking around! I am working on not using my phone so much for looking up things and being okay with being 'bored' now and then, or bringing a book to waiting rooms instead. I say embrace your nature, and don't be embarrassed. 🙂
@Darlene Too,
Hello, Darlene. My name's Darlene too. I hear that I'm a "dinosaur" too. I don't text, I don't want to and I don't have a smart phone. I have a flip phone and I rarely use it. One of those rare households that still has a home phone and I check emails on my home computer.
@Darlene Too, I'll join your club too. I mostly use my phone for texting and messaging, and some phone calls. I also have a landline which is handy when I have to make phone calls to, say, a Government agency and could be on the phone for a long time, or long hold periods. I also check my emails through my laptop. And the really funny thing is that in my younger days, I was a computer programmer. I will say that on my computer, due to the way my mind works, I have the ability to figure out how to do things, but it takes quite some time, i.e. I had to figure my way through the Government website recently to set up an account so that I can apply for pension.
@Darlene, I would love to downsize to a flip phone. I miss them! DH likes, however, to be able to use Google Maps to locate family members should a problem arise. I need to exercise more willpower if I'm going to keep this thing around!
@Darlene Too, i am a dinosaur and proud of it. my 14 yr old son is constantly teaching me tech stuff, and it takes me forever to learn. he gets very frustrated with my ineptitude. but he still doesn't give up on me.
Please spend some of your hard earned money on fun things. Frugal all my working life and saved money. Now retired where the taxes have to be paid on saved retirement money. I should have spent more when I was young!
@Kathy E,
I suspect that will be us in a couple of years, after DH retires. Hindsight is 20-20.
@Kathy E,
Wait, what? Do you mean you pay the taxes on the money you withdraw from your retirement savings?
@Liz B.,
You sure do if it was pre-tax contributions. When you get close to retirement age, a financial planner can help a person figure out how much to set aside or plan on for taxes. I only learned about (or recognized this) in the last couple of years.
I think $100 per month would be a good allowance. You can always have some leftover, but this gives you a cushion if there is something spectacular to do. And some months feel like 5 weeks ( have 5 Sundays or Mondays- or February, which lasts forever).
I do the word games in the middle of the night when I don't sleep well. Or right after I get up, while making lunches. I don't snuggle down once morning arrives. Morning lark here .
@mbmom11,
You articulated your allowance stance perfectly. I second that.
I also vote for $100/month. 🙂 Or $80 if that seems like to much to start with.
@mbmom11, your comment about February lasting forever makes me smile because where I live, February is way too short! It is the beginning of spring, and I wish it was longer than 28 days every single year. Obviously, we live in completely different climates.
I would completely spend my fun money on books. But that's my idea of fun. 😉
A while back when I was struggling with insomnia, I started leaving my phone to charge at my desk, rather than at my bedside. I got a small alarm clock with a light so I could check the time if needed. I think it has helped quite a bit. (Full disclosure, I have a tablet in my bedroom so I can watch my own TV shows, so sometimes I do use that to check the weather forecast in the morning, but more often if I am relaxing in bed I choose a book.) I generally can't stay in bed past 6:30 anyway, as the Commodore requires his first breakfast by then! And once I'm up, I'm up.
@Karen A., I forgot to add, a long while back DH told me that any Amazon rewards points we get are "mine" to "spend." So if I want a book that I absolutely cannot get through the library, or that I want to own, I use the points towards that.
I’m glad you’re giving yourself fun money! The amount of $80 per month sounds reasonable and if you don’t spend it each week, you’ll have more the next week ( of course). My husband and I are grateful to have enough money to give ourselves , as a couple, fun money that we use on going dancing. We enjoy this activity so much and the benefits give us a huge return. I hope you enjoy your new freedom to spend something on yourself!
I am not a bed rotter but find it easy to get sucked into similar activities after I get out of bed. I am generally a morning person so many days I try to get a lot done before succumbing to the rot activities. This morning has been a mostly productive morning.
I think you should allot yourself a fun allowance of at least $100/month. You are the boss of you (when you are not at work) and you can do whatever you want with your hard earned money. I look forward to seeing what you spend your allowance on. How will you determine what you need to spend your allowance on outside of "normal" spending?
