Hi, friends! Today I’m excited to share with you my first monthly budget update! If you read my first post of 2019, you know I’m doing something a little bit different this year with respect to my new year resolutions. This year, I’m focusing on making one to two sustainable, lifestyle changes each month—focusing on forming better, healthier habits 30-days at a time.
For January, I focused on cutting down my impulsive shopping with two primary lifestyle changes.
Habit 1: Stick to a monthly budget.
Habit 2: Practice closet contentment with a monthly capsule wardrobe.
Today’s post will cover my experience with sticking to a monthly budget (Habit 1) and I will cover my thoughts on the monthly capsule wardrobe (Habit 2) in the next post.
As a recap to my original post, my goal for this first month was to set a budget for all expenses over the course of January and to only purchase those items on the list. This year, Allen and I have decided to have a ‘family meeting’ at the beginning of each new month to discuss our anticipated expenses. The purpose of the meeting is mainly to keep me accountable to my budget, as well as reasonable with what purchases I deem ‘necessary’. Every purchase that ends up on the budget must be defended and approved at the monthly check-in meeting.
I also forgot to mention this in the original post, but all expenses approved on the budget that can be paid for in-person will be paid for in cash. Any that must be completed online (i.e. most expenses for my website) will be put on a credit card that can be immediately paid off. Recall that a part of the reason I am cracking down on my impulse spending this year is that I have quite a bit of consumer credit card debt that I want to pay off. So none of the cards with debt on them will continue to be used. In fact, I don’t even carry them in my wallet any more—they are hidden away from view and use! This way, I’ve taken the temptation away completely.
Another thing I wanted to do was to include gift cards in my budget. While this budget is about saving my money and paying off debt, it’s also about reducing my overall consumption. My aim this year is to become a more conscious and intentional consumer. So while gift cards are awesome and don’t require me to use my own money, I want to be sure to budget spending them into my monthly expenses the same way I would with cash. Gift cards just have an extra benefit of not taking anything out of my banking account when I use them, but I still do track their use! Any purchase made with a gift card or coupon is denoted as such next to the purchase description (see the tables below).
This first month was definitely a learning curve, and it wasn’t perfect. But I did promise myself at the get-go that if I messed up at any point on this journey, I wouldn’t continue to punish myself. Instead I promised to learn from the situation and move forward with my goals. Because in the end, I want to make lasting lifestyle change, not just a quick finance diet and binge cycle. And while I had a couple hiccups this month, I’m really, really pleased with how everything went and I even learned some really important lessons on how to improve my budget for the rest of the year. So let’s get into it, shall we?!
Ok, so first things first. Let’s go over the budget I set for myself at the very beginning of January. Please note that this budget is for living expenses only. Because my rent and utilities are required every month and aren’t really alterable by me, those don’t show up here. I’ll only be covering costs such as food, blog, entertainment, travel, and miscellaneous expenses. Things such as phone bills, insurance, rent, utilities, etc. will not be included.
While I haven’t been sticking to a budget in years past, I have been tracking most of my expenses (#numbersnerd), which immensely helped me in setting realistic numbers for the first month of budgeting. If you are interested in setting a budget for yourself this year, I would highly recommend starting the process by tracking your expenses for one to three months before you set any numbers for yourself. That way you are more aware of what your average monthly spending is, what ‘emergency’ expenditures come up, and areas you can cut back on. All this to say, even tracking my expenses for years, I still don’t have it down to an exact science. For instance, I mostly tracked purchases on my credit cards. And while most of my spending happened on my credit cards, some of it was spent through cash or gift cards. And so it’s hard to know exactly how much I spent every month. But I did break it up into categories and knew a rough estimate of what I’ve spent in the past and where I could cut my spending down (clothing and miscellaneous) in this past month.
Here’s what I came up with for my budget in the month of January:
January Budget
Food:
- Groceries: $40 per week x 5 weeks = $200
Blog:
- Coffee/Blog Writing: $5 per day x 12 days = $60
- Updated WordPress Theme: $49
Entertainment:
- Movie + Popcorn: $18
Travel:
- Flight to Houston for Wedding: $0 (use frequent flyer points)
Style:
- Nothing! $0
Miscellaneous:
- Floor Length Mirror: $100
- REC Fitness Pass: $75
- Jewelry Supplies: $22
So let’s break it up by category and discuss how I did—where I did great, where I struggled, and what I learned from each.
