How I Ended Up In No Shop February

I have a good paying job. I have a house, a car, and I have some debt. I don't have a shopping habit, per se, but yarn and books are a major weakness. I started using Mint.com to help track all of my spending. It turns out, going to lunch or having lunch delivered is also my weakness (or lack of preparedness). Sigh.

I saw on YarnderWoman's Instagram a reference to The Year of Less by Cait Flanders. I googled it and thought, yeah, I need to read this. My first step in saving money was going to the library to get this book! Yay me.

I have lots of financial goals. I've already paid off my car and plan to drive it til it falls apart. My mortgage is under control. I have an emergency fund and a 401k. But I want the other debt gone because I want to travel! See the world! Take in the sites! I finished reading this book while in the hospital, caught unawares by a small bowel obstruction, and I think I might need to re-read (I was on a lot of narcotics). I got the gist though.

Flanders takes us through how she decided that consumerism was taking over her life. It's not just the spending money, right? It's all the STUFF you accumulate. I amaze myself when I consider how much I filled my house in 20 years. I'm also pretty sure I don't use over half of the things I have. Flanders did a massive purge of her apartment and then started her No Spend Year. There were rough patches, where things ended up in a virtual cart and were almost bought. But in the end, she saved up $17,000 and used that to travel. And that's what I'm talking about!

Once I was home and upright again, I started making my plan. It's not just No Shop February, I really started in January. I made a list of what I can spend money on vs. what I can't (I'll be visiting the library a lot more). I made a list of exceptions. And then I started cleaning and purging. I discovered that while, some things are needed and should be purchased, such as vitamins, I had hoarded vitamins as they came on sale. So I didn't need to keep spending money on them each month. Too bad I never checked my vitamin stash first *facepalm*

I'm figuring out my weak points, my instant "must purchase" moments. And I'm employing the Dave Ramsey approach to paying off the rest of my debt. It might be a rough year, but it's going to be a rewarding one!

Check Cait out below:

Not Cait but still good!