@K D, I agree with $100 a month and I would furthermore suggest in making it a monthly payment rather than a weekly one. There are a lot of fun things one can do that cost more than $20 but less than $100.
I am a bed rotter……I think I will take up Kristen‘s challenge!
@K D, Agreeing with so many others here to encourage $100/mo. That's the amount that DH and I have had for our personal/spending money for about a decade. We put it in a section of our account, it transfers there automatically, and we can get the cash or transfer it back to checking as we spend, which is a great system for us. We've stayed at this amount for more than a decade, and even with the money not going as far as it did when we started, still feel like it's a good amount.
Kristen, are you planning to try to spend it all within the month? If it rolls over, will you make yourself do something "even" more "fun"/extravagant? Because we all know that there is plenty of frugal fun, but also some paid things are worth it 🙂
Yes, I think rolling it over is my plan!
The term “bed rotting” really nails it! This blog and checking emails are my morning electronics time.
I think a $100/month fun allowance is not too much for a newly minted nurse in an expensive part of the world, Kristen.
+1 to what @bookclubelaine said!
Both these are great things to work on, now that your circumstances have changed!
I don’t look at my phone in bed (I don’t bring it into my bedroom), however I have certainly fallen prey to being on it longer than ideal. Not in the morning, but in the evening. I’ve started to impose time limits for scrolling, and after my time is up for the day, I treat it like a landline. Keep it on or near the charger, and I have to stand at the counter to use it- not as comfy nor convenient!!
Regarding fun money- it’s always been hard for me to spend it, but I’m getting better. The place I enjoy spending it the most is occasionally taking myself out to lunch, typically to Vietnamese/Mexican/ middle Eastern restaurants. I really enjoy going solo, absorbing the atmosphere, and having an occasional lunch out.
@Kim from Philadelphia,
I have no problem standing while being on my phone scrolling. Many times I am standing folding laundry or cooking I am good but sitting is more comfortable.
I do chair-rotting. The dogs get me up early, so after they go out I make a cup of coffee then sit in a chair in my sunroom/office every morning and scroll on my laptop -- email, this blog, Instagram & Facebook, random other things that are sometimes productive, like banking or writing. But lately I've been feeling like I do this for too long. I'm at my best in the morning and I've been thinking I should set a limit on this chair-rotting time.
So I'm in -- I won't cut it out completely, because I enjoy my quiet mornings with coffee, but I'll set a reasonable limit and stick to it for the next two weeks. Thanks for the challenge, Kristen!
@Beth (in VA), I'm similar to you: I do recliner-rotting instead of bed-rotting. But I've already started cutting down on it this past week (I've had a lot of editing work for JASNA coming in, and I need my morning brain for that), and I'll try to keep this up.
@Beth (in VA), Me too! After years of working and raising children, it's such a luxury not to start the day with a flurry of activity at 5:00am.
I don't feel particularly productive of late. I have begun to rethink my morning and evening routines a bit.
@Beth (in VA), I am same as you and Kristen.But I do it i8n my fave chair.I also like that first cup of coffee though,quietly,so I am going to set an alarm and give myself 30 minutes for coffee,news and read my fave blogs (I have 3 I read daily.) THEN IT’S TIME TO GET UP AND MOVING AND PUT AWAY THE DEVICES!!!!!
I am retired so no work commitments but I still feel I waste too much of my good morning energy online. TIME FOR A CHANGE!
@Beth (in VA), I totally chair rot too.
@Madeline,
I enjoy reading here and NCA
Can I ask what your third blog of choice is?
I make my coffee each morning right after I get up, then head to my desk and check things on my laptop, social media excluded. No rotting in bed for me in the morning. I save it for later when I need a break and then I am usually on the couch. (: Like you, I tend to want to get things done earlier since that's when I feel rested.
I pencil in fun activities for myself that I don't necessarily budget for. And right now, fun money is going to sprucing up some areas of my home. However! I am going to head to World Market today and pick myself up a treat - some pumpkin spice Torani syrup for my coffee.
