You’d think that in all the years that I’ve been an adult that I would learn some sense of financial responsibility. I know that money doesn’t grow on trees, but I shop like there’s a never ending supply of income coming my way. I currently saving up for a big trip this summer, (destination yet to be determined), so I’ve come up with a few ways that I can scale back my spending to help me save up for this trip.
HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL
I know it sounds very irresponsible for me to say this, but it’s REALLY hard for me to hold back on shopping. My closet is filled to the rim with clothes, shoes and accessories, but I’m always in “need” of that one extra item to complete my look. With that said, one the best way for me to avoid spending money on clothing is to just not be there. I try to avoid even opening up the website to online stores or go to sample sales. You can’t buy it if you don’t see it. I normally receive a lot of emails informing me of sales and new items, but I immediately delete them when I see them in my inbox. (I apologize in advance IF I do slack on the sample sale info. Based on past experience, I may not have enough self-control to refrain from going to the sample sales myself if I have the details).
NO MORE COFFEE RUNS
I also noticed that I spend a tremendous amount of money buying fancy coffee drinks. To say I’m going to give up on coffee is just sacrilegious, instead, I’ve just decided to brew my own coffee at home to save myself the $5-$7 a day I spend at Verve, Blue Bottle or Commissary (see HOW I ESPRESS-O MYSELF for my favorite LA coffee shops). The hardest part is that I’ve gotten into the routine of rewarding myself with a nice coffee drink after working out. I also like to meet up with my girlfriends at coffee shops in the morning. For the time being, I’ll have to find an alternative to coffee shop meetings.
PERFECT ATTENDANCE
After going through my credit card statements during tax season, I realized that a huge chunk of my money went to late cancelations on ClassPass. (It’s $15 for each late cancellation, and this adds up quickly). I can easily avoid this by just showing up for class, but once again, there’s been a number of reasons as to why I had to late cancel, (i.e. last minute auditions, staying out late the night before, flat tires). I like to schedule my classes in advance to guarantee myself a spot, but since this proves to be a financial risk I’ll start signing up for classes the evening before or the day of in order to avoid a late cancellation.
These are all short term solutions, so my long term budgeting goal is to create an excel spreadsheet of my monthly spending. Knowing what I spend on a day to day basis will help me tremendously in knowing what is frivolous spending and what is necessary spending. Fingers crossed that I pull this off. I’ll keep y’all updated on my budgeting experiment. Odds are, if you see me posting vacation pics in the next month or so, then it was probably a success. Haha!
Xo, Linda
Top: BB Dakota / Pant: BB Dakota / Sunnies: Illesteva / Earrings: Vanessa Mooney / Boots: IRO (sold out | similar look) / Bag: ZARA (similar look) / Lariat: Lili Claspe (Box of Style exclusive)
Photographed by Stefanie Meier
2 comments
Girl, I totally feel you on the mindless shopping… And it resonated when you said you were buying “that one thing to complete a look”, like somehow our closets would be magically perfect once we got that pair of white booties.. Although.. haha! I’m trying to save too, and have been finding the not opening of the emails to be the best trick. If I don’t know it’s happening, then I can’t be involved. Also I’ve been making a few bucks on the side by selling some excess items from my closet. It helps to offset going out to dinner when my boyfriend and I are too exhausted to cook, so that’s something, right?!
Yes, Poshmark has been helpful in terms of selling off stuff that I like to see in my closet but I never end up wearing. It’s actually time for me to do another closet clean out. And like you said with going out to dinner with your boyfriend, I didn’t realize how much I as spending when I had a boyfriend. Even though I only paid for the “cheap” meals, but $20 here, $15 there, it all adds up! Especially since ex and I weren’t much cooks so we ate out A LOT. Thanks for sharing your own insight to this! xo!