We are three months into the year and still on our less stuff, more adventure journey and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at how this is going overall for us. I know for most of us January is usually the month where spending usually doesn’t happen since we are all recovering from the Christmas Holiday Season. I successfully completed two Christmas exchanges and did not spend any money and even ended with a store gift card to use for a future purchase. Speaking of store Gift Cards, my husband forgot to give me a gift card that he had gotten me for Christmas. When he did give me the gift card I didn’t know what to do. In the past, I would have been on the store’s website within a few hours to see what I was going to buy but since we are doing this I haven’t been on the website at all. Because I truly do not NEED anything at the moment. We finally found our new dining room set so we did make a purchase but as I mentioned in the original post it was a planned purchase. One of our reasons for doing this was to do more stuff. I was able to book a trip to The Momference 2019 Event happening in DC this year without feeling guilty of spending the money on a solo trip because for the last 3 months I haven’t been spending money on things that just take up space. Excited about attending this conference is an understatement. When they had the first one last year I said I was going and I was able to make it happen this year! I don’t know if I am more excited about the fact that I am going or, if its because I said I was going to go and I am actually going. How many times do we say we are going to do something or go somewhere and things get in the way and we don’t end up doing it?
Now, I do not want to come across as being perfect because I am FAR from it. I am proud of the fact that I have spent ZERO dollars on clothing or makeup in the last three months because I love Sephora and I love a good sale. But I also know that I did the prep work to prepare myself to do this. I unsubscribed to emails from ALL clothing companies that I was subscribed to and even deleted apps that I had on my phone to eliminate the temptation that I knew would come. I don’t feel deprived or that I am missing out. I have gone to the mall several times and walked out with nothing but Girl Scout Cookies because DUH Girl Scout Cookies. I did have a very emotional mom week and ended up spending $7.48 at Office Depot on a pack of TUL pens that I did not need because I had a rough mom week and if you know me in real life you know that I love all things stationery.
The real test for my family happened this weekend when we once again went into Target to “walk around” after eating dinner. We successfully walked out of Target spending less than $50 and didn’t come home with anything that would just take up space. We bought placemats for our new dining table arriving next week, daytime and nighttime pull-ups, mascara and each kid got a coloring book since they are off this week for Mardi Gras. Yes, you did just read that correctly my kids are off the ENTIRE week for Mardi Gras.
So stay tuned to see how we do, what we learn and where our adventure takes us. Oh, and maybe I will use that gift card to buy myself an outfit for The Momference Conference.