$100/Month for allowance is my recommendation. You can save up any unspent allowance for something a little more expensive should the opportunity arise.
I definitely am not a morning bed rotter, but I sure do my fair share of scrolling at night. I even go to bed early to "relax" and scroll. I think a detox may be a good idea right now and dong it as a community may be more motivating. I read Dopamine Nation last year which made me very aware that I probably need a digital detox now and then.
@Sarah, I’ve not heard of Dopamine Nation. After looking it up, I think you might also enjoy The Comfort Crisis (Michael Easter) for an additional boost.
Yay for you Kristin! Enjoy your fun money and we’ll be looking forward to hear how you spend it!
I keep my phone in another room at night and rarely check it even if I’m up, unless bad weather is predicted. Otherwise, when I get up in the morning, I collect my phone and check the headlines, email, texts, and read this blog while having the morning cup of tea that hubby fixes for me. I have refused to use my phone for social media (have to use the iPad or laptop) bc I know I would get sucked in and never get anything done!
It seems logical to set your amount of fun money by week instead of month, since, as mbmom11 noted, some months have more weeks in them. What that amount should be only you can say. 🙂
Because I am old(ish) and set in my ways, I have never gotten into the whole phone scrolling thing. Instead, I use a laptop. I always open it first thing in the morning while I drink my coffee (not in bed, though, as my husband is still there) to, as you do, read blogs, etc. This has a defined end time, however, as I have to get everyone up for school or my children get up on weekends and I start with the breakfast, etc., morning stuff. I will still spend more time on it than I should, though, and this is something that I really need to work on now that I'm home all day. I'll open it to look up a recipe or something and then stay on it for longer than it takes to look at the recipe.
I work well with schedules, and follow one in my head even when one isn't externally imposed, so I really just need to think out the times in which my laptop should and shouldn't be used, and stick to it. I am an extreme morning person and almost all my work is done in a five-hour block of time between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m., so afternoons are when I most likely to be mindlessly on my laptop. That's when I need to set some limit or assign myself a time period or something.
Always easier said than done, however. Good luck with your two-week experiment!
I downloaded the free app Opal to block social media at certain times (including 6-8 am, my normal wake up times every day). It is more effective than the Apple Screentime limits and you have to go into the app to request a break (for the whole period or just 5 min). Sometimes its annoying, like if I'm trying to sell something on Facebook or look at a business site that is only on social media, but it is effective!
@Meeghan, Thank you for the tip! I just downloaded that app and it looks just like what I need!
@Meeghan, I am going to go get OPAL! Thanks!
I think you deserve every penny of your fun money allowance!
I am not a bed rotter since I pretty much get out of bed as soon as I wake. I do get sucked into similar activities after I get out of bed on the weekends.
I love that you are setting up a fun budget. You are frugal and work hard, so you deserve to have money to spend on things you enjoy without any guilt. I suggest $100/month for your fun budget at first. If you find you have extra money after the first few months, you could reduce your budget.
I love the $50/fun money idea! It is actually hard to learn to spend money productively and not wastefully when things ease up a bit. I am learning spending can be as much of a discipline as frugality. Please keep us posted how it goes!
I spend a good 2-3 hours (Yikes!) bed rotting and scrolling my phone before I go to sleep each night. I need to stop this and actually go to sleep so YES I will join you on this two week challenge and see how I go. Thanks for the boost to try this out - hopefully I come out on the other side more rested and less stressed.
We have £67.5 each . It started when an insurance payment stopped. I spend it on craft classes and supplies and my husband on coffees out . It’s down as sluttish spending in my budget
Definitely $80 per month!
I had no idea what the term bed-rotting meant. Since you are a nurse in a hospital, a very unpleasant mental association was made. Thank heavens that isn't what you meant.
