My first month - Part 2

What I did:

• I went to the dollar store and got some lil plastic jars for $3 and labelled them with their category and how much went in each week. It made it feel more like the show Til Debt do Us Part.
• I sat down and figured out how many 20s, 10s and 5s I needed to get from the bank to fill for each week.
• I hit the brick and mortar bank in person more times than I can count, but for a variety of reasons.
• I withdrew the $ for 2 weeks, placing the first week in the jars, and the second in an envelope
• I used cash for every 'jar' purchase except twice (and then deducted that amount so it all would balance at home)
• I did eat at out at people's houses many times as it was the end of the Christmas season so that saved on groceries.
• I did cook out of my pantry and freezer quite a bit more
• I did find myself saying, NO to myself many times while I was shopping if what I wanted wasn't on the list or if I didn't take enough cash with me.
• I did doodle lots on how much I would need to pay off the Mastercard and where I could get it from, and it worked.
• I did pay off my Mastercard
• I did have money left over in the jars.
• I did move the leftover money each week into the identically labelled envelope so that at the end of the month I would know how much I spent/saved each week in each category.
• I did have a lot of snowflakes: christmas $, lots of rolled coins, bottles taken in etc. I recognize that isn't going to happen each time.
• I got reallllllly excited about paying off that Credit card and everything extra went to that.

What I did not:

• I did not carry $ with me except if I knew I was going to go to 'x' after work and then took the right amount from that jar.
• I did not have very many transaction lines on my bank statement. LOL Usually it takes up pages.
• I did not gain many airmiles points, which I get for using my BMO debit card and Mastercard, because I didn't really use them.
• I did not add to my credit card debt.
• I did not go once for my morning coffee to Tim Horton's on the way to work.
• I did not go out once for lunch during the work week.
• I did not buy any magazines or books
• I did not write down each thing I bought. I tried but even for me, that was micromanaging too much and I fell behind and stopped.