Food
From my previous tracking, I spent $200-$300 each month on food, which included groceries, eating out, and coffee at a local shop I go to write my blog. So I figured I could make $40 a week work for me this January, and increase that rate in the next month if necessary. This $40 per week would include all eating/drinking expenses for the month except my blog writing coffee, which I categorized into my blog expenses. I value my time so much at the coffee shop (it’s truly my me time every week) and I didn’t want to have to dip into it for groceries. I wanted a dedicated budget for the time I spend at coffee shops for writing and relaxing each month, and so I kept it separate. And honestly, I was really just planning on fixing most meals at home this month to get a good start on paying down debt, so $40 per week seemed totally doable.
Here are my itemized expenses for food over the month of January…
| Food | ||
| 5-Jan | groceries at Target | $ 10.67 |
| 6-Jan | groceries at King Sooper’s | $ 25.05 |
| 6-Jan | lunch at Costco | $ 1.62 |
| 6-Jan | groceries at Costco | $ 13.02 |
| 8-Jan | coffee with Christina at Peet’s | $ 5.50 |
| 11-Jan | dinner at Moe’s in Vail | $ 13.00 |
| 14-Jan | coffee at Starbucks for roadtrip (gift card) | $ 5.80 |
| 14-Jan | groceries at King Sooper’s | $ 14.68 |
| 15-Jan | groceries at Target | $ 2.91 |
| 17-Jan | groceries at King Sooper’s | $ 14.42 |
| 18-Jan | dinner at Domino’s | $ 4.00 |
| 19-Jan | coffee at Starbucks for roadtrip (gift card) | $ 5.07 |
| 19-Jan | breakfast at King Soopers for roadtrip | $ 4.03 |
| 19-Jan | dinner at Giampietro’s in Breck | $ 15.00 |
| 20-Jan | lunch at Costco | $ 1.62 |
| 20-Jan | groceries at Costco | $ 23.54 |
| 20-Jan | groceries at King Sooper’s | $ 14.36 |
| 22-Jan | coffee at Starbucks (free drink) | $ – |
| 24-Jan | coffee at Starbucks (gift card) | $ 5.72 |
| 24-Jan | groceries at King Sooper’s | $ 2.25 |
| 26-Jan | coffee at Starbucks (gift card) | $ 5.72 |
| 27-Jan | breakfast at Huckleberry | $ 15.00 |
| 27-Jan | groceries at King Sooper’s | $ 17.36 |
| 29-Jan | coffee at Starbucks (gift card) | $ 5.72 |
| TOTAL | $ 226.06 |
Overall, I think I did really well with food expenditures this month. Again, the main purpose of budgeting this month was to be more aware of where my money was going and more intentional with purchases. Because I never considered food to be a problem area of my spending, going over by $26.06 is not a huge deal to me. In fact, I actually learned that there are a few situations I didn’t adequately account for and need to add in to future monthly budgets.
Expenses I didn’t adequately plan for this month include meeting up with friends for coffee or lunch (time I value so much!) and weekend trip expenses (i.e. a warm beverage for a road trip and eating out after skiing). If I were to tally up how much I spent in these two areas over the past month, it would be $48.40. So including $10-$20 per week for “social/entertainment” is something I would like to implement moving forward. But as far as weekly groceries go, I’m keeping that at $40 per week.
One area I could improve on in the coming months is my expenditures on take-out coffee. While I have plenty of gift card money to use, and grabbing a drink for a road trip is totally fine, I don’t think I need a drink every day. That’s why I have a Nesspresso machine at home! I tend to get take-out coffee as a means of external motivation to get work done when I’m really not feeling it. So I’d like to find better, healtheir, less expensive ways of getting past the procrastination bubble that don’t require $5 drinks moving forward. Again, I’m not beating myself up about it, but I do think it is important to identify areas I can improve upon in the next month.
>> In summary, Food cost me $226.06 out of $200.00 budgeted for this month. (Note: $28.03 was gift card purchases.)
Blog
The next category is the blog, which has become an important part of my life (and expenses). It’s actually quite pricey to run a website and expenses can add up quickly, especially with monthly photography sessions.
I split blog expenditures into two main categories—weekly coffee/blog writing expenses and all other expenses (including photography, website maintenance, etc.). Note that this coffee expense is exclusive for blog writing and does not include random coffee trips “just because”. I tend to be much more productive when I get out of the house, so this money/time spent at coffee shops is something I have prioritized in my monthly budget.
