Questions of the Quarter

One of the favourite things I have learned over the past several years is the power that questions hold for me. I used to long for answers - but recently I have found even more power in the question itself, in asking the question - and deepening into it. And it is with this in mind that I entered 2026 - with one quite substantial financial goal in mind - which (like most financial goals) is less about the money and more about what I plan to use it for. And while I am not quite ready to write about that yet, I want to write about the questions that I am sitting with this year as I work towards the goal.

My overarching theme this year in regards to my finances is to have a low spend year. When I first made the decision, I made a number of ground rules for myself around this. And I also knew that I would need to go in and pay attention to what was happening as I made the micro decisions that happen around spending. I was also aware that there were things I wasn’t expecting, wasn’t predicting, and that these rules might need to be revisited with some type of cadence. So I decided that I would tackle the first quarter as an experimental quarter - during which I would try out some of the ideas that I had which could reduce my spending, but which might also have unintended consequences, and decide if they were worth it! 

So - during Q1 - are some of the questions I am sitting with this quarter.

What will I decide once?

One of the things I have often thought about money is how many decisions I make daily and weekly around it, and the impact that these decisions have. The last week of last year I sat down with a spreadsheet in front of me, thinking about budgeting categories and also thinking about how I will make the decisions that pop up that I haven’t accounted for.

One way that I find helpful when it comes to the myriad decisions that we have to make daily is to have certain decisions that I make beforehand. The Lazy Genius (a podcast that I enjoy) talks about some of her principles of being a Lazy Genius, and one of them is - decide once. This is about setting up a rule to allow you to default some of the decisions that you are making. 

It’s not about forever (another one of her rules is about living in your season - and of course as seasons change, decisions may need to change) but I find that ‘decide once’ is a great strategy when it comes to some financial decisions.

So - things that I will decide once are around automated savings, as well as around some of the line items in my budget that I am choosing to make non-negotiable. Other things I have decided once for Q1 include - cancelling some of my subscriptions, only doing 1 extra weekend shift per month, always taking tuna salad for lunch on Thursday, not buying any more crafting stuff until I have used up what I have (that may be the hardest of all!) and publishing one blog post a week - without overthinking which mini series it belongs to.

That last one may not seem relevant, but it speaks to the propensity I have for buying domain names, and dreaming up different categories for everything. And lastly, as I go through the month, and I make a note of decisions that are coming up - if there is one that seems to come up often (buying a rushed sandwich because I didn’t account for a meeting running over comes to mind) then is this something that I can create a decide once around? 

What am I willing to spend on? 

Of course, this is a huge question that could take a great deal of soul searching around, or which could be quite simple. But for me, what takes this question up a notch here, is the truth that money isn’t the only thing I am spending. One of the parameters I set for my low spend year is that I still want to have some of the things I enjoy. This means - I still want to see my friends, and I still want to have my creative outlets - and I have to decide how much I am willing to spend on these things.

However - my time also has value. A simple example - one decision I made this year was around working extra shifts to bump up my income. However I still want to have some weekends free, and so I started with the premise that I would only work one extra weekend day per month. This still means that most months I will be working 2 (or 3) weekends. This weekend happened to be one that I wasn’t working. I slept in, and then I headed out to the supermarket. And one experiment I am playing around with over this quarter is reducing my grocery bill where I can.

One way I opted to try it was going to Aldi instead of to my usual place. One of the downsides I find with the Aldi that is closest to me is that it is small, and often I can’t get everything I want there. This weekend was no exception, and I was left without dried beans, and a few other things I wanted to cook this weekend, so I decided to go to another supermarket to get what I needed. While this was a success in financial terms, by the time I got home from stopping at multiple supermarkets, half of my Saturday was gone. 

Is that how I want to spend one of the few Saturdays off I have? Going from supermarket to supermarket to save what turned out to be a fairly small amount? I don’t know the answer to this question yet - as there may be other ways to get around this issue, that lie in how I plan my meals, or in going a bit further to a different Aldi (which may still take just as long) or elsewhere. But it was a reminder to me that as I decide how I am spending my money, I am also thinking about time, about other resources, and about the reality that sometimes it may be worth it to spend a bit more if it means I can have some more time to sit and write a blog post, or spend time with someone. 

Where is my routine costing me?

I started working out a few months ago, and I go to an early morning class. Maintaining this workout - and the associated costs - has been one of my non-negotiables for this quarter. But I noticed last term that I was struggling with the turnaround between getting home from my workout and getting into the office - especially on days where I needed to arrive extra early. This meant I might drive the car (and spend on parking) or call a taxi - when I would otherwise walk. 

So I decided to look into my routine to see where else I might be costing myself and question how a change in routine might improve it. It led to a change in my routine, and moving some of the tasks that I was doing (and decisions I was making) in the morning over to the night before. This included laying out my outfit for the following day, packing up breakfast as well as lunch, and making a list of anything I didn’t want to forget in the morning. It was a reminder that sometimes I was spending out of disorganisation, and I am curious to see if this change in routine helps me to stay within the stricter budget that I set myself. And I was glad that I made the switch this week - I ended up taking much longer to get into work due to ice on the ground, and yet I still made it on time.

And there we have it! A few of the questions that are shaping how I consider spending over the next few months. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

In the meantime - are there any questions you are sitting with this year that are shaping decisions - whether financial or otherwise?

I send you big love.

PS here is the last blog post I wrote about a question that shaped my approach towards my finances.