Save money – how I spent more in three months than I planned to spend in a year.
By Olga
Save money, stop taking into account someone else’s expectations, pay attention to your health, exercise at least twice a week. As you probably know, I divided my New Year’s resolutions into quarters this year (you can read more in this blog post). In the first one, I wanted to focus on three aspects that are important to me, my health and exercising at least twice a week, putting myself first and saving money. Up to a certain point, I had the feeling that I was doing great with everything, and my goals were being realized as if by themselves. It wasn’t difficult for me to motivate myself to exercise, although I plan to increase this number from at least two workouts a week to exercising at least every other day. I did pretty well with saving. That’s what I thought until I counted up all the money I spent in three months.
A shopping list was a bad idea
I am a supporter of planning all expenses, especially when it comes to clothes. For as long as I can remember, the end of winter and summer is the time for me to look for new clothes that are on my shopping list. While the very idea of a shopping list when it comes to wardrobe planning is a very smart approach, I must admit that I got lost somewhere in all this. Just a few weeks ago, I was making my own list of clothes I would like to buy. Today, I don’t do that anymore, and I don’t hope to go back to this habit fueling my endless clothing spending. In my case, the phrase “I was planning to buy it”, “It’s on my shopping list” completely justified me from every subsequent purchase decision. Even when I felt that I bought probably too many new clothes this season. Always then the thought crossed my mind that it was a purchase caused by my actual need. I wasn’t aware then that the need for shopping was associated with my emotions.
For the first three months of the year, I completed my wardrobe by buying clothes that I was wishing for. These included new jackets, some I found at a bargain price on Vinted, a wool jacket, loafers in two different colors, slingbacks, and so on and so forth. I’m ashamed to list all these elements in front of myself. Until a certain moment, I wasn’t even aware of how many new things had accumulated in my wardrobe in such a short time. I always felt like I had everything under control.
Houston, we have a problem
Only when I counted up all the money I spent, with each subsequent payment appearing on my account, I grabbed my head. Within three months, I spent 1.5 of my planned budget for this year. This is always the case with money, spent uncontrollably, escaping from our accounts at an alarming rate. At first, I had the impression that I was controlling everything because I plan every purchase that is on my list. I didn’t consider that trying to satisfy all my shopping needs right away, I’m doing myself a disservice.
While the rest of my New Year’s resolutions turned out to be a hit, I have to admit that saving, or rather denying yourself shopping, is not my strong point. And just as I thought I was doing pretty well with my finances, now I know I was wrong. Every failure teaches us something new about us. Mine showed me that I don’t control my money, much less when it comes to clothes. Instead of planning a budget for the whole year, buying what I wanted over time, I bought everything on a hurray, if only it met my expectations enough that I decided to reach for my wallet. I’ve also come to the point that shopping for me is a pursuit of something that I lack, and that I just don’t have and probably never will. I run away from my emotions, which I can’t properly take care of. Furthermore, I’m happy with the lessons I learned from my mini-failure. It’s a pity that it happened to me so late, although … better late than never, right?
