Do you know these moments, when you buy some new stuff, the thrill of anticipation, but at the same time, you feel pretty bad to have spent a lot of money again?
When was the last time your partner darted malignant glances at you, when the delivery guy hands you a huge box of new miniatures?
What about these euphoric moments, when you get a completely new idea for an army or for some awesome conversions and later realize, you just can’t spend so much money on your hobby …
Well, I know all of these scenarios, but I found a way to at least avoid a bad conscience about it – and I’ll tell you the trick: Work for it!
No, I’m not talking about the daily hours at work, I’m not talking about bringing the money. I’m talking about daily achievements. And of course, achievement rewards.
My wife and I are pretty good at procrastinating. And let’s be honest, when you look around, there is always something to do. Go to the gym, clean the house, clear out the storeroom, mow the lawn on the weekend, and what not all … even some minutes of daily fitness-exercises while watching TV can get too much.
So some month ago (I guess its even a year already) we decided to make a change. I set up an award-system for every task we have to do, and each task rewards a certain amount of points. This can be repeating tasks like the exercises, or varying tasks from a special list we keep – like excavating the big tree in our garden.
Every point we collect, resembles 1 Euro we can spend and so we keep track about our reward-money. Whenever we buy something, we simply check off this amount and save for the next – and really important, there is no veto allowed for what we buy! As long as it doesn’t influence our living situation … like a bunch of Racoons for example. (God, I would love that.)
Examples of my achievement-list
- Daily exercises (1 Point)
- Hoovering and dusting (2 Points)*
- Jogging for at least 20 Minutes (2 Points)
- Playing Tennis (3 Points)*
*Some of our achievements are limited, so playing tennis and cleaning up only counts once per week.
This works pretty well! Overall I spent definitely less money than before, but I’m still buying stuff continously. Its just that I have to save longer for bigger things. And best of all, it feels even better when I can spend my points and I know, that I really earned it!
Here are some additional tips
- When you set your goals and achievements, think about how much money you want to spend monthly at max. When you set the rewards, it should hardly be possible for you to exceed this limit, but perhaps its slightly possible when you really do great. Otherwise, this whole list is nonsense.
- Keep in mind that a long list gives you a lot of options, but it can also get pretty demotivational, when you just can’t handle all of it. So keep it clean and effective.
- Print the list, laminate it and hang it in a prominent spot! When you see it all day long, it will keep you going. And you can easily write and erase your points with a right marker.
I hope this gives you some inspiration and you try it out by yourself. If so, let me know about your progress and share some experiences in the comments!
Would love to hear from you 🙂
Sisters of Saint Nora 