Last October, I decided my shopping habits needed a reboot; so I embarked on a four-month journey to spend just $100 per month on clothes, accessories, and beauty products. It went so well for those four months, I proclaimed, “Hey, Internets! I’m going to keep this biz-ness up for a whole year!” To which my husband cocked an eyebrow and gently asked if I was really up for such a task, and I was all, “where’s your faith, dude?! I got this!”
Have I told you before that for a type-A control freak, I can be really impulsive? When I get excited about something, I must do it now! Planning be damned! Leap and the net will appear! It’s going to be awesome! Like the time I decided to become a Stella & Dot independent stylist, and spent an ungodly sum of my husband’s money on samples, just to quit in the red less than a year later. Or, most recently, when I almost accidentally murdered this blog trying to move it to a self-hosted platform one afternoon after deciding that morning to make the switch (a Google search and a credit card does not a tech-savvy blogger make, friends.) This impulsivity gets me in trouble now and then, and sometimes my “mouth writes a check that my @ss can’t cash.”
By now, you may have deduced that this is a confessional post about the status of that overzealous budget proclamation of yore, as well as a reluctant admission that my husband was {cough} right. It felt weird to take such a stance on the issue on my blog, and then just forget about it and let it fade into oblivion, you know? It felt like I had some ‘splainin’ to do…
This is not to say that I’ve been out making it rain in my favorite outlet stores; but the truth is, in the last couple of months, I haven’t been as meticulous in tracking my spending as I was in the beginning. It started with a girl’s trip last month, for which I needed at least two new bathing suits, and then it was new sandals for warmer weather, and then an overhaul of my spring/summer makeup routine. Then a couple of nights ago, after a brutally exhausting holiday week, I needed a little “me time” to relax and unwind and ain’t no therapy like retail therapy, and I thought I’d earned a teeny spree! Call this ridiculous justification, or epic failure, or just jumping the gun on a goal without really thinking it all the way through — I haven’t figured out what to call it yet myself…
Despite a derailing, I’m not naming the whole budget experiment a wash; it really did help me push the reset button on my spending, cleared up my prior confusion of needs vs. wants, and made me a smarter shopper. I achieved about 6 months of solid commitment, and for a girl who’s never budgeted in her life, I’m proud of what I accomplished! However, I’m cutting myself a little slack and saying maybe this experiment has run its course for me.
So what’s worse: being a big quitter, or setting yourself up for failure with a lofty 12-month goal you didn’t think through? Either way, sometimes you have to know when to say uncle.
Uncle.
Thoughts?
P.S. I have a whole new level of respect for the self control of the people who’ve accomplished a year-long shop fast! Like my friend, Cathy, who’s in the midst of one now and sharing her journey on her blog. Go cheer her on, will you?
What do you think?