July Shopfessions

Kickstarter
The Secret Loves of Geek Girls - $49
Elysian Springs - $20

Clothes
Skull sweater - $35
Two Dresses and Leggings - $107

Books
BookOutlet - $26
Amazon - $43
The Reading Room - $23

Music
Jillian Aversa - $10
zircon - $6

Makeup
Bite Duo Lipstick - $12
Makeup Forever Lipstick Shade 51 - $20
Sephora Eyeliner Shade 12 - $13

MISC
Shipping - $9.95
Hot Topic - $54.81

Returns/Extra Earned
eshakti - $39.45
PoshMark - $32
Sold books - $25

I found out about the Kickstarter from BuzzFeed. I've been trying to avoid Kickstarter but they seem to find me.

I wanted some more work dresses so I used a discount code for Torrid and shipped it for free to my local store. The sweater? See Poshmark below. Can't sell without seeing what's for sale.

Book outlet had given me a $5 off coupon so I got several books I'd been wanting to get my hands on. The Reading Room offered me a 40% off + free shipping code the same day the author of one of my favorite books drops a new title. I'm actually reading it now along with someone else as part of the PopSugar Challenge.

I tried 4 different bookstores to find Living Well, Spending Less by Ruth Soukup before I gave up and got it on Amazon. I added some other things to get the free shipping. I really hope Ms. Soukup can help me in not spending any more.

As for makeup, I figured out how to work everything that wasn't mascara after the age of 25. In a few short years I've escalated to the point where I can't be left unsupervised in Sephora. I stopped by to pick up a few basic pieces to build my nonexistent face collection and this resulted in a few impulse purchases. From Amazon I ordered 3 lipsticks, 2 of which were for costumes.

I don't have a good excuse for Hot Topic. I wanted a smaller backpack for the weekend and the necklace was perfect for a cosplay Boyfriend and I do.

My grand total of unnecessary stuff for July? $359.76 Ouch. Another month confirms what rubbish I am at not spending money. For almost all of these I can hear a voice in my head saying "Excuses, not reasons." With a regular rent check to go along with my cell phone, COBRA, and car insurance bills, it has become very clear to me that I need to do a lot better than I've been doing.

At least I've gotten better at counteracting my spending habit. PoshMark was a recent discovery via a Hello Giggles article. One woman managed to pay off her student loans with the site so I decided to sell clothes that didn't fit or I didn't need. I bought a sweater but I've culled my closet once again and have several pieces that will hopefully earn more than the $0 I was getting with them sitting in my closet unused.

Earnings for July? $96.45. That counteracts the spending total to $263.31. With the new budget I'll have to be on, that's still too much but I'm hoping a budget app will help me really see where my money needs to go, not just where it doesn't need to have been.