Shopping Cleanse Update

Per the terms of the shopping cleanse I announced last month, February was a no-shop month. Overall my goals are to save money and diversify the things I do choose to spend money on; ie, not blow all of my money on clothing. Given that I wasn’t buying anything in February I expected to save a lot of money.

I didn’t. I barely saved any. I blame it on vegetables, my hair, my immune system, and wine.

The overall problem was that I didn’t budget for the month. I figured that since I wasn’t spending any money there’d be nothing to put in the budget. Big mistake. That’s how I ended up over-spending on food. I’m not a foodie and I eat most of my meals at work so food is usually a minimal expense. But at the grocery store feeling like I had an unlimited amount of money (which is a dangerous feeling), I went to town. Especially on vegetables, which are perishable. Like the 10 oz tub of spinach that says “use by Feb 27”, or the tomatoes which are becoming more and more shriveled by the day. So now in my fridge I have a bunch of food that I don’t know what to do with, that I might not even be able to use any more. I don’t remember how much I spent, but I know I would rather have spent it on clothes.

My hair was a culprit. I tell you, a fluffy, platinum fro-hawk does not come cheap. Before I reveal the price let me say that it took me two years to find an afro-competent hairstylist in the Bay Area. I didn’t know it was possible to mess up an afro in so many ways. I also didn’t know there would be so many African-American hairstylists who would a) berate me for having natural hair or b) tell me they didn’t know what to do with it. I went to one stylist who took 7 hours to color my hair and multiple stylists who told me over the phone they could do what I wanted but then reneged once I was in their shop. But then I found Stacey, who is friendly, professional and above all, knowledgeable. She wasn’t afraid of my hair, or what I asked her to do with it. I’m so happy with both her service and my hair, it was worth the ~$250. Yeah, $250. Painful for the wallet, but beauty is pain, right?

I landed in the hospital in February, via the Emergency Room. Even though I was unwell enough for a doctor to order me 4 days of rest, I thankfully didn’t have anything serious. Even with insurance the ER is expensive. $100 to be admitted, $20 for prescriptions, $10 for a doctor’s visit, $26 in cab fare; $156 total. But these are the reasons to save money. None of us is invincible, and you have to be prepared for an emergency. Luckily I have paid sick days at my job but some people have to be prepared to take a pay cut if they take a sick day.

A very important reason to save money – unexpected trips to wine country! Living in San Francisco, going wine tasting in Napa or Sonoma is an easy activity to do. A few weeks ago a friend invited me to a day of wine tasting at the last minute and I happily went. The thing about wineries though, is that while there are plenty of great bottles for $10 and under at the grocery store, they don’t usually come that cheap at the source. I fell in love with four bottles but capped my purchases at three; spent ~$75-80.

So even though I didn’t buy “anything” I still managed to spend ~$500, and that doesn’t include things like movies, dinner/drinks, cab rides, etc.  I’m now halfway through phase II of the shopping cleanse where I can buy stuff, just not clothing or accessories. I predict less buying of food, now that I’ve learned my lesson. I already bought some gorgeous stationery and a few books, and I won’t need to get my hair done for a few months. It occurred to me this morning (while writing this post) that I still haven’t made out a budget, and I should do that before I find something new to waste money on. I recently got a raise at work (yay!) so hypothetically I can spend more money… but I’m really trying to develop better saving habits. On with the cleanse!