Well, I’ve done it again. I've managed to disappoint myself with yet, another year of spending habits.
Yesterday I performed the arduous task of going through each and every dollar I
spent in 2012 and analyzed how much money was truly wasted. OK, let’s just be
honest, while this was very time consuming, I was able to indulge my OCD side
and it was not an unpleasant experience albeit it took forever.
Anywho, by my calculations, had I used my current budget through
all of 2012, I would have saved around $3600 (give or take). This is upsetting. That’s a two
week Europe trip!!! My boyfriend asked me if I at least enjoyed spending it and,
honestly, I can’t remember, which means probably not so much – not enough to
justify that kind of frivolous spending.
Where did that money go, you ask?
Top 3 biggest culprits were:
1: Amazon.com – damn you.
2: JCrew – I would never use your name in vain but you’re
killing me!
3: Food. I don’t even feel like I eat out at restaurants
that often but when I do, it’s like $30 a pop and that shit adds up. I was
averaging wayyy more per month on food than any single girl needs to.
I didn’t even make any big purchases besides my iPad and new
Ray Bans for the bf’s birthday. That was the most I spent in one sitting (which
I realize is not insignificant and I believe was money well-spent).
In the grand scheme of things, is this going to break me?
Probably not but I would so much rather have an extra few g’s lying around than
doing whatever the hell I did with that money. I could have paid for most of my first semester of grad school with that.
Moving on.
Some cool new things:
1: Clarisonic vs Oil of Olay ProX
I’ve had my eye on a Clarisonic for a while now. They get
excellent reviews and I have sensitive, flakey, dry skin in the winter so I needed
something to help slough off all the dead stuff since nothing else seemed to work well. However, since I’ve become
better at sticking to my budget, I knew purchasing this wasn’t going to happen any time
soon since these babies can run anywhere between $100 – $200. So I bought the
Oil of Olay ProX one because, it too, gets excellent reviews. There are several
people who own both who do a side by side comparison of the Clarisonic and ProX
product and say the ProX one is just as good. So… I bought it for $22 (off
Amazon aka the evil temptress). I used it last night and, holy smokes, my skin
is so smooth today. I realize only time will tell if it’s a great product but
1: It feels amazing - orgasmic, even and 2: My skin already looks and feels
a little better. $22 well spent.
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| Clarisonic |
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| Oil of Olay ProX |
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| Last night's sleep |
I just used the sleep app for the first time last night and,
while I realize it needs some calibrating, so far I’m not impressed with the
lackluster quality of my sleep. I’ve known for quite some time that I get poop sleep but to see
it quantitatively (sorta) is frustrating. The app gets really high reviews but I really want to know
how accurate it really is. Anyone else use it?
I'm also a bad spender. I don't have any way of keeping track of the money I spend but I know that outside of the money I spend on my bills I don't even know what happens to the rest of the money I spend. I've gotta learn to budget better.
ReplyDeleteIs that sleep app something where you have to wear a monitor on your arm? My coworker did it for a few months and she said it creeped her out more than anything. She also said it would register her as being asleep when she was just doing laid-back things like watching TV or reading.
You should check out mint.com. If you put in the time and effort, which is a lot at first with categorizing but then it's very little maintenance, it tracks EVERYTHING for you. It's great in that it keeps track of everything but it's also bad if you have any OCD tendencies at all (we've est. that I do) and you can become compulsive with checking it. I highly recommend it.
DeleteNope all you do is lay it on your bed and somehow it's able to track the quality and quantity of sleep. I'm incredulous but most of the reviews, and there are thousands, are five stars.
Now I'm intrigued by the Olay ProX. I've had a month of little bumps on my forehead that no amount of St. Ives exfoliating scrub can get rid of, and I've run through my entire arsenal of acne treatments to no avail.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the sleep thing... have you tried a different mattress? It's been on my to-do list for the past year, because I've heard it can help with quality of sleep. (Of course, it also means shelling out hundreds of dollars, which makes me cringe.)
Try it! Lots of people with acne issues had really good reviews - yours doesn't sound like acne but if this helps clear up acne, I imagine it could help with those little bumps. I love my St. Ives, too but it wasn't working on it's own. You can use the St. Ives with the ProX, too.
DeleteYou're right on with the mattress. I really need a different one. I think I may need something a little softer but, yeah, the thought of dropping hundreds on a new mattress sucks - I hated buying my first one. It would make sense to get something better since you spend most of your time in bed and good sleep yields a healthier life (generally speaking).
I second Mint.com! I'm a saver, not a spender - mostly thanks to my six-figure grad school debt (eeks!) - but I find that the rare times I eat out always leave me wondering "WTF did I spend $40 on?!" I'll get Starbucks when I'm traveling for work so I can expense it, but I wonder about the people who buy $6 coffee beverages each day. Maybe it's worked into their budgets...
ReplyDeleteP.S. I deleted the Amazon app from my phone. It needed to be done. Evil.
ReplyDeleteOh I love mint.com. It's pretty amazing. There are a few more things I wish it'd do but for all intents and purposes, it's fantastic. The Starbucks thing I will never understand. Part of the reason I don't drink coffee is because of the added expense. Plus who wants to get up earlier than needed to stand in line at Starbucks in the am?? ;)
DeleteI didn't download the app because I knew it would cause even more trouble! Ugh. Amazon gets me every time.
DeleteWhat makes me laugh is my colleagues who buy these fancy Starbucks beverages everyday.... even though my office has a coffee/espresso machine that uses Starbucks beans!
DeleteSuch a waste of money. I've heard of people doing that in a bunch of different offices.
DeleteThat's my office. We have coffee, a few types of tea, juice and a huge selection of soda's in the staff room for free. And yet people buy MULTIPLE drinks from Starbucks across the street every single day.
DeleteMy book addiction is worked into my budget but I'm not a great saver. If I was, I'd have paid off more of my student debt than I have. I may check out mint.com. I keep a pretty decent Excel sheet but I don't document every coffee or small expense. I'm sure if I did, I'd be horrified.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have some "shopping" money worked into my budget, too. I just starting paying for every single thing possible on my credit card to #1 get points and #2 keep track of everything. I had an excel spreadsheet for a little bit but it wasn't as accurate as I would have liked and it's more work with haveing to input, etc but with mint, it does it for you and captures every single expense so you know exactly how much you're spending.
Delete