The difficulty of maintaining my original goals with careful consuming is mounting now that racing season is upon us. I think I mentioned my husband races bicycles and last year we started a local cycling team with his business being the lead sponsor. This being our second year and with no women on the team, I thought I have to race in order to encourage women to join the team. So I have done that and now we have six women racing for us. Very cool except I am one of them! I have never done anything remotely this competitive in my life nor have I ever trained seriously for any sport. I am not sure this is the wisest idea I've come up at age 45 but I am enjoying it. I consider this endeavor to be an exercise in changing how I spend my time and energy, thus part of my careful consuming. Getting outside and riding a bike either competitively or leisurely with friends is a much better way to spend my energy and time than what I was doing before I started riding more.
However, cycling is not a sport for the faint of heart nor light of wallet! It demands commitment to both and trying to watch our spending while participating in this hobby is quite a challenge. I participated in my first race 2 weeks ago which required a 3 hour road trip and an overnight in a hotel. Mike raced as well and since we are promoting his business we can deduct some of the expenses. However, the costs of racing total up very fast. There is the cost of gas, hotel, food, supplies, registration fees and racing license fees. Some of these expenses are covered by his business but it comes out of the same place, our pockets.
I saved some money for racing season and along with the money I raised by selling some things on Craig's List I hope to stay on budget. I have set a limit of $500.00 for races and this includes my registration and license fees along with gear I might need. I am hoping to race 4-5 times this year but I am not sure this is manageable with my budget. There is not much you can buy in the cycling world for less than $50.00 and now that I am racing I need more supplies. I am going to sell my older bike which could bring in a couple hundred dollars. I never ride it, so why not? Also, I am going to try again and sell some stuff on Craig's List so hopefully that nets some more cash. I know I won't save money cycling but I am just trying to break even. While that sounds like a reasonable expectation, this might be the loftiest goal I have tried to accomplish yet!