Here is how I fared in the blog category…
| Blog | ||
| 2-Jan | WordPress theme for blog | $ 51.00 |
| 2-Jan | coffee at Wonder (gift card) | $ 4.90 |
| 3-Jan | coffee at Wonder (gift card) | $ 4.90 |
| 4-Jan | coffee at Wonder (gift card) | $ 2.46 |
| 7-Jan | coffee at Wonder (gift card) | $ 4.90 |
| 9-Jan | coffee at Wonder (gift card) | $ 4.90 |
| 16-Jan | coffee at Wonder (gift card) | $ 4.90 |
| 17-Jan | chai at Wonder (gift card) | $ 5.18 |
| 21-Jan | coffee at Wonder (gift card/cash) | $ 4.90 |
| 23-Jan | coffee at Wonder | $ 4.90 |
| 28-Jan | cocao at Wonder | $ 5.99 |
| 30-Jan | coffee at ACR Tennyson (blog photo prop) | $ 5.94 |
| 31-Jan | coffee at Wonder | $ 4.90 |
| TOTAL | $ 109.77 |
Overall, I stayed within my spending budget for the blog. (Ok, I went over by $0.77, but I’m ok with that.) And I loved having a gift card at the beginning of the month to use at Wonder for my weekly blog writing expense (thanks for the Christmas gift, Allen!). Two things I didn’t plan for in the blog budget included a $2 fee to download the updated WordPress theme I bough and a coffee (used as a prop in photos) at my February shoot with Noah. Moving forward, I will account for fees, taxes, and shipping when planning out the FULL expense of an item and I will build in an extra $5 coffee expense for photo shoots.
>> In summary, Blog cost me $109.77 out of $109.00 budgeted for this month.
Entertainment
Next up is entertainment. For this month, I only factored in going to the movies once. But as I discussed above, following monthly entertainment budgets will include expenses for “social entertainment” time, which includes time spent with friends and/or eating out on special occasions.
Here’s how I fared on my entertainment expenses…
| Entertainment | ||
| 6-Jan | movie ticket (gift card) | $ 9.98 |
| 6-Jan | movie popcorn (gift card/coupon) | $ 2.07 |
| TOTAL | $ 12.05 |
I had a gift card and a $5 concession coupon so our trip to the movies was even cheaper than I had budgeted for! I’d call that a success. While I love going to the movies spontaneously and it’s so easy to just walk over to the theater (which is literally a 3 minute walk from our apartment), I decided this year that it’s important to be more intentional with how we are spending our time and money in all aspects of life, despite how convenient something is. So being more choosey on which movies we decide to see each month will help us to value our time there more.
>> In summary, Entertainment cost me $12.05 out of $18.00 budgeted for this month. (Note: $12.05 was gift card purchases.)
Travel
The only travel expense I had planned for this month was purchasing airfare for a wedding we have in February. To keep expenses down, I planned to use frequent flyer points to make the purchase. What I didn’t realize is that even using points, there are still fees associated with the purchase that require using cash. Nooo! So $11.20 was an unanticipated cost in travel this month, but one that I am ok with. I just learned from the experience and will budget in fees for future airfare purchases. You live and learn, right?
| Travel | ||
| 15-Jan | Southwest flight to Houston | $ 11.20 |
| TOTAL | $ 11.20 |
>> In summary, Travel cost me $11.20 out of $0.00 budgeted for this month.
Style
I did not include any style purchases—clothing, shoes, accessories—in my January budget. This is one of my biggest problem/impulse areas I’ve had in the past, and coming off of all the purchasing and gifting of the holidays, I really didn’t anticipate this category being a hard one for me to follow this month. To be honest, I was a bit tired of shopping after the holidays. Plus, none of the retailers have new designs out now anyways—they are all trying to get rid of their old winter inventory in anticipation of spring. But there were actually a few difficult situations that came up that I ended up breaking my budget for. So let’s get into what situations happened and the lessons I learned from them.
Here’s how I fared in the style category…
| Style | ||
| 9-Jan | ||
| 15-Jan | burgundy wide leg pants at Nordstrom | $ 57.47 |
| 16-Jan | coral wide leg pants at Everlane | $ 45.08 |
| 29-Jan | animal print satin skirt at Nordstrom | $ 74.01 |
| 31-Jan | | |
| TOTAL | $ 176.56 |
Let’s go purchase by purchase to analyze what happened. Note that all of the purchases were unplanned, but I’m not going to beat myself up about them!
