Epiphany

Well, this week (I know it's only Tuesday) has sucked. Work is so stressful right now because of all of these changes and different things they are trying to put into place. That's a blog for another day. Like I've posted before, I'm going to try to be more positive. I think that is so important. I don't like getting sucked into that rabbit hole of negativity. So! This is me being positive about a sucky week...

A little background:
I love to shop.  I love to buy clothes, home decor, bath stuff, art stuff, craft stuff...the list could go on and on. It's always been a thing. And I love to go out to dinner with friends. It's social. It's therapeutic. It's just fun. If there is money in the bank, why not? Right?

Wrong. Boy, is that thinking wrong. Well, I realize that now.

Present Day:
I had a half day today, which gave me ample opportunity to reflect on my situation. If you read my New Year's Day blog, I wrote about my goals. One is to de-clutter my life. I've been going through my room and closet, getting rid of things. I realized that I have this urge to go out and purchase something else to fill that space. Then I look at my bank account and rethink that.

See, I've been living on basically part-time wages. It's been SO difficult. Between getting sick about 5 times with no paid leave to make up that time off,  and having a billion half days around Christmas, my pay checks have sucked. It's difficult. But, I have made do. That's not to say that I haven't griped about it. Or struggled through it. Because I have. However, yesterday I had an epiphany.

Like I said before, work has sucked this week. Yesterday was uber stressful. I was running on one hour of sleep. Work was a nightmare of stress. I came home and poured my frustrations out to Amber (my BFF and roomie). Thanks Amber! After I was finished griping, she asked if I wanted to go to dinner. I immediately said that I couldn't because I was too poor. Then I thought about it. I actually do have plenty of money, but I didn't want to spend it on going out to eat when I had perfectly good homemade leftover soup in the fridge. That's a change!!! Turning down going out, AND eating leftovers?!? Last night, I was thinking about this. It was weird that my first reaction was "no, I'm too poor." Weirder still, is that I actually stuck to that.

I realize that I have been blowing so much money on stupid stuff. I'm not saying that going out to eat with your friend is stupid, it's not. But going out to eat 3-4 times a week is ridic. I mean, that's a ton of money! Purchasing stuff for no good reason, is such a waste! Especially when half of the time it ends up in a garage sale two months later. I realized how much I've been able to do without whilst living on these measly paychecks. And it's been great!  I don't need that. I honestly didn't realize how much of a thing it had become. I want to continue with this "I'm too poor" mentality. If it's going to help me save money and keep my apartment clutter free, then holler! My goal is that much closer to being met.

I've been reading the Living Well Spending Less blog, and she has some awesome points. I want to do the 31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero. It seems like an awesome challenge. They ended up saving close to $1000 in one month because they ate what they had in the house and they didn't do any unnecessary spending. And on top of all that, they de-cluttered and organized their home. Win/Win! Anyone want to join me? I'm going to try this in February and the first couple days of March. I just want to see if I can do it. So! If I turn you down for a movie or going out to dinner, don't be offended. I'm just trying a month of not doing any unnecessary spending. I do still love you all!

Well folks, this week has no where to go but up. Tomorrow is a new day. I'm going to continue on in my goal of finding positive things to focus on. I'm also going to continue on in my goal to organize and get rid of things. It feels so good when your house loses some of that weight it's been carrying around. AND, by putting some of my stuff on the Facebook Garage Sale sites, I've made some money. If you haven't already, y'all should try it! It's awesome!

Later, chickens! Y'all have a good night!