I just can't waste my precious morning sleep time in scrolling or games. If I have extra time after I first wake up, I go back to sleep. Once I wake up for good, I get right up. I get straight up on weekends, too, because (1.) I have a long drive to church and the service starts at 9 and (2.) Saturdays, I sleep till roughly 7:30 without my alarm, then get up to go enjoy front porch time with the dogs. Plus, my phone is never by my bed. I use an alarm clock. I struggle most with scrolling when one of my kids posts something on Instagram or Facebook (which isn't often, to be honest) so I go there to see it, then get caught in cute cat and dog videos and that sort of thing. This is invariably in the evening, and I get mad at myself any time I do it. So I'm working to make that stop.
Fun money is a good idea! Maybe this will make me budget fun money for myself. I never have, and I really should. I would say save it weekly as well, since the months can end mid-week or you could have five weekends. I'd start with $20 or $25 per week, then adjust it up or down as you feel appropriate.
@JD, heh-heh, I also had the same unpleasant mental association with that term!
@JD, I’ve heard the phrase before & I find it fairly repulsive! Rotting & rotten create awful visuals for me as a former produce worker in a grocery store to an ICU nurse. I occasionally lay around the couch doing nothing, but definitely not rotting!!!
I have a mad money account. Whenever I make little bits of money from eBay, iBotta, Facebook Marketplace, or some other miscellaneous source: I put the funds in this account. I then use this money for things or experiences that I do not have in my budget. Sometimes there's a good deal of money in the account, but sometimes it's nearly empty.
I used to bring my family to a minor league baseball game over the holiday weekend. Six tickets were $130, but the time we spent together was priceless. I know that is corny line, but it's so true.
I get up immediately and get my coffee that has been set the night before. But then I go to my computer and check emails, bank stuff, figure out what my day will be like. Usually that is an hour or so. I alwaySs gave my husband$100 for the month as spending money. I think $25 a week is resaonable. I don't give myself 'spending'money per se since I am in charge of the money. If I want/need something like a coffee I just go do it. or books....
My husband is more of a spender than I am, so when we got married we almost immediately found that we needed to each have a monthly fun money allowance. We have a guideline that if it only benefits you or is something that we both don’t want or use, then you need to use your fun money for it (clothes you want but don’t need, hobbies, eating out with friends, etc,). We started at $50 a month each, but now the allowance is $100. The allowance has saved us from a lot of arguments and both of us have become better at saving because we know if we want something a little more expensive, we have to spend less of our allowance until we save up enough.
What a wonderful idea 🙂 I’ll join you on your bed rotting goal!
I need about an hour in the morning after I wake and an hour before bedtime to not be on the phone.
We have fun money written into our budget. It allows us to spend a little with no guilt of being frugal. Of course, I find I am frugal even with my fun money (cause I want to stretch it as far as I can), but it also doesn't make me feel like I blew the budget when we spend on misc. stuff.
Do you normally have a budget for all of your income? I wasn't sure if you budget, or if you just live frugally and it works out in the long run. When I mention a budget to all of my people (parents, siblings, friends, etc)...nobody budgets. The only person I know with a budget is my younger son. His personality is one that is more Type A. Of course, he makes less than any of the others. He's the youngest, and also one of the only ones that lives by himself (no spouse) so that tracks that his household income is the least, but he has more savings than most people I know also (could also be because he is single haha).
I actually have a pretty hard and fast rule of not taking my phone in the bedroom at all. I actually also recommend this. (I will take the phone along if I'm expecting something to happen that would manifest in a call or urgent message, but then in those cases I don't ever sleep well, anyway. However, I have the (sometimes dubious) luxury of living with people who have a sleep schedule completely different from mine, so usually there's only about 3 or 4 hours where someone's not available to take a call or text in the kitchen or office.)
As far as fun money, I'd say that you should think about the things that you file in the fun category, figure out how much they cost and/or how many times you are interested/willing to do them in some period of time, and then divide it up. I feel like that could exceed $20 a week, potentially, depending on your fun category contents.
Very interested in your 2 week experiment. Since I am retired and now only work a day and a half a week at a fun job I very easily fall into bed rotting regularly!! Good luck!
Not bed rotting sounds like a great idea! May give it a shot as well!!
“Rotting” is such a horrible word! It sounds like a luxurious way to wake up. If you designate just one morning a week for this, then it goes back into the category of Treat rather than Habit.