The first purchase was a floral sweater from Sezane for $90. This was a sweater that I had originally seen a year ago, wanted but couldn’t justify the price, and eventually sold out. However, it was brought back in a once-a-year sale of old inventory at a reduced price. I knew that the sweater would not last a full day, much less 20 more days until I could add it to my budget for February. So I talked over the purchase with Allen extensively. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just purchasing the sweater on impulse or as a reaction to a sale or limited availability. And to be honest, the reduced sale price, mixed with the limited time and the excitement of possibly getting something I had missed out on (a ‘second chance’ concept) had me worried that I was rushing into the purchase for all the wrong reasons. But after discussing it in depth and at length with Allen, I decided that it was something I desperately wanted to try that couldn’t wait for February’s budget. Funnily enough, the sweater didn’t end up fitting correctly and I returned it, but I’m actually really happy that I went through all the trouble of talking the purchase out with Allen because I learned a ton about myself and my relationship with spending.
Over the course of our discussion, we came up with a series of questions that any future unbudgeted purchase must go through before a sale is made. And a big thank you to Allen for taking the time to ask me the tough questions I needed to hear.
Questions to ask before ANY unbudgeted purchase:
- Can you wait until the next month?
- Will it make your life better? (Is it a want or a need?)
- How long have you wanted it? (Is this an impulse purchase?)
- What was the shopping trigger? (Was it social media?)
- Can you accommodate the purchase without offsetting your debt repayment schedule? (Including interest accrued, is it worth it?)
- How often will you use it? (Is it about the purchase high or the actual use?)
- What would you give up for it? (Theoretically, this purchase would get used in place of another possession in your collection. Would you give up that other thing for this one? Would you give another budgeted purchase up for this one instead?)
- Can it be used multiple ways? (Is it versatile enough to get lots of use?)
- Will this set a precedent to justify future purchases? (Will this one unbudgeted purchase set off multiple others down the line?)
We also talked about ways I could build in time-sensitive unplanned purchases into the budget. Because things like this will inevitably happen again. A couple ideas we came up with included 1) selling items I already have to consignment and using that cash to pay for the purchases, 2) taking money from other areas of my budget, or 3) budgeting in an ‘emergency’ $100 every month for these one-time special situations. The thing with budgeting in an extra $100 each month is that I would really rather put that money towards my debt than keep it on reserve and not get used, especially if most months I won’t need it. I’m in this unique position where both under- and over-budgeting are not optimal, since I want to be putting as much back into my debt as possible. I also don’t want to rely on selling my stuff because then I could get caught in a constant buy-purge cycle instead of just being happy with what I have and only adding in thoughtful purchases every once in a while. So as it is right now, that leaves me with taking money from other areas in my budget. This month, it came from my miscellaneous category, and even then I overspent by just a bit.
On to the next two purchases—two different pairs of wide leg pants. While I did break my budget for these items, these two purchases were good investments. I have both of these pants (in the wrong sizes) and knew I would get tons of wear out of them because I’ve worn their counterparts many times. Plus, both of these pants were on sale (40% and 45% off) which enabled their purchase to not sting my budget as much as a full-price would have. Additionally, these pants were being discontinued, so they weren’t something I could wait until February to purchase. However, they represented another “now or never” situation, which seems to be a trigger I have trouble ignoring. But again, I’m ok with the purchases because I am confident I will (and already have) gotten lots of wear out of them and know they work seamlessly in my wardrobe.
The final two purchases—a satin animal print skirt and snakeskin boots—were items I admired on another blogger (note the trigger) and were again, items that happened to come back into stock after being sold out for months. So I knew they would have to be an immediate purchase if they were to be a purchase at all. Are you sensing a theme with all of these unplanned purchases? I am currently still deciding whether or not I want to keep the satin skirt (it just arrived today), and the snakeskin boots haven’t arrived yet. And to be honest, I’m not hopeful the boots will fit my feet (I ordered them in the only size available, which likely will be too big). So I’ll put in an update on whether or not I kepteither of these items in the coming weeks!
UPDATE: I returned the snakeskin boots–they just weren’t for me! But I kept the animal print satin skirt for dressier occasions!
