For next few weeks I'm going to post a list of what we buy, so you can see how we're putting the plan to use.

Again, this is a starting point. Those living in areas where the cost of living is high or who have special dietary needs may need to adjust this up to as much as two or three dollars per meal. I believe the plan works better when you have more people involved, like family or roomates. In great part because food is eaten more quickly and therefore it's less likely that something will be spoiled or wasted. 

I know at least one person had said they were going to try the $1 meal plan themselves.  We'd love to hear how that's going if you are trying it.

There are lots of reasons to fight addictions, but being a financial focused blog, I wanted to discuss the financial aspects.

There are two main types of addictions, chemical and psychological.  Most of us are familiar with chemical addictions, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes...at least to the degree that we're aware of them and that they can be serious.  Most of these have a mental aspect too, but because of the chemical dependency we tend to treat them more seriously.  There's a lot of material out there on recognizing and dealing with addictions, so I'm not going to rehash the entire library here, but I do want to throw some numbers out to get you thinking.  

We don't drink or smoke, so we're going off Phillip's memory for costs...just take this as an example and plug in your own numbers.

Let's say you're not a drunk, but you usually drink one beer in the evenings.  Let's say it's $1 per can.  That's $7 a week, $30-1 a month, $356 a year.  Now let's say you have a little more of a problem, you're drinking 2-3 beers a day.  Now it's $14-21 a week, $60-90 a month, $712-$1068 a year.

Let's do something similiar with cigarettes.  Let's say your spending $3 per pack.  As a pack a week smoker, you spend $156 a year on what amounts to slow suicide.  But if you're up to a pack a day, it's $1068 a year or $93 a month.

Now this is just an example of materials costs.  When you start adding in additional short and long term medical expenses (both habits weaken your immune system and greatly increase your risk of cancer and heart disease), it gets a lot more expensive.  So it is something to think about from a financial angle.

There are other addictions which are mostly mental.  Food addictions, shopping addictions, hoarding, gaming addictions (and I don't just mean gambling here).  Because they're mostly mental addictions, we tend to laugh them off, but they can have a serious impact on our lives and on our finances.  Mental addictions come in all shapes and sizes and levels of seriousness.  You're best off when you can nip it in the bud early, just by recognizing that you're doing something more than you should and cutting back or placing limits.  The more serious an addiction gets the more time and energy it takes to deal with it, and in some cases outside help is needed.  Don't be shy about asking friends and family to help you stay on track, but remember the main responsibility for managing yourself rests on you.

Around the apartment, we all have our problem areas.  I (Kay) have had to fight an internet addiction.  I'm on top of it at the moment, but I went through a cycle last year where it was taking over way too much of my brain.  I realized it was a problem when I was waking up with 15 minutes to get ready before work and turning my computer on to check e-mail.  Not that there's anything wrong with checking your e-mail, but you shouldn't skip breakfast or forget to brush your hair because of it.  Sometimes it's a tough balancing act.  Particularly when your addiction involves something that you can't cut out completely like food or shopping.  You just have learn to draw lines for yourself between what's healthy and what's excessive.