Theoretical vs. Actual Savings

The No Spend Challenge has got me thinking about savings cause isn't the point of this exercise. I think it is a little silly how grocery stores and even Starbucks say how much you saved at the bottom of your receipts. I didn't save money, I just spent money. It didn't go into savings or towards paying down debt. I most likely would not have bought that thing if it cost that much more, my purchasing threshold was due to the actually price, not the savings, my mind does not work that way. However, Cappy is totally falls into that trap of theoretical savings and spends more because of the value and just saving so much on the one item he can then get those other things too. This is why it is amusing to see what he comes home from the grocery store. So I'm wondering if there is a way to bridge the gap between theoretical and actual savings or if it is necessary to. Again it seems dumb or too much effort to take those receipts and move the theoretical money saved from the checking account into my online savings account. I have the fear that I didn't budget for this and if move to much money I'll just have to dip back into the savings, which I worry will create a habit of it or if that money is moved to pay down debts that I will need to use a credit card, thus a vicious cycle is reignited.

Extraneous or Just Real Life

So I'm trying not to spend any extra money. However, I'm trying to hang out more one-on-one with friends to build stronger relationships. This has been leading to spending more money at coffee shops and restaurants. I'm sure how and if I want to stifle this spending, because it straddles that line of superfluous and necessary. Plus I'm always in the mood to try a new coffee shop as I am still learning about my new city. Also I have these craft projects I want to do, but again I don't want to spend extra money. I kind of have in my mind that if I use my tip money to pay for it doesn't count.

February Challenge Goal/Reward

So it's February 1st. Let's set out the goal for the low (no) spend challenge. I want to direct all my excess monies to my emergency fund to achieve the goal of 2000 dollars. If I reach that by the end of the month as I am 389 dollars away at this point, the rest will go towards my student loans, which is around 8000 at this point. I am also going on vacation in March and April so I need to save for that. But I need to think more on that. Since Cappy gets paid more than me, he has no problem saying majority of it, but I do want to pull my own wait. So that's what I am starting with for this challenge. I am super excited.