Experiment: The Change Experiment

The Change Experiment For the change journal experiment I decided to attempt to stop my compulsive spending habit. By this I mean, I wanted to stick to a budget, stop buying take-out, and to keep in check the amount I spend on social outings. I wanted to change this behaviour because as a newly full time student I have to adjust to not having a paycheck and living on my own. My hope was to form new good habits that will help me manage my money for the rest of my life. Additionally, I have been contemplation stage of change for sometime. This can be defined as the stage in which a person realizes that they want to change their situation, but have not made a commitment yet (Csiernik, 2016). The change experiment was a good push for me to commit

My action plan is focused on “behavioural changes, with a heavy emphasis on problem solving”(Csiernik, 2016, p. 251) and temptation control. First, I gave myself a general budget of one hundred dollars a week, with that split into sixty for life expensive and the other 40 for social life. I figured this would be a manageable budget because I do not normally spend one hundred dollars in a week so the challenge is allocating those funds in the right way. Secondly, I took the hundred dollars out of my bank account in cash to avoid using my debit or credit card. This precaution is to aid myself in stopping and thinking if the purchase I’m making is necessary. Finally, I have explained this experiment to my roommates and asked them to be my support system. They are the source of most of my temptations to go out and spend money, so by asking them to be my support system hopefully they will stop tempting me. Another side of this experiment is the relapse plan which “involves identifying and exploring times that may lead” (p.251) to compulsively spending money as well as punishments if I do slip. My plan if I relapse is to force myself to miss out on going out or buying things if I have spent all my money before the end of the week comes. I will also take into account what my possible triggers are and in turn attempt to avoid them in the