It turns out to be hard! I thought it might be, but it surprises me.

Day Two of my being disciplined about money during Lent: I thought that I had to go to traffic court this morning. When I arrived at work, I realized that I forgot to bring a book. The very first thing I thought was, “oh no! how can I get to a bookstore before court?”

(Yeah, I’m a geek. But the point here is the very first impulse was to buy an answer to the problem. Never mind that there is in fact a library 2 blocks from my office, and no bookstore between work and court, or nearly that close.)

Also, I spent half my drive to work arguing in my head about rationalizing a stop at the bagel place, or at the grocery store to buy donuts. Happily, self-disciplined me won. It helped that I had half a loaf of bread and half a box of cereal at the office. But my inner Queen of Rationalizing made some very good points, and I worry that she is not taking the coup well.

Does paying for parking ($3) at traffic court when I actually had the court date wrong count as frivolous spending?

Atlanta tickets must have been designed by the same people who created Florida’s butterfly ballots. Half the people in the courthouse atrium were wandering around asking each other how to figure out where you were supposed to go, and nearly every employee could be heard saying, “Your court date isn’t March 7th, that 07 is for the year.”

Sure enough, still closer inspection of my ticket showed — on a different line, nowhere near the March or the 07 — the number 28. My court date isn’t for another 3 weeks.

I did get two things in the mail that were post-bonus, pre-practicing financial discipline Internet purchases: Moo Cards and T-Shirts.

My New Moo CardsNew T-Shirts for Me and Noah

Thanks, David Brooks! I wouldn’t have gotten the t-shirts without your encouragement.