“Fun money” is what Dave Ramsey calls “blow money”. What do you think you’ll blow money on in this new approach?
My full bladder wakes me up so I am out of bed but I can spend too much time on the throne. I accept the challenge to be more aware of this wasted time.
I think you should budget $100 for fun money. You can carry over any you don't use and use it for something bigger like a weekend away. Be very intentional about using this money to reward yourself for this hard work.
Working 12 hour shifts, there will likely be times where you work an extra shift or partial shift. Treat that extra income as a bonus and keep it aside for bigger things like a trip to Hawaii.
I don't think I will ever stop being frugal because it has served me well both in raising a family and now in retirement. But the cake of life is better with a frosting of rewards ... big and small rewards.
Kristen, it is interesting to me to see how many people are taking your ideas to heart as a suggestion to join you. You are a true leader (and thank goodness you are prone to positive habits!)
Challenges are more fun as a group, right? 🙂
I totally support you in both of your ideas. If you can swing it, I like the idea of $100 fun money for you. You have worked so hard for so long, and been so frugal, that I think it would be lovely for you to treat yourself this way.
Also, you have probably already looked into this and have it covered, but just to make sure: if you are getting to work "early" to review charts and stuff, you are entitled to be paid for that time. That is work.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/22-flsa-hours-worked
@Dana, I was thinking the same thing when Kristen said she should be there 30 minutes earlier than start of shift to review patient logs. You are there working, you should get paid. As an employee I have had to stand up for myself when questioned over my hours worked. If I have to be at work & am performing my job duties then you are paying me, otherwise if I can't get it done withing that timeline I am not willing to give hours of my time freely as it will be expected moving forward. As A manager (at one point) I was clear about clocking in before starting job duties, even before scheduled shift begins.
@Regina, unfortunately those of us who have worked healthcare accept some degree of unpaid labor. Often not enough time to fully review charts, especially new patients, and research diagnoses that we’re not familiar with. I always preferred to do the time to protect myself and patients.
Not fair but it exists when business runs healthcare.
Thank you for sharing that you get to work early since you’re “new and slow.” I switched paths (not completely, but definitely enough to matter!), and I’m constantly struggling with feeling new/slow/constantly making mistakes/not knowing anything. It’s so much harder at 40! Any insight or tips on how to mentally help yourself overcome this?
I have a $100 mad money as in crazy good time money.
It all started from my first paycheck...mind you, I was 14. Savings...75%, car fund 15%, fun 10%. Then I bought my car at 15 and that fund went into insurance.
I get up and go do chores so I can do my yoga routine on the front porch as the sunrises. My time! I miss it when I'm out of town working...only 4 more months!
I have a flip phone for me personally and a smarter phone for the ranch. We still have a landline.
We call it ,"the recliner caught me again!" So I suppose it is chair rotting. Add a cat or two.
I think fun money can serve many great purposes! Avoid overspending, allow someone to save up the fun money for a bigger item. I think I think through a fun money purchase by asking is this really how I want to spend this. We should deprive ourselves all the time then what is the purpose of saving just to stock pile.
I have a "no phone in bed" policy and honestly it has helped me get better rest. My phone is set to go to "bed" (silent) from 9:30pm-7am, and once it is plugged in on nightstand, I do not touch it until I get up and have made coffee on my work at home / weekend days, or until I get to work in my in office days.
OK I am absolutely WITH YOU on the bed rotting thing.I don’t do it in bed..I get my coffee and plop down in my fave living room chair and waste way too much of my VIBRANT MORNING ENERGY on the darned news,emails and socials.I COULD do this in the evening when my energy is flagging, and USE my morning energy for all my other activities..I’d like to do this too for 2 weeks !Are we starting TODAY?? Well,tomorrow, as I have already rotted this morning! lol
FUN MONEY: $20 a week sounds still pretty frugal to me, as you are now making a real nurses salary, probably have some savings, and have a continued outlook of GREAT WORK/CAREER for many years ahead! Go with the 80 a month!!!!!
