Thursday
Saving log - $9 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch
Friday
Saving log - $300 ING
Spending log - $1.50 bagel (free coffee!) + $230 spending
Since I worked on Christmas Eve and on Boxing Day, I took today off, and I plan to take a few more days off in January. Boy I needed it - I was losing my nouns when I talked to people and I felt like I was ready to kill someone, two signs that I was burning out. Oh yes, and the faint smell of burning toast ...
After a little bagel breakfast, free coffee from the punch card, and a nice, easy forty five minutes with the paper at the neighborhood coffee shop, I was ready for the day of clothes shopping, lunch, CD and more clothes shopping. I did pretty well, buying things I would use and use often: 1 pair cords, 1 pair jeans, 3 tops, 1 track jacket, 6 pairs of underwear, 3 CDs, a digital TV antenna (for the new Christmas TV), and a conveyor belt sushi lunch.
It was fun, in the budget, restful, and guilt free all around. I could see how someone would feel very good about buying stuff. Its too bad that the pleasures of saving money are far more cerebral - seeing higher numbers in various accounts from one day to the next is just not as brightly sensual.
Transferred $300 from checking into ING savings.
day off shopping spree
December 29th, 2007 at 05:41 am
December 31st, 2007 at 03:29 am 1199071744
That reminds me of an experience I had around my birthday. My husband had bought me a fragrance gift card set from Sephora, so after several days of carefully sniffing the samples I'd narrowed it down to one. First thing one morning I drove up to the Sephora in Lynnwood. I used my gift certificate, then I saw a new Smith's Rosebud lip balm, so I picked that up too. When the cashier found it was my birthday, she gave me a free body lotion. I'd spent very little of my own money and ended up with things I really liked. On the way home I felt very content and happy, and once I became aware of it it rather puzzled me--what did it mean that I was so happy after spending money? Was it a bad thing, a benign thing, or nothing at all?
I still haven't worked out what it means, if anything at all...
January 1st, 2008 at 04:54 am 1199163257