Bank of Mom and Dad....

Last night I watched part of an episode of the Bank of Mom and Dad online on hulu.com (love it, it's free!). I don't suggest anybody who is in questionable financial standing to watch this prior to going to bed, unless your idea of "rest" includes a panic attack. Despite the anxiety I amazingly slept well, and awoke to the idea of implementing some strategies that I saw in the beginning of the episode- we'll see if I actually shred my credit cards. I know I should.

So this weekend as I craved a dark, steamy cup of joe from Starbucks, I decided it was better for me to drink the same at home. I typically do this, but for some reason around payday I start to think I can hit up the "bucks" and often I tell myself it's a way of being social. Yeah right, with who? I don't talk to anybody except the person taking my order. So I stayed at home made my coffee and breakfast too (yep, calories were considered as well as finances) and kicked it in my comfy clothes. Not too bad, especially since I'm paying a buttload to live in this apartment.

I made it out of Target without buying anything!!! Yeah, you're so jealous. Of course I was thinking about things that I wanted to buy, but I didn't do it. It was kind of hard, but not too bad. We went to the mall to hear a friend's daughter sing Christmas carols and I made it out without buying anything. That felt good. Hmmm that gets me to thinking...what did I buy this weekend? We'll have to consult my wallet for this because as far as I'm concerned I didn't buy anything but groceries. Okay got it. Groceries (so I can eat), medicine, and one inexpensive meal ($3.69). Not too bad. That doesn't include the pair of shoes I bought last week. Ooops!

Is anybody else bothered by the multiple receipts that are handed out upon purchase at most major stores? Really wouldn't it be economically responsible for those companies to save on receipt paper? Also, I don't want to get into how I practically accosted the bagger at the grocery store because of the number of plastic bags I saw in my cart. Plastic bags disgust me, I'll chat more about that later, but when you've worked in the trash industry for 7+ years you start to take notice to the items that unnecessarily clutter our waste stream, not to mention our local streets, parks, open space areas. Plastic garbage also impacts ecosystems and animal survival through contamination. Animals don't know what it is and they will try to feed it to their babies and use it to create nests- it's not really all that "good." Anyway, I don't think the 17 year old bagger was aware of all of that. Get reusable bags! It was my bad to not have them ready to go in my car.

This week:

Goal #1: Balance checkbook to get a realistic look at Christmas finances.

Goal #2: Put the darn reusable bags into the trunk so next time I will have a friendly "social" interaction with the bagger.

Is Your Closet Busting at the Seams?

Lately some of my girlfriends and I have realized that when there's a party we feel the need to buy a new outfit. Just last week as I was anticipating my cousin's engagement party I found myself stuffed into a dressing room in an attempt to find a great outfit. I already had a dress in mind, but of course it wasn't going to be good enough. With my recent life decisions wreaking havoc on my financial situation, I have tried my best to be more fiscally responsible. With that in mind, I gathered my strength turned away from the very fabulous outfits (including some great shoes) that I had picked out and decided that my closet contained a significant amount of items that would suffice. I'm ashamed to say that I was able to compose a great outfit (containing most items I had never even worn) that I received compliments on all night!

I think we fashionistas know that nobody (or at least those of us who care) wants to be seen in the same outfit twice, right? Some of my girlfriends and I have also begun a quest to lose a few lbs and as we peruse through the mounds of clothes and identify patterns in our past behavior much like archeologists reveal trends in past societies through archeological dig, it has come to our realization that we have continued to buy new things as our bodies adjust.

Funny that as I am writing this my coworker (who is tiny and gorgeous) is mentioning her troubles with the societal pressures of fitting into a size 2, this after we just got lectured on the dangers of phenylalanine in my Coke Zero, but we'll get into that later. She says that she has "so many pairs of jeans" that she is hoping to diet into- or shrink into. Size 2, what's that?

With all of the pressures of the sizes of our bodies, the importance of keeping up our "look" through hairstyles, clothing, and the oh-so-important accessories, influenced by the economic decline, I have decided that it would be beneficial to create this website with the intent of communicating strategies on limiting our consumption of unnecessary goods, without impacting our overall greatness and fabulosity.

Welcome~