Monday, October 29, 2012

No Spend Monday

Happy Monday! and ready or not, here comes the cold weather!

There are three days until the next month. And I cannot emphasize the need for the new month enough.

So, here are the basic details for the No Spend Month initiative:
  • budget per month: $250
    • does not include:
      • bills
      • pet expenses
      • tithe/donations
      • gas
    • does include:
      • shopping
      • eating out/groceries
      • presents/gifts
For starters, I adore adore ADORE food. I love eating out, I love eating in. I love eating until I feel ill. So, needless to say, the majority of my budget goes to food. I added up my food expenses, and it came to a whopping $169.26. yikes! That's 51% of my budget going to food, and this is from eating out only, mind you. I didn't include all the grocery store expenses, because I usually grab non-food items while I'm at Kroger, Target, and/or Walmart. Houston, we have a MAJOR problem here.
This past week I spent $191.51 on the following:
  1. October 21: ($17.93) at Kroger - food/ingredients for dinner
  2. October 21: ($4.54) at Yogurtland - frozen yogurt with the boyfriend
  3. October 21: ($40.41) at PetsMart - three tetras & Greenies for my cats & dog
  4. October 22: ($7.88) at Kroger - salad and soup lunch
  5. October 22: ($3.99) at Kroger - eye drops for my contacts
  6. October 24: ($39.43) at Kroger - dinner and ingredients for a dessert I failed royally on baking.
  7. October 25: ($11.25) at Amazon - a book that was recommended to me
  8. October 25: ($25) at GSU - unfinished business
  9. October 26: ($22.99) at Target - halloween costumes for my pets (a dinosaur and shark.. pictures are below heehee)
  10. October 26: ($18.09) at Goldbergs - lox on a bagel & a chicken caesar wrap. I was totally unimpressed by the lox on the bagel. I miss the ones from the cruise!!

11. October 26: ($21) at Takorea - goodbye dinner for one of my girlfriends from work *tear* (picture of the burrito below)   



I restate the fact that there are three days remaining. I better not spend one more penny within the next three days, because I have currently spent ... holy smokes. I have spent $538.29 this past month. oh em gee. Do you realize how disgusting this is?
Last month, my first month of attempting this, I spent $828.79. Granted, I did spend $212 on the new iPhone, $78.98 on a replacement fleece for my boyfriend that my lovely cat ate (yes.. she ate his fleece), and $114.25 on a traffic citation. But that's still $423.57 I spent on other random, useless, disposable crap

*sigh* I need to stop making excuses, and stop caving into my cravings. because this is seriously ridonkulous! 
Going forward, maybe I need to start micro-managing, like setting weekly or even daily budgets!
There are 30 days in November, giving me a daily budget of $8.33, and a weekly budget of $62.50. That doesn't seem impossible to abide by.
There is one discouraging event though:
  • Black Friday!
    • I desperately need a new computer... :( okay, maybe not desperately, but I do need one.
    • I need new clothes and shoes!...so we all know I use the word "need" and "want" interchangeably...
I will be out of town the second week of November though, so hopefully that'll curb some of my spendings..

As far as this week goes, I have done well by not going out for breakfast or lunch today (go me!)
I have small group after work tomorrow, so the chances of me going out to eat for dinner increases slightly, but hopefully I'll be able to wait until I get home to eat dinner.
I plan on sleeping over at my boyfriends tomorrow, and if I do, I probably won't pack my breakfast & lunch.. which means I'll be spending a bit on Wednesday for my meals. Except my company's CEO is taking us out for lunch, so hopefully I'll be paying for nothing more than my breakfast that day.... or I could be a good little girl and pack my breakfast. Thursday & Friday should be good days... but who knows. I could crave lox on a bagel like I did last week and spend close to $20 at the Jewish deli down the street....
we shall see where my stomach takes me.

Cheers!

Monday, October 22, 2012

restore. revitalize. repurpose

It's been two years, one month, and seven days since my last post. I have to admit, I've been doing anything but a stellar job with this blog. So, here's to the ability to "turning the page" and "beginning a new chapter" in my life book. I have come back with intentions of restoring this blog... revitalizing it... with a completely new purpose (I'm not sure I ever started this blog with an actual purpose, so perhaps "new purpose" is a bit of an overstatement). Regardless, I bring you mi vida 2.0. 

 What can you expect?


  • "No Spend Month" updates. I am an avid Pinner, and one of the many brilliant pins I came across consisted of me limiting my monthly expenses to a mere $200. *gasp* I began last month, and failed. This month, I am failing twice as much, but twice as gracefully. :) I'm hoping by publicly declaring my irresponsible spendings, (mostly on food) I will feel embarrassed enough to stick with my budget. I doubt blogging will really hold me accountable, but here's to being optimistic and self-controlled.
  • Quiet-Time Insights. For someone that has grown up in the church and grown up around a family and friends that love, serve, live for the Lord, I do a feebly meebly job keeping up with my quiet times on a consistent basis. I am constantly in fellowship with Him, and I love everything about spending time with Him, but I definitely lack the self control to set aside a specific place and time to have a date with my Savior. The very least I can do is plan and go on a date with Him. Perhaps one day, I'll get to the point where I can be an event planner for Him. Again, I'm hoping by publicly journal-ing my thoughts and findings from one of our dates from the week, it will help me not only to stay on track with meeting Him, but will also allow me to gain an additional insight or two as I reflect upon my QT.
    • Shall I take the liberty to calling these "Quiet-Time Thursdays"?
  • Food Experiments. I love food. I love eating it, smelling it, looking at it, dreaming about it. I always have and always will. Trying out new recipes has become a more relevant hobby now that on top of All Recipes there are websites like, Pinterest and FoodGawker to tease me. And ever since I got my new iPhone & realized they all have apps, I have become a food lover on a dangerously different level. All of them haven't been successes. I haven't always followed the recipes exactly (whether it be by choice or not). It'd be my greatest pleasure to be able to share these experiences with you.
    • Alas, "Foodday Sunday" is born!