I highly recommend a fun money allowance. I never would have been able to stick to paying off my debt if I didn't set aside a little money for fun. Of course, I am not a natural saver and have had no problems spending money which is why I got myself into debt in the first place! I do $100 a month now that I am debt free except for the mortgage.
When I was getting out of debt I also came across the concept of a Sunny Day Fund (as opposed to a rainy day fund. This was for unexpected FUN expenses that came up. Friend wants you to join them on a weekend trip? You've got money set aside for that. Your favorite band is coming to town and tickets are more than you have allocated for regular spending? Sunny Day Fund to the rescue. I wasn't always able to squeeze money into that budget item, but when I did it made life more spontaneous and pleasurable.
So I am not a bed rotter, but I do get up in the morning & sit in a chair to scroll through email & social media & my daily tasks first thing. BUT I have noticed that on days I don't have to go (also) I tend to do it more often & longer, especially if I'm not in a mood to get things done. 😉
I've tried changing it up to my daily tasks & email first thing & social media later, which was better but I found myself on social media longer than before. I really don't want to wait until afternoon/evening to do daily tasks & email, especially if I have to go actually check the physical mail. But then again later social media has sometimes taken out rescue dogs walks.
I never thought that I would fall into behavior of scrolling online (what seems like) endlessly, but time sure does not stop. Sometimes I think I should have teen show me how to set up parental controls limiting my online time. 😉
I echo the $100/month sentiments. It's a nice round number and feels more extravagant. As you have the opposite of a spending problem, I doubt you will hit that on the regular anyway but it gives you more flexibility. I don't really allocate a specific amount in my fun money, but it is sort of bundled into the 'personal' category of my budget. My fun money is typically spent on my hobbies and the occasional meal out with friends or my sister. I'm glad you are doing this for yourself!
I give myself $100.00 a month. Sometimes there is money left over and I put that into another slush saving fun in case something bigger comes up to do and the. There is the money for it…ie…baseball game or concert. I am also a saver and like having the permission to spend on myself. When money is gone early…..I’ve had too much fun and just cut back for the rest of the month.
I think a fun budget sounds great! I definitely need to curb mine though 😉
I don't tend to spend time in bed after I wake up but I do sit around in my pjs for a while. I'm mostly okay with that but I could try waking up earlier on days where I need to get things done. Side rant: I called to cancel a bank appointment when I realised it clashed with work and then they said they had no record of it anyway (?!) So I'm glad I didn't trek all the way down there in the morning if I thought I'd actually had an appointment! This thing is such a pain to fix right now!
I have earned the “Queen Bee” NYT Spelling Bee crown three days in a row, BUT I only play after I have taken the dog out for a long walk (as soon as the sky lights up enough to see where we’re going) and a game of frisbee and a cup of coffee. Same for my 80-day Wordle solving streak. NO “bed rotting”! Which frankly sounds disgusting. ;-}
For me, the phone thing is a problem at night. I * want* to go to bed around 9h30, with a book, but oops.... the phone "slips itself" in my hand and 3 hours goes by.... Yuck. So, YES, I want to take on the challenge with you of keeping the phone off from 9hpm to the next morning 🙂
I start work at 10 pm. I get up at 9:00 to take a shower (wash my hair if needed) and get dressed. The hope is to leave at 9:30 or thereabouts so I have some time to scroll my phone at work (work-rotting HA HA). On my weekends however the rotting is sofa, bed and wherever LOL
Your anti-bed rotting goal is very interesting to me! I too enjoy a good bed rot. 🙂 (As do my 2 kitties, who enjoy joining me at times. As a highly sensitive person (HSP) and an introvert, I get overwhelmed by being around large groups of people or settings with a lot of sensory input so at times I really crave the peaceful calm in a lovely comforting setting that my bed/bedroom provides. However, you are right that "bed rotting" is on a spectrum and you can take it too far which is clearly not good for a person! I'm going to have to give your goal idea some thought in my own life . . . P.S. Be sure to report back on your "fun money" allowance! I love that idea, too.
@Dori, I think the difference is if it's for recharging or avoidance. I'm an introvert and definitely need time to decompress after a lot of socialising or being busy in general.
