Wednesday, March 2, 2011

New Year, New Mantra: Check-in #1

Castoffs from the Costume Shop

As written about previously, my New Year's Mantra has been "I can do it with what I already have." This was partially motivated by the realization that I am going to be broke as hell for the next year or so, and partially motivated by the fact that I am sick to death of being surrounded by extraneous crap. Let's see how I did these first two months of the year, shall we?

I succumbed to:

A Sweater from AllSaints: I shop their sale every winter, because it's the only damn time I can afford anything from their store. I will admit to having bought this simply to have something, and I feel badly about it in a way that I wouldn't let anybody else make me feel.

Alcohol: You guys, drinking in cute bars with friends? It's really fun. So is sitting on the floor in the living room and downing G & Ts. I don't mean to make it sound like I have some kind of problem, but seriously. Being in the city has really showed me how much fun social drinking can be.

Stuff from the Toy Fair: I did manage to flirt my way into a few free things, but they were selling Catan expansions at 50% off! I saved $20 (on something I probably wouldn't have bought if it wasn't on sale...)

Stuff from H & M: Ohhhh boy. The store in Times Square is HUGE, and all the stuff is just so darn cute, and - and - and -.... Yeah, there's really no excuse. I think I need to stay out of clothing stores for a little while.

I resisted:


Patton Oswalt's New Book: I'm sure it's hilarious, but I just can't cough up $25 for a book I'll read once. I'll put myself on the NYPL list for it (I'm spot #12), and when I get it for free in a year I'll enjoy it just as much as I'm enjoying reading his blog in the mean time now.

A Desk: I'm one of those people who needs a desk to feel sane, but I didn't want to have to drag one up and down the stairs in my new apartment building. The solution? A board on two (admittedly, Ikea) sawhorses.

Television: When we set up our new apartment, Schmem & I made a unilateral decision not to get cable. It's only saving us a few dollars a month, and I really wished I had it when the shit was going down in Egypt, but overall I don't really feel like I'm missing that much. I've never been a big TV watcher though, so that hardly counts as resisting.

***

Guys? I didn't do so well. When I first moved in I thought that I was just spending the necessary money to move, but now I've moved out of that grace period. If I find I'm not capable of controlling myself in stores, I'll try to avoid going in at all.

I will say that I find art and food to be the things worth spending money on right now. I finally live in the city I've spent the past four years running back and forth to for entertainment, and I'll be a sonofabitch if I don't take full advantage of it. But a little bit less with the clothing accumulation, especially since I'm about to run out of places to put it. 

1 comment:

Kristin said...

When I was living in the city and couldn't afford new clothes, not going into stores was my method of not shopping, and it worked like a dream. I basically couldn't go into a store *without* buying something, so I just stopped going into stores. It was much easier than it seemed. I think you're doing really well so far. Good luck with the rest of the year!