Happy Wednesday, friends. Let’s talk about some of my recent demerits (areas of my life that aren’t going so well right now) and gold stars (personal wins). I got this idea from Elisabeth who got it from Gretchen Rubin. It’s time to get brutally honest here.

DEMERIT | Spending too much money on Cooking Fever tokens.

I’m embarrassed about this demerit because I am in my flipping mid-30s, what am I doing spending money on in-app purchases?! Alas, the Cooking Fever gods have gotten me. This game is essentially impossible to play without spending money; that’s how it’s designed. The premise of the game is that you own a restaurant and are responsible for cooking all of the food for customers in a timely manner. As the game progresses, you cycle through all different types of restaurants (Italian restaurants, coffee shops, sushi restaurants, fine dining restaurants, etc.) but in order to pass each level, you need to spend tokens and gems on different items. For example, buying a pan that cooks your food faster so your customers don’t get angry at you and leave without buying anything. You can also engage in playing and betting on games like slot online, with the opportunity to win substantial prizes.

If you’re looking for additional tips and strategies to enhance your gaming experience, check out stardew guides on gamemite for valuable insights into maximizing your success in games like stardew valley.

IT’S RIDICULOUS, I KNOW. But I am so sucked into this game. It brings me great joy to play it, which is part of the reason I’ve been okay with spending money on the game. We should spend money on the things that bring us joy and happiness, right?! Well, to a degree. I am spending too much money on this game and I need to establish some boundaries, like setting a limit for how many tokens/gems I’m willing to spend in a day. So if you want a game that can help you earn instead, then sites like bro138 is definitely for you.

GOLD STAR | Writing down my schedule on a daily basis.

One of the things I know about myself is that I need a strict schedule. When I just let myself go with the flow, that’s when I end up spending 30 minutes playing games on my phone while lounging on the couch instead of getting dinner started. So I have started sitting down every night to create a schedule for the next day. I write down what meetings I have that day and any big to-dos I need to get done, and then I create an hour-by-hour list of my day. This has been working SO WELL for me! And since every day is different (some days I have zero meetings, some days I need to run errands at lunch, etc), it allows me to create a schedule that works for each day and keeps things interesting. I feel like I am so much more productive and just feel so much better about what I’m getting done each day. Making a strict schedule like this has felt more freeing because I don’t have to battle with myself about what I’m going to do: I know exactly what I need to do, and I do it.

DEMERIT | Not following a budget.

This is a near-constant demerit for me, especially now that I’m not providing monthly or quarterly budget updates. I used to be so good at checking my bank account and itemizing all of my purchases on a regular basis, but I got very tired of this system so I stopped doing it. Instead, I created a loose budget for myself but haven’t been very good about following it closely. Checking my bank account and updating my numbers hasn’t become a part of my routine, and I need to figure out what to do about that. (And before anyone suggests Mint or You Need a Budget – those systems just don’t work for me. I’m glad they work for many people, but my brain just can’t compute.)

GOLD STAR | Eating 3 or more servings of fruits/vegetables on a near-daily basis.

One of the biggest changes my dietician wanted me to make to my diet was eating more fruits and vegetables. Before I started seeing her, I would go DAYS without eating any fruit or veggies. Well, I’m pleased as punch to say that I’ve been eating three or more servings on a near-daily basis! (I struggle with eating healthy on the weekends. I’m a work in progress?) Typically, I have a piece of fruit with either my morning or afternoon snack, as well as a serving of fruit and a serving of veggies with lunch. So far, I’m digging grapes, pears, green apples, and clementines for fruit. And I love doing a raw veggie like carrots or broccoli with a dip (the Boar’s Head Tzatziki Greek Yogurt dip is amazing). I’ll also usually have some sort of veggie (like green beans or roasted broccoli) with dinner, too, but that doesn’t happen every night. I’m proud of my progress so far, though!

DEMERIT | Being on my phone too much when I’m watching TV.

Ughhh, a constant demerit for me! I spend way too much time on my phone when I’m watching TV. It doesn’t make me feel good. I always feel the need to be doing something else while I’m watching TV – why is that? It’s not as if I’m doing anything productive to “make up” for the time I’m spending watching TV. I’m just on my phone, either scrolling through Instagram or playing a stupid game. For a while, I was using the Downtime feature to turn off my ability to access all of my apps (except for a select few) at night. I probably should turn that back on. I also used to color while watching TV; if I had to multitask, at least make it something that didn’t involve a screen! Maybe I just need to put my phone on the charger in my room in the evenings so I’m not tempted to use it. There are a lot of options here—I just need to get strict with myself! Sometimes a little tough love is needed.

GOLD STAR | Saving money by making it a game.

I have many skills, but saving money is not one of them. While I have a few automatic deposits set up for certain savings accounts (like my car insurance fund, my Christmas fund, etc.), I have always struggled with saving for long-term purchases or socking extra money away in my emergency savings. So I decided to make it fun! I downloaded this worksheet and every Friday, I pull up a random number generator, set it to give me a number between 1 and 52 (the number of tiles on the worksheet), and then whatever number it gives me, I count down to that corresponding tile. Whatever number is in the middle of the selected tile is the number I have to put away into savings. (So, for example, if the random number generator gave me “14,” I would count to the 14th tile, which has the number $40 in it. So I would put $40 into my savings that week.) After sending the money to savings, I color in the tile to show my progress! I’m using this system to add extra money to my emergency fund and to save up for a big purchase (right now, it’s my ladder bookshelf!). In one month, I’ve saved $153 in my emergency savings and $118 in my bookshelf fund—the savings aren’t extraordinary, but they truly do add up and allow me to make progress on my financial goals without feeling like I’m depriving myself.

Any demerits and/or gold stars you want to talk about?