Hey Kristen, as an RN, I have several ideas on how you could spend fun money!!
-massage
-epsom salts/nice essential oils
-pedicures (foot rubs and pampering)
-chiropractic adjustments
-foam roller for back, thera-ball-foot/thera-cane for your back
-day pass to day spas that have hot and cold plunge pools
Caregiving is hard on your body, its a wonderful job and so worth it, but its very important to pamper and care well for yourself. You are important!!
Around our house, we have dealt with the question of how broad or narrow the "fun" category should be. Should it include eating out or grappling coffee on one's own (as opposed to as a couple), clothes, etc.? I am curious how you conceptualize this category.
Hmm, I guess I have mainly thought of it broadly as being for things that would be nice but are not necessary.
We'll see how that goes for me!
Slightly related- my husband and I have had a “ fun money” allowance for many years. The amount has varied from 10% of our paycheck when we were both making a good Salary to a flat $100 each a month now. ( he’s retired so we have less income.) To be used however we want with no criticism. His uses have ranged from camera equipment to fountain pens and ink to Apple fritters! Mine are mostly yarn and coffee or lunches out with girlfriends. It was the best idea we ever had to tamp down spending criticism!
i never use my cell phone in bed. for me it is not that comfy. but i do sit on the couch and play solitaire. solitaire reminds me of my dad who taught me the game. he is gone 8 years now. since he is buried at west point and i don't drive or have a car i have never been to the grave. i missed his funeral cause i was in the hospital and it was at west point. i hope you enjoy your fun money, you have worked so hard for this.
I guess I have a problem with it being called "rotting". It makes me think of rotten food (yuck!). I must just be too old or something. Ha.
I have fond memories from when I was a kid/teen, and reading in bed after waking up, usually on a weekend or school break. Smart phones (and the Internet) had not been invented yet, but I guess I was basically doing the same thing, except in analog form. 🙂
I'm so NOT a morning person, so on the weekends, I truly enjoy that morning time reading email, doing my NYT games and puzzles, or reading whatever e-book I'm reading via Libby. During the work week, there's no time for that in the morning, but after work is another good time to catch up, rest and relax before I tackle any chores that need my attention. As always, you do you (Kristen and the Commentariat).
Kristen, I'd say go for $100/month. Myself, I have no problem spending money on (affordable) experiences, especially with my family. We recently went to see Phil Rosenthal (of "Somebody Feed Phil" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame), and it was wonderful. He is just as funny and charming "in real life" as he is on the show. DH bought the tickets, so I have no idea how much they cost, but it was worth every penny.
Haha, I think it's a Gen Z term, which I probably picked up on because all of my children are Gen Z. 🙂
I was thinking about your "mad money" today as I was out doing errands. I live in a town with a small business district made up of small businesses. Recently a chain smoothie business came into town and we have a local smoothie business. I don't go often because it is so inexpensive to make them at home. And coffee is cheap to make at home. I think that would be a good idea to have the cash for an extra from a "local small business"--a smoothie, coffee, ice cream, light lunch or a bar of special soap or hand cream for self or gift. A couple of weeks ago I had a late lunch with a friend at a locally-owned spot. It only came to $35 w/o tip for the two of us. She had a soda and I had water. I didn't need supper that night.
I enjoy my hour or so in the morning by myself--my quiet time.
That is a good idea!
I agree with the effect you describe however I like not having to bounce out of bed immediately, and I like reading this blog first thing. It’s always a positive place to start. My dog likes it when I lounge in bed too, he’s a total snugglebug in the morning. So it might not happen.
Sounds like $15 or $20 a week is a good place to start and easy to track.
I have never been a 'bed rotter'. I do not spend any time on my phone when I wake up. Until I got rid of the landline just a couple of years ago, I didn't even keep my cell in my room at night. As it's my only phone now, I do keep it in my room in case of overnight emergencies but that's it.
Please be aware that after being frugal for so long it can be hard to spend fun money. You might need to commit to actually spending it. Even if it's on something not so fun--like eating in the cafeteria when you simply don't have enough energy on your third working day in a row.
