Go a whole month only buying food and other necessities

I’ve had two ‘slips’ in the last week – a (post-hospital check up) craft supplies binge, and yesterday I was right beside Lush and didn’t feel like resisting! :) I’m actually happy about both – after most of a month of not really splurging (£10 on apricots, nuts and other healthy foods just does not count!) it really really felt like a nice treat to myself!

I’m continuing with this goal for at least another while – my credit card statements run mid-month, so I’m interested to see how low the next one will be. Of course, big birthday dinner (not mine!) to pay for soon, but otherwise we’ll see how it goes. Definitely worth making those treats feel more treat-like anyway!

Y’know, I thought I was going to have to drop this goal and pick it up again in March – stress is not a time to tell me not to spend money!

However, all things considered, I don’t think I’ve done too badly. My extra purchases do actually fall under the ‘food’ category in the main – an extra latte to ease work stress (by letting me leave my desk to walk to the coffee shop!), buying lunch instead of homemade soup. Biggest indulgence was a box of chocs – and that’s for a friend to say thanks for her support!

My only other ‘splurge’ was a bottle of conditioner, and I think that counts as necessity ;)

Hoping to get two things out of this goal this year: a slightly healthier bank/credit card balance, and also just less stuff. I’m at that point of feeling like I’m overflowing with material things again – or perhaps just feeling that such things don’t matter as much.

Onwards!

Looks like we made it (more or less!) to the end of February! :)

I’m not hugely better off (financially) than I was, which tells me I wasn’t spluring that much. But it did teach me that I was using the thrill of impulse buying to cover up stress and boredom, which is an important lesson.

Surprised that I’m not desperate to rush out and spend huge amounts of money tomorrow (although I did cheat a little yesterday, I suppose!). This is definitely something I want to maintain in spirit, and revisit in the future.

... took a flying leap off the wagon today!

I confess, I went a-spending to sooth a very very stressful morning, and I bought two of the triangular plates I’ve been drooling after for so long. And then two books. In my defence, I only bought two plates and one little dip-thing, and not four plates, two dip things, and two bowls, which I could have done!

Still love this goal: it made me look very closely at my spending habits, and see problems I didn’t really acknowledge before. One to be revisited.

This week saw both my credit card and bank statements come in, which is the first paper tally of how this goal has gone.

Credit card: slightly disappointing, but then, the last week and a bit of January are in there – and that includes my RAC membership. Taking that out makes the picture look better.

Bank statement: still not as healthy as it used to be, but then this is also the first time in months (thank you, insurance payments!!) that my receipts have been higher than payments – which is exactly the right direction! Not by much, but still!

I do have a splurge list of things I want to buy in March (triangular plates back in stock, boots, shoe boxes(!), work clothes), but I also have a strong urge to keep going with this goal, see if I can’t get my very healthy ‘usual’ position back on track – then start chipping more off the loans and building up the savings account.

I caved and bought the chocolate yesterday – it felt very very necessary, though, so I’m okay with that. Besides, I made the mistake of saying “Help yourself lads” as I walked out of the room, so most of it was gone before I got back! ;)

So tired and fed up these past few days, though, that I have been gazing longingly at a few ‘retail therapy’ treats. Last night it was the Lakeland website, trying to remind myself that I don’t really need a flexible spatula or the transparent shoe boxes I want to help sort my wardrobe, or that, or this…

At lunch time today I just wanted to walk around and not be at my desk, and I found Denby had two of the triangular plates I really really want, and yes they are as gorgeous as I thought. But they only had two… I want four, so I didn’t. Then it was the book that sounded really fun… but I didn’t. ::sigh::

Definite link between mood and splurging, and mood and eating sweet things. Tough time to be trying to follow goals to cut those things out – especially when not spending isn’t giving me a great deal of satisfaction just now.

Better tomorrow, for sure.

Dang, but I’m doing well with this one today!

I work besides a Cadbury’s discount shop (not as good as it sounds, in general) and today discovered they had great bargains on the big bars of CDM Bubbly and Wafer – two of my favs! Actually had a bar of each in hand before I stopped myself and thought, “Wait! No… I’m going to be good”, put them back and walked out of the shop.

(actually, the main thought was, “I have yummier cheesecake to eat, I don’t need to get any fatter”, but hey – still counts!!)

Way me! LOL! ;)

PS the slippage of buying the skirt on Saturday is now balanced out, right? £1.20 on chocolate v. £40 on a skirt… oops! ;)

First, an update: finding this goal and the one about this are working well together: was craving a monster bag of M&S Jalepeno crisps today, but while my willpower to not get fat was wavering, I realised that it would be a non-necessity and therefore a pointless breach of this goal. Phew! ;)

Of course, I’m not all angelic: this weekend will see me knowingly give in to temptation, as the voucher I have towards the skirt I’ve wanted since Christmas runs out after this weekend. So… a few clothes!

Talking of clothes, that’s been my ‘craving’ this week. I love buying clothes. Hated it for so many years as a child/teenager, sometime in my early 20s I discovered the power of a decent wardrobe. Especially work clothes – looking smart is very important to me and my self esteem. So… skirt aside, I started wondering about a new pair of grey trousers to replace the ones I had to throw away this week. And some new blouses for the office. Oooh! and shoes... could really do with a nice pair of shoes…

Oi! NOOOOO!!!

So here is the challenge I’m setting myself this weekend (and which ties in with this goal, handy that!): instead of buying anything (apart from the skirt, natch!) I’m going to find something I haven’t worn in ages and which will therefore fill my urge to have something different, without costing me anything! See, it pays to be a wardrobe hoarder: my tastes often change that a previous back-of-the-wardrobe thang becomes a ‘new’ fav. Well, fingers crossed!

I’m in a bit of a slump at the moment – just generally tired and feeling low. And after a particularly difficult morning at work yesterday, I was very glad to get out of the building for an hour.

Of course, ‘out of the building’ at my work generally means across the street into the huge shopping mall!

I did bend a little and bought myself an apricot danish with my sandwiches (generally being good about making lunch instead of buying it, but once a week I meet my dad at we go out for lunch), but I did have the real urge to go SHOPPING. To cheer myself up. To take my mind off the crap by treating myself to someone fun.

I’d never thought of myself as that kind of person before – it was really really odd. Although I’m proud to say that I window shopped and bought nothing!

I still like this goal a lot.

edit: (why did it just delete my edit??)
Oops! Made a bit of a Freudian slip in the above… but I think I’ll leave it and ponder exactly what is going on in this brain of mine! Besides, it made me grin :)

February already, and I’m surprised to find I’m quite excited about this goal! I did have my mini-splurge on Jan 30th (if hot chocolate, a mug and cheap books are a real ‘splurge’!), but even that was relatively restrained. Yesterday I filled the car up with petrol. I’ve already taken to making sandwiches for work :)

What do I want to get out of this? I want to see just how little I can spend in a month! Then I can have the satisfaction of seeing my students loans being chipped away, and my savings account going up!