Starting My Experiment 4 Days Late

The rest of the participants in my Experiments in Truth workshop started their experiments on Thursday, February 26th. I'm starting today, March 1st. Why am I beginning 4 days later?

It's because for many, many months I have had it on my calendar to hang out on Saturday with some friends who live out of town and whom I don't see very often. Patty and Aileen are wonderful women I used to work with at the YMCA, and I have a blast talking with them and dining out with them 1-2 times a year.

Here's the dilemma- if I had already started my experiment on Thursday, on Saturday I would have had to either:
1) tell my friends about my experiment and insist that we go out but that I am ordering water.
2) push the "pause" button on my experiment and make an exception day where I could spend more than $1 a day.

If I had done #1 that would have felt weird and my friends would have sincerely and generously offered to pay for me and I would have taken them up on their offer but felt bad that other people had to be affected by my experiment.

If I had done #2 I would have lost momentum after only 2 days of my experiment and besides, making an exception day feels disingenuous because the poor can't have exception days.

I value community and conducting this experiment alongside the other people in my workshop. But I guess more than that, I value authenticity, consistency, and the honoring of long-term friendships.