On $pending

Hi there!

I am currently sitting outside on my deck overlooking the move-in day activities of my university town (it's a zoo. so glad I'm within walking/biking distance of everything in town). I moved in yesterday deep cleaned my entire apartment, went grocery shopping, baked bread, made yogurt and fresh batch of laundry detergent. And felt like superwomen. And slept for nearly nine hours afterwards.
I'm single-minded on move-in days. My goal is to get everything in it's rightful place as quickly as possible (with the exception of awkwardly large and heavy chalkboards, seen above).  My neat-freak-tendencies cannot handle a move-in day that drags on throughout the week. I hate clutter.

What was this post about?

Oh yeah. Money.

As a college student with a limited budget, money has been on my mind a lot lately. I worked a ton this summer in order to have a satisfactory cushion to start the school year with and throughout the year I work three (small) jobs. I get by.

 I've been much more critical about how I spend money lately. Maybe critical, with it's hard connotations, is poor word choice. Mindful may be a better word. I've been more mindful about how I spend money lately. I worked 8-10 hour days throughout the week this summer. My money is hard-earned, and some weeks, it runs like water. After  living expenses: rent, gas, etc., and putting my money away in my savings it feels like I don't have that much at the end of the day.

My weakness is food. If I was running late for work this summer, or feeling uninspired by the contents of my refrigerator, I'd stop by my favorite cafe and grab lunch to-go instead of making my own. When I went out to run errands, I'd grab a coffee. These are seemingly small purchases: two dollars here, seven dollars there but, of course, they add up. Nowadays, I'm very conscientious of every small charge to my bank account. The temptation to spend is still there sometimes. Before I make a purchase, any purchase, I ask myself a series of question:

-do I need it? the answer to this is usually no. 

-is it useful and/or beautiful? toothpaste is useful. clothes, generally, are useful and (hopefully) beautiful. orchids? not useful. at all. but definitely beautiful. A good follow up question to this one is will I still think it is useful or beautiful in two weeks/two months/two years? if it's a trendy item, like a hi-lo skirt or a crop top, the answer, again, is usually no.

-will it help me reach a goal or make me a better person? this notion has been really important to me as of late. I read this post and was a little skeptical of the notion that everything purchase should be seen as an investment. I think it's because investment makes me think of retirement funds and mortgages, which is a silly notion. but now, the more I think about it, the more I agree.

-how long have I wanted/needed to purchase this? this is a huge one for me, any unnecessary purchase over fifteen dollars usually sends me into serious contemplation-- I think about "larger" items for awhile before deciding to buy them. For instance, this etsy print? I thought about it on and off for, like, two years. Not kidding. (and yes, that is the popcorn ceiling of my apartment. I needed a white and unshadow-y background. desperate times call for... you know.)

So far, these questions have served me well and have prevented me from making a lot of unnecessary purchases (read: coffee) and small savings add up. I'm really excited to share some stuff with y'all in the next month or so that are a direct result of these small savings. :)

-Madelyn