On October 20th, I embarked on a 60 day no spend challenge with Janine of My Pennies My Thoughts & Sofia from Caviar & Quarters to help get my mindless spending under control before the new year and save as much as possible to move into my new apartment. Along with saving $1,200 for my apartment, I also wanted to save an additional $400 for a retainer I had initially assumed I’d be getting at the end of December. Total to save? $1,600. And after spending my Christmas Break with H on the east coast, I’m finally ready to share!
Total saved? $1605, which means that I passed my exceeded my savings goal by an extra $5. Woot woot! This was definitely no easy task for me for various reasons.
- Christmas! Christmas comes every year and this was no exception. Every year I take an annual girls trip to LA, specifically Universal Studios for Grinchmas. I already had my pass paid for because I bought an annual pass last year so all I had to worry about was food and gas, easy enough for me! I also had to buy gifts for H and a few small things for people I work with, including my participation in a Secret Santa at school.
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Health: I was attacked by a spider ( eep!) which isn’t anything new since I’ve been getting bite all summer by creepy crawlers due to the crazy monsoon weather we had. And, I have the worst reactions to any kind of bug bite. I swell and pop Benadryl and use ice packs. But, I had an even worse reaction when I was bite by something in November which landed me in urgent care. I also ended up needing ANOTHER root canal. I had one back in August and needed another one. My dentist thinks I may have had trauma when I was younger but since I have no one to ask, I’ll just have to believe him. The root canal set me back $630 and I’ll need a cap later this year. I also needed to refill my expensive asthma meds and pay for my annual checkup.
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Stress related to school: Right before Thanksgiving, I had a breakdown. Balancing work and school full-time left me in a state of overwhelming exhaustion and I cried for hours in my room. Between finding out I needed a root canal, not getting enough sleep and running myself into the ground, I couldn’t take anymore. I’m only human like everyone else and doing everything on my own is extremely hard sometimes.Anxiety and depression don’t help at all and even though I am doing a lot better than I ever have before in regards to my mental health, sometimes I feel I still have so much left to do. And since money is such an emotional part of my being, it’s easy to throw money at problems in hopes they’ll go away. Towards the end of the semester, I had no problem buying dinner for myself so I had one less thing to worry about. I didn’t have the problem of worry about dinner anymore but I had less to save as a result.This challenge helped me realize that I have come very far in regards to some areas of my financial journey. In the past, I had a shopping addiction. I tried to fill things I was missing in my life with possessions and although I am still drawn to shiny things, especially Michael Kors, I no longer spend money I don’t have on belongings which is a huge leap for me. I don’t go impulse shopping and I work really hard to keep my clutter at bay. By not allowing anything beautiful and useful in my home, I tend not to buy things just because.I’ve also made huge strides by cooking at home and from scratch for the past two years. I started religiously meal planning in 2008 along with packing my lunches but still relied heavily on prepared and packaged meals to get me through the week. Now, I cook everything from a recipe and it tastes 100 times better than stuff from a can or the freezer. However, I still eat out too much for my liking. It’s so easy to meet a friend and catch up over lunch or dinner. It’s easy to order take out when it’s just you and you can’t be bothered to cook. And I’ll admit sometimes, I’m either craving it or they just make it better! My Starbucks habit is a lot better and I have an efficient system with my Keruig but I still crave fancy designer lattes like no ones business.Going forward, I’ll be tracking my daily spending to help stay on track with my budget. I am moving into my first apartment by myself soon and will be 100% responsible for everything. It’s a huge step for me since I’ve never lived alone and I want to save as much as I can, even after the move in is complete. I want my spending to align with my values and although I enjoy a good meal and fancy coffee, my values are security, making sure my education is on track and making my new digs into the home I’ve never had.
1 Comment
TLC
I sympathize with your mental health struggles. I’ve always been fairly worrisome, but my anxiety really reared it’s ugly head hold in college.. challenging course load, location changes, a tough relationship/marriage/divorce, health/dental concerns, & the unexpected death of my mother. It’s a daily battle for me, but I’ll find my way out one day.