The “do not buy” list

I often find myself going in buying spurts.  I’ll buy a ton of one particular thing, and then have a huge supply of X to get through.  Well, right now that glut is in personal care products.  Since I have a kind of mini-vacation this week (woohoo!) I have had time to do some deep cleaning and purging in our house.  Let’s just say that it will be a long time before I “need” to go to Target.  All of the items on this list are on a do-not-buy-until-I’m-out-of-it list:

• shampoo/conditioner.  I have probably 5 bottles of each and no idea how that happened
• body wash.  I got a few bottles as gifts at Christmas and I happen to make them last a long time
• face wash.  I have three different brands open right now.  Unnecessary!
• deoderant.  Apparently I hoard deoderant.  Who knew!
• nail polish.  Not necessary and I really have more than I use
• moisturizer.  I must have bought several at one time because there are a few I’ve never opened.

While I have no idea how long any of the above will actually last me, I’m glad to have gotten this list put together, so that I’ll be consistently aware of what I don’t need.  And in my world, any excuse to stay out of Target is good for my budget!

Things that will not happen before mid-May

This time next month I’ll be done with school until August!  Until then, it’s all books, and nothing but books and studying.  Therefore certain things (minor and not so minor) will not be done by me.  Poor L is going to be a busy dude.  In no particular order, those things include:

• a haircut.  I need one badly, but don’t have the hours that it takes to make my hair look decent.
• dry cleaning.
• an eyebrow waxing.  Definitely going to get one of those the first weekend of my summer!
• cooking.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I’m a horrible cook.  Thank goodness L is a fantastic one.
• sit-down dinners out.  Again, must study all the books.
• making my bed.  So not important.
• Facebook.  You are the biggest time suck, goodbye.
• grocery shopping
• putting away clean clothing
• house chores
• reading for fun
• movie, television show watching
• shopping

In addition to having time for the above, I’m just really excited to have my life back in the near future!

Summer vacation

I’m so excited to report that we have decided to take a second vacation this year (our first was a few days at a friend’s cabin over spring break)!  We are planning a camping weekend in mid/late June.

Camping is one of those polarizing things- I feel like people often either love it or hate it. Me?  I like/love it.  My family never went camping when I was growing up, but I have gone several times as an adult.  The actual camping is just “eh” for me, but I love the road trip to the camping site, water activities (canoeing, swimming, etc.) and eating nothing but food cooked outside.  Sleeping uncomfortably on the floor of a tent doesn’t get me all excited about nature though.

Our trip will probably be in late June or early July, when it’s warm enough all night to be sleeping outside, but the day temperature hasn’t yet reached its peak.  I don’t think that we’ll need to purchase anything for the weekend- lots of my friends are big into camping and have tents, air mattresses, camping stoves, etc.  Two nights at a campsite will probably be $50, and then we’ll just have gas and food costs.  Depending on how far we decide to travel, I think we are looking at $150-$250 for the entire weekend.

 

Yay for summer!  Please get here soon

April budget update (without numbers…)

I will not complain about school.  I will not complain about school.  I will not complain about school.  Such a first world problem, no?

Welcome to my first month living on a budget.  I have to say… I really had no idea what to expect.  It was much harder to anticipate spending than it was to just record it.  I have learned a few things so far though about what to expect in the future.

First of all, our gas is far too hard to calculate because it is so dependent upon L’s job and his schedule.  His work reimburses for gas, at a price-per-mile that is still (slightly) above the actual cost of gas.  I think that we’ll have to leave this out of budgeting for now.

Second, I already have a short list of a few things I want to buy in May- like mascara and new hangers.  Non-essential and not in the budget for this month, so I decided that I could wait.

Third, our “other” budget has already been blown, thanks to some minor repairs around our house.  I suppose that a mini-emergency fund would be worth maintaining for things like this.

Goodbye, jeans and sandals.

So this will probably go down as the worst week for my wardrobe in a long time.  I managed to wear a hole in my favorite pair of jeans, and I discovered that a pair of my sandals developed some sort of fungus over the winter months. 

The jeans were basically the only pair that I lived in all winter.  And the sandals, while I didn’t wear them all the time, have been with me for lots of years.  So I feel like I got my money’s worth on both counts.  

Back in the day, I would give away tons of clothes because I was bored of wearing them.  Now, however, I am wearing through my clothes- you know, kind of the point of an article of clothing?  I’m wearing things until they have no wear left in them (the shoes might be an exception here…dang fungus) and then deciding whether or not I’ll need to replace.  

I’m going to need to get some new sandals, as those were my most reliable and sturdy pair for long days of walking around in the summer.  I will be holding off on buying new jeans, probably until the start of the school year. I don’t like to wear jeans during the summer months anyway- I find them too hot- and I’ll be fine without a second pair until then.  

Sweet summertime

Long time, no write.  My grown-up time management skillz have gone out the window as of late.

But, I’ve also been doing some really interesting and exciting things- like securing work for this summer- over the past few weeks.  It is unpaid, but it will count for school credit and I’m also hopeful that it will be awesome experience for my future career.  Like any good internship, it will give me both practical experience and a very good window into what my life will look like in a few years.

I’ll still be looking for non-school related work to bring in a bit of money for next fall’s textbooks, my credit card, and my school debt.  Now that I’ll have great experience for grad school, I’m pretty much willing to do any work that will pay (within reason, of course).

Weekly menu

In an attempt to reign in our food spending a bit, we are going back to meal planning for the week.  It helps us to know what we have in our fridge/pantry and to be more focused in our shopping and list-making, so that we actually do have all of the ingredients that we need for meals.

Breakfasts- We each eat our own thing M-F, and then on weekends we either finish our breakfast groceries from the week or have something traditional like quiche or bacon and eggs.   This week, I’ll be having breakfast bars and bananas, and L wants yogurt and apples.

Lunches- Same thing, on M-F we each eat our own thing, and then on the weekends we usually have leftovers from weeknight dinners.  I’ll be having cold sandwiches, and L wants to make a huge stir fry to eat throughout the week.  

Dinner

Sunday- frozen pizza

Monday- chicken with pineapple salsa 

Tuesday- sausage, pasta, and veggies 

Wednesday- veggie burgers and pineapple salsa

Thursday- hot dogs and mac and cheese.

Friday- fish

 

For the record, we don’t normally eat hot dogs.  L’s work had a luncheon last week and doled out the leftovers to several of the employees.  (They were still frozen; we don’t let food sit for weeks!)  And seriously- nothing goes better with hot dogs than mac and cheese.  I’ll buy salad fixings to go with the meals all week, too.