That is EXACTLY why I told you guys about it. The accountability will make me actually spend it. 🙂
I swear by the fun money allowance approach. My husband and I each get one and it has really made it easier to stick to budget in other areas. And it’s nice to have money that is guilt free when you spend it. I tend to spend mine on craft supplies and my husband spends his on video games or computer parts. My husband is not a natural saver so I think this really helps where he can have money that’s just for spending on whatever with no strings attached.
We have a family rule that phones charge in the kitchen at night. It started off that the teens had to do that, but then my husband and I realized it would be good for us too, so we've been doing that now for a couple years and it's been good for all of us. We have an analogue alarm clock in the bedroom. It's certainly helped us not waste time on our phones in the mornings or in the night when we can't sleep.
My husband's job started early, so the alarm clock rang at 4:45 every day. Now that he's retired, it is our goal to sleep in. We are finally getting pretty good at it. Therefore, I will only join you in spirit. Even in spirit, it's going to be tough, but I'm rooting for you.
Figure out a balance between fun money and long-term savings. Tomorrow is not promised keep an eye on retirement although it seems like you might want to work another 20 years, maybe?
We have been enjoying our 'go go' years from age 60 to 70. I'm glad we did it, and we're continuing a lot of travel for now.
I can't bed rot. I get right up, have a cup of tea and watch the morning news and read the paper. I'm not comfortable laying in bed playing on my phone. I guess I just need to be upright when I get up.
A fun allowance of $50 a month sounds like a generous amount when you're probably used to trying not to spend much. I bet you may have trouble spending it at first -- but you deserve it! Have fun!
I rot in bed at night....staying awake way past midnight. I get in bed around 9:30 & before I realize it hours have passed!
My husband & I have given each other a fun money allowance for decades. We started with $5 a week yrs ago. Now we're at $20 a week. But I've noticed my husband often does not take his fun money. And sometimes he adds extra to my balance! And of course, it's one the first things that go if money is tight.
I have found that time on the phone first thing doesn't set me up for a good day - but an equal amount of time spent reading a novel or just petting the dogs and letting my mind wander DOES seem to feel indulgent without getting me off track. For what it is worth...
Well you'll see how it goes - experimenting is good! Maybe you'll find a new time that works better to veg out a bit :). That said - fun money is a great idea 🙂 I think you should experiment there too - whatever feels right and you'll see how it plays out in the budget
I am all for the fun money allowance! You worked your butt off to become an RN and I say spend some of that nurse money!! I know I did when I got my RN! And let’s face it you’ve been through a lot the past few years and deserve to pamper yourself and put yourself first.
These are all very fair points. 🙂
My fun money (entertainment) budget is 100 a month. I consider it vitally important. I live alone, no family nearby, and am starting over building community. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine.
I think the no bed rotting will vastly improve your morning and day. I on the other hand need that time because I only have internet between about 9pm and 6-7am. I kinda like to sleep during those hours. I have nothing positive to say about Mint Mobile. Neither do any of the other people who live in my area who also paid for a year in advance for lousy service. In the middle of a mid-size city in a T Mobile dead zone. grumble, grumble
I gave up bed rotting a couple months ago and it's been huge for my mental health! It took me about three or four weeks to get used to it, though, so don't give up if it doesn't take right away!
Hi! I like the idea of a percentage of income as fun money or money to be spent on current wants. I try to keep my needs and my savings to a certain percentage also. We are not promised tomorrow so it's good to buy the ice cream, or get a fun new pen, or a silly t shirt, or whatever just because.
I'm also a nurse, and if I work multiple shifts in a row or the days were particularly tough, I love a good bed rot. I think of it like having a "work hangover" and I just let myself recover - especially in my first day off. I try not to do it all the time, but there are days when that is the best choice.
Also, being a new nurse is a lot of learning and decision making - especially for the first year. You may be more mentally, emotionally, and/or physically fatigued that you'd expect. Be gentle with yourself - it does get better!
I hope you share (similar to grocery) what you spend your fun money on! I think it's encouraging to those when they get to that point to see it's really spending without guilt!