Even with these unplanned purchases, I still spent the least amount of money I’ve ever spent on clothing this month. Like by a LONG shot. So I’m really really happy with how I did this month. Looking forward to February, I’m already planning to budget in a couple style purchases—things I’ve waited to purchase this month but gave myself the time and space to really appreciate and decide on with thoughtfulness. So I will update you on how that goes in my February budget update post next month. And if you are curious just how much money I would’ve spent this month had I not implemented a pause in impulse shopping, I’ve included those numbers near the end of this post. Spoiler…it’s a shocking amount!
>> In summary, Style cost me $176.56 out of $0.00 budgeted for this month.
Miscellaneous
The miscellaneous category is another one that has been a problem area for me in the past. It is quite easy to justify a home or hobby purchase because they tend to increase the quality of my life. But there is a point which you have to realize you are spending too much in these categories, and I reached that point this past year. So budgeting this area of my life will probably be another difficult but super beneficial area of improvement this year. It will be particularly interesting to see how much I can save on unnecessary toiletry/beauty items since I am aiming to only replace items once they get used up.
So here is how I fared on my miscellaneous spending this month…
| Misc. (hobbies, books, toiletries, etc.) | ||
| 2-Jan | stickers for journal | $ 2.06 |
| 27-Jan | shipping tape at Target | $ 3.04 |
| TOTAL | $ 5.10 |
I originally had budgeted for a floor-length mirror, a REC fitness class pass, and jewelry supplies (hobby) into my miscellaneous spending budget. Lucky for me, my mom was nice enough to gift both the floor-length mirror and REC fitness class pass to me while she was in town visiting earlier this month. That saved me a total of $175, which was HUGE this month. I know I am very lucky to have someone who would gift me such nice things and am aware that this won’t always be the case. But I am super thankful for the extra wiggle room on my budget this month, considering the unplanned style purchases discussed above.
For the miscellaneous purchases I did make this month, I spent $2.06 on stickers to aid me in my journaling/expense tracking efforts and a package of shipping tape to seal boxes going into storage (to keep bugs out). Yes they weren’t budgeted for originally, but this month was all about learning and these small purchases really weren’t excessive by any means. In fact, the stickers in particular ended up being super beneficial to me achieving my goals this month. (P.S. Stay tuned for another blog post about what tools I use to stick to my budget.)
I decided to not purchase my jewelry supplies this month mainly because I didn’t’ have a lot of extra time to put towards jewelry-making, but also just to save money (the guilt from my unplanned style purchases weighed on me a little more than I thought).
>> In summary, Miscel. cost me $5.10 out of $197.00 budgeted for this month.
JANUARY Expenses Overall
And here is how I fared overall…
Overall, I am very pleased with my progress on sticking to a monthly budget. Even with the minor hiccups I experienced and overspending my budget by $146.74 $16.74 (updated), I spent the LEAST amount I’ve ever spent in YEARS. I’m not trying to downplay the fact that I overspent, but I really do believe PROGRESS is more important than PERFECTION when it comes to forming lasting lifestyle changes.
How much did I save?
I can’t be exactly sure, but in addition to tracking the purchases I made over the course of the month, I also tracked things I was interested in buying and likely would have purchased had I not been on a budget (along with the trigger associated with the purchase). And let me tell you, the amount of money I SAVED this month is staggering!
