Right now I’m trying desperately to be good, and only buy for others during this festive season, but all I can think about right now is this:
This is why I should never open my emails from Anthropologie. If my sister is reading this entry, you can’t say I didn’t give you any gift ideas!!
On top of my eating out, Christmas shopping and last minute dance shoe shopping….I haven’t been so good this month.
I also bought these for myself, courtesy of the awesome blog that is Oh Joy!
I couldn’t help myself. I mean, a lady needs things to sleep in and have at home dance parties in. And with my coupon, really, these items practically paid for themselves.
I cannot wait to try them on and have said at-home dance party. Want to join? Come in your onesie, and I can assure you there will be booze. It is the Holiday season. Let’s all be merry and tipsy and wear clothes that are snuggly and oversized for all that indulging.
And then in January I’ll go back to a no spend month and living at the gym.
My 31 days of No Spending are officially over. DANCE PARTY!!!
I am THRILLED that I made it through last month. I honestly didn’t realize how challenging it would be. I thought it would be me bringing in lunch every day, and not ordering in pizza on the weekend, etc., but it turns out I have a major food weakness, as do my friends. And who wants to turn down fries and drinks after rehearsal? No. One.
On the bright side, my spending was drastically reduced by 28%!! Who knew I had that kind of willpower?
Last month put me in a much better place financially, and it felt incredible to be able to pay down a large chuck of change on my one student loan.
This month I decided to continue trying not to spend excess money, but more no restrictions on eating out. I’m in tech week right now. I think I’ve said enough.
Seriously though, I miss sleeping.
Sometimes I wake up and really want to buy a fancy coffee like a pumpkin spice latte or something hazelnutty.
Sometimes I try to convince myself that it’s okay, and I can buy that nail ridge filler that I don’t need will change my life. (Thanks Garance )
And then sometimes I have my girlfriends over for a fancy grilled cheese party, and I realize that I can be social without having to spend a lot of money.
My Friend Nina recently shared her current mantra of ‘Experience over clothes, Experience over clothes.’
My friend Nina is one smart lady.
9 more days! But this really far from over 
.
We’re at day 15, and not only did I not spend any extraneous money this weekend, I managed to go out and be social at the same time! It was fantastic! Below are some key moments to my roller coaster weekend
High Point – Spending time quality time with the boy
Low Point – Almost caving to boy’s want of delicious steak tortas
High Point – Sticking to my guns!
High Point – Getting ready for my friend’s 30th birthday
Low Point – Realizing the bar has a $10 cover charge…
High Point – Getting into the bar sans the charge! Not sure if it was because I got there right before 10, or if the doorman thought I was cute…Either way, Erin for the win!
Low Point – Knowing I couldn’t buy myself a drink, and wasn’t willing to flirt for a free one.
High Point – Being social with the cast of Pippin at DuckFat after a grueling rehearsal!
Low Point – Watching everyone else drink and eat, while I sipped on water…
High Point – Realizing today that I lost weight from not eating out…!
High Point – Knowing that at the halfway point of the month, I’m doing really well.
You know what? Thanks to my 31 day challenge, I feel like my blog is starting to have purpose and direction. It may not be what I had originally planned or intended, but I’m happy to say that I’ve been planning blog posts while driving- editing the heck out of some posts, and thanks to my own blogging ineptitude, accidentally deleting posts before they are published. Naturally that is frustrating, but in reality, they were negative posts. So thanks blogging Gods!
I’m sure that more time, more practice, and more feedback will make my blog better than it is today
And for a spending confession (No, I haven’t caved in!) – This is a copy of my spending graph from the last 12 months. Notice that I spend more on food/dining than on rent. And my shopping habit is next….
Here’s to the next 12 months, where Home will be number one, followed by Food/Dining, Auto & Transport, Bills & Utilities, and then Shopping and all the rest.
*this graph doesn’t include savings, retirement funds or loans.
It’s only day 8, and really I’ve only been doing this officially for 5, but I’m struggling to not spend money.
The worst part about this challenge is that spending no money sometimes means not socializing. I was asked to go out for food twice yesterday, by two very good friends, and I turned them both down. Obviously I wanted to go, but I knew if I went, I wouldn’t have the willpower not to order something 
On a positive note, I had my reunion this weekend, and even though I had previous obligations that required me spending money, I fared pretty well. As luck would have it, I managed to spend about sixty bucks less that what I budgeted for (winning!).
This is straight up hard, but I really only have 3 weeks left. I can do this I can do this I can do this!
(even Hello Kitty thinks I can do this).
