spending freeze results

I'm all about transparency and keeping it real here on finer feelings, and today it's time to share with you the results from my 30 day spending freeze. In case you're new, *welcome*, and check out this post where, inspired by Morgan at xoxo, me,  I spontaneously decided to cut out clothes, shoes, and accessories shopping for an entire month.

So how did I end up? Since I'm a finance dweeb, I will let this pie chart from mint.com do the talking.

Boo yeah. The category "Shopping" doesn't even exist in this 30-day span, which went from August 15th to September 15th. And just in case you don't believe me (probably everyone who knows me personally) and thought maybe I got sneaky and recategorized some purchases as "Other", here's a snapshot of what went in to that category.

Don't even get me started on that ATM Fee. It's the first time I've had one since switching banks close to six months ago. Grrrr.

So there you have it! I spent $0 on clothes, shoes, & accessories, and did zero online shopping for an entire month. Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can do it. Even in the fall. 

Disclaimer: Ok you guys. I have to get this off my chest. I went to a Sporting Kansas City game on Friday, Sept. 15th (last day of the freeze) and had promised myself earlier in the season that if I went to two games this year, I could buy myself a Sporting shirt. That Friday was my second game, so I spent $22 on a top to wear that night. Since it was a Friday afternoon, it didn't hit my card until the next Monday - which is outside of the freeze window. But it's a really cute shirt and I love my soccer team!!! 

I told you it's all about transparency around here.

updates

Today I am providing updates on the many ongoing projects and goals I've put in place over the last few months.

First topic of discussion: Fantasy Project Runway

This season is going about as poorly as last year. I drafted one awesome competitor, Sonjia, who is carrying my team. Andrea was a coward and left the show in the middle of the night, and Raul is the bain of my team's existence as he continually ends up in the bottom of the bunch, awarding me with negative points each episode. When he finally got kicked off a few weeks back I was thrilled he wouldn't drag my team points farther in the red. But as Project Runway has been known to do, the producers invited the man with the ugliest hair in the history of the show back, just to give Heidi Klum the task of saying auf wiedersehen to him for the second time last week. I just about poured a glass of wine over my head when I saw him back in the work room.

Second topic: Spending freeze

Five days in and $0 spent on clothes/accessories/shoes.

brunching @ Gram & Dun

$70 spent on brunch yesterday. Good thing I decided food & drink weren't part of the freeze.

Third topic: 2012 resolutions

1. Learn Spanish. Doing a pretty horrible job on this lately.

2.Work out three times a week. I'm averaging three work outs each week and really enjoying the classes offered at Woodside.

3. Go to church. Summer is tough on church attendance with lots of lake weekends. Probably now averaging 2-3 times per month.

4. Eat more veggies. I'm making a concentrated effort to up my veggie intake, but am not at the level I'd like to be at yet.

5. Read 12 books. I finished book one of the 50 Shades trilogy and can't imagine taking any more time out of my life to finish the series. I'm now over halfway through Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? tome. So I've read 6 1/2 books in almost 9 months. Does anyone else slow down their reading over the summer?

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. And if you have any quick but enjoyable book suggestions for me, I'll take them! I really want to cross that resolution off in December.

freezing

A welcome cold front has moved over Kansas City the last couple days. I sat outside last night and actually wished for a sweatshirt (!). Although it has been cool, this is not the freezing I'm talking about today....

I've made the rather impulse challenging decision to go on a spending freeze for the next month. This isn't out of necessity, but really to see if I can muster the self-control it is going to take to not spend frivolously during my favorite shopping season. And if I add a couple hundred dollars to my savings, that'd be an added bonus.

you stop that, j. crew

History shows I'm not so good at not spending money. Last week I dropped $60 on this Chiefs pullover. I don't regret it because it's adorable & I only have one other Chiefs shirt to get me through the upcoming season, but this is the type of impulse shopping I do on the reg. Sales are typically involved, but even then I'm spending money on things I don't need, like more clothes.

History will also tell you I am not great at practicing anything related to self-control. Just last month I tried to go five days without red meat. I lasted three.

This exercise is a challenge to prove to myself that I have some degree of shopping self-control. Hell, maybe I'll get in the habit of being frugal.

Frugal as in 'let's spend less money more wisely', not 'let's never spend money again, ever'.

I'm putting it on the blog to hold myself accountable. The freeze is intended for clothes, shoes, and accessories (like this iPhone case I want so badly). The freeze does not include food or booze. A girl has to stay happy somehow while in a spending freeze, am I right? It also doesn't include beauty products, which as previously mentioned I get mostly from CVS and is not a huge chunk of my budget.

There is one caveat already - I have to buy my first pair of Spanx for a wedding this weekend. I felt a tad depressed by the fact I need Spanx until I read this article by LC.

So there you have it. Thanks to Morgan at xoxo, me for the inspiration. Wish me luck!