Here’s a list of things I thought about purchasing…
| MONEY SAVED! | ||
| Item | Trigger | Amount |
| berry sweater at IRO (orig $485) | Social Media | $ 194.00 |
| fun socks at Old Navy | Browsing | $ 17.00 |
| tie-front henley tees at Abercrombie (2) | Social Media | $ 88.00 |
| spiced cidar coat at Madewell (orig $248) | Browsing | $ 149.00 |
| gray cashmere sweater at Everlane | to get free shipping | $ 100.00 |
| burgandy sweatshirt at Target | Blogger | $ 20.00 |
| long sleeve tees at Target (2) | Browsing | $ 20.00 |
| Your Money or Your Life book | Book | $ 15.50 |
| An Edited Life book | Social Media | $ 15.50 |
| leopard silk slip dress at & Other Stories | YouTube | $ 99.00 |
| biker rain boots at Nordstrom (orig $185) | Browsing | $ 123.95 |
| leopard skirt at Bloomingdales | Blogger | $ 120.00 |
| leopard skirt at Realisation Par | YouTube | $ 180.00 |
| tie-front red linen jumpsuit at Abercrombie | Browsing | $ 78.00 |
| rolled straight-leg jeans at Abercrombie (orig $88) | Browsing | $ 66.00 |
| bullet journal | YouTube | $ 29.50 |
| Americanah book | Book Club | $ 13.38 |
| leopard lace up rainboots at JCrew (orig $78) | Browsing | $ 58.50 |
| wool crewneck leopard sweatshirt at JCrew (orig $89.50) | Browsing | $ 67.12 |
| spring floral dress at Sonnet James | Browsing | $ 158.00 |
| Rocky Mountain Bride magazines | Browsing | $ 8.99 |
| camera mini tripod/handhold | YouTube | $ 15.99 |
| pink button-back sweater at JCrew (orig $79.50) | Social Media | $ 59.62 |
| CeraVe stick sunscreen | Social Media | $ 9.13 |
| red polka dot satin skirt at Anthropologie | Browsing | $ 98.00 |
| navy polka dot button-up at Everlane | Browsing | $ 59.00 |
| mahogany cashmere sweater at JCrew | Browsing | $ 98.00 |
| black loafers at Madewell | Browsing | $ 148.00 |
| blue floral pants at Madewell | Browsing | $ 82.00 |
| blue floral cami at Madewell | Browsing | $ 69.50 |
| amber brown loafers at Madewell | Browsing | $ 148.00 |
| blue floral coat at Madewell | Browsing | $ 168.00 |
| TOTAL | $ 2,576.68 |
$2576.68!!! It’s a little terrifying, right? And these prices don’t include tax or shipping. Now I can’t be sure that I would have made ALL these purchases, or even kept the ones I did purchase. But even if you just consider a fraction of these purchases, it still goes to show that you can save a lot of money just by enforcing a small waiting period on purchases. Some of these purchases will be budgeted in for next month, namely at least one of the books, but a large majority of them will not be. And honestly, I’m so so happy about that! It’s crazy how one day you can be literally pained by wanting something soooo badly, and then a couple days later, feel like you can totally live without it no problem.
It’s also interesting to note that all of these purchases were triggered either by social media/YouTube/bloggers or by me browsing retailer sites. It’s safe to say that I will be working towards lowering my time spent on those channels this next month. While I have significantly cut down on the amount of money I’m spending each month, I also need to cut down my time spent searching for things to want. I know it sounds silly—searching for things to want—but it’s a real thing and I bet it happens to more people than you think (maybe even you). It’s a product of living in the consumer culture we do, but that doesn’t mean it’s how it has to be. In fact, I’m doing everything I can to remove this normalized way of thinking from my life. Instead, I’m practicing habits that show me how to be content with what I have and allow me to spend my time more productively on things that bring me true joy and lasting happiness.
So that’s my January budget update! If you’ve made it to the end, thank you SO much or reading! I know this was a long post to read, but I really wanted to document this whole process well…not only for myself to look back on, but for other people who may be going through a similar process. Truth be told, it can be a little embarrassing to admit the (sometimes ridiculous) thoughts that go through my head when I’m thinking about a purchase. And even a bit more vulnerable to put all my purchases out here on the internet, especially when I slip up on something. But I believe that by sharing my honest and authentic progress with you here, we can both learn from this journey of mine and become more intentional about our spending behaviors in the future.
I also wanted to document it in this way because I want you to know that things like budgeting aren’t always as black-and-white as we expect and plan for them to be. Some people value strict rules over the essence of a budget. But I’m doing this for the long haul (it’s a marathon, not a sprint), so I want to build sustainable practices and mindsets around purchasing things that will benefit me throughout the rest of my life. In fact, that’s the main reason I’m not doing a no-buy year. Yes, a no-buy year might be easier because I wouldn’t be allowed to purchase anything new–it takes the question out of everything. But what happens after the no-buy year? When you start to add purchasing back into your life? I’d rather build up the skills I need now that will be with me for the rest of my life, rather than delaying the inevitable. And while I may not get a perfect 100% on sticking to my budget each month, I know that I’m living up to the essence of my budget which is to reduce my spending, cut down on impulse purchasing, and spend more time on the things that bring me happiness. And if I’m working towards that goal each month, then I consider it a success in my book!
What about you? How did your budget go this month? I’d love to know if you learned anything about yourself or your spending!
You might also like…The Year of Habits and My Thoughts on Shopping.
Photos by Noah Berg at ACR Tennyson
///
Get the Look…
Top: Target | Pants: Madewell | Cardigan: VETTA | Shoes: Old Navy | Necklace: handmade by me
No Comments