August Shopfessions

Clothes
Poshmark - $35
Torrid - $43

Makeup
Amazon - $36
Poshmark lipstick - $10

Books
Felicia Day's Memoir Signed - $30
ShoreLeave splurges - $103.30

MISC
Chain Maille fez - $6.36
Pillow and wristlet - $55



Earned/Returned
eshakti - $27.95
Torrid return - $25
Sold books - $9.50
Poshmark - $22


The Poshmark dress was marked as new with tags and was $35 with shipping and looks great. I've already worn it to work several times.

The Amazon listing was for 3 lipsticks 2 of which were for costumes, one this month.

A signed copy of Felicia Day's book ordered from an independent bookstore? I regret nothing. Buying $100 worth of books at ShoreLeave, I regret a little bit of that.

No Kickstarter or music this month. All songs were obtained with Viggle points. I may let myself order an album in the coming months if I can manage to keep other spending under control.

My total unnecessary spending for the month: $318.66. I didn't do much shopping on vacation (benefit of going to the boonies) nor did I have much time before or after given the move.

Looking at my new living expenses from the move, I really don't have much room to play. I have to plan my splurges more carefully. I'm enjoying my new job but I'm a contractor so there are no guarantees. The new apartment also needs things like a couch and bookshelves so these things take priority.

I've also realized the new apartment has limited space so I'm doing another assessment of my clothes. I want to do a full KonMari sort but I don't have time right now. I've already pulled somethings aside and if I don't miss them in the next few months, they're going on Poshmark. Speaking of Poshmark, if you count the two returns and two checks I got in, I got $84.45 back. That knocks $318.66 down to $234.21.

Now that my money has to go to concrete things like furniture and rent, I think I'm going to do a lot better. Not having much choice is really motivating.

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.

June Shopfessions

Kickstarter
The Doubleclicks - $10
Oh Joy Sex Toy - $20
We're Alive: Lockdown - $20

Clothes
Amy Pond Jacket - $58
Spider Gwen cardigan - $50.17
New Normal Apparel shirt - 57.92
Balloon Dress - $40
Surplice top - $32
LOC Pride and Prejudice tee - $28

MISC
eshakti shipping - $13
Kristyn Hippe EP - $8
In App expansion for Bonza - $3

Sold
Selling books - $38.44

With the offset, that brings my total spending to $301.65 for the month of June. Since I'll be sharing a closet with someone, I have no need to acquire more clothes. I will need to figure out how to share space and I don't know what the dress code will be for the next job/temp gig I have so there's no point in dropping money I don't have on clothing I'm not sure I'll use.

The Kickstarters I funded this go around were all ones I'd planned to invest in once I knew they were going to happen. I wanted to be a part of Oh Joy and have a personal investment in the other two.

I saw the Amy Pond jacket when I went to look at something I saw in the store window. I talked myself out of a lovely but impractical polka dot dress but I could use the jacket as a lazy Amy Pond cosplay since I already have a navy and white striped tank. As for the cardigan, I've seen 2 different designs on We Love Fine and watched them sell out. Not this time.

The New Normal Apparel I have no excuse other than it allowed me to wear leggings as pants. I just found out I had a new temp assignment that would pay the best money I've ever made and it should go on for a couple of months. Imagine my disappointment when it stopped after 3 days.

To celebrate unexpectedly getting another gig, I acquired a customized dress on sale from eshakti. With the customizing fee, it was about $40. Because I got more than one item, the top was 30% off and is enormously practical. After that gig ended abruptly, I went to the Library of Congress. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen including the Vanderbilt mansions. They had a Pride and Prejudice tee exclusive to them that I couldn't resist picking up. I managed not to buy any books but that doesn't feel like quite the badge of honor I want it to be after looking at these numbers.

My big lesson from this month is that no matter how long they say a temp gig is for, it could end tomorrow. I can no longer trust what I'm told for the duration of any future assignments. No more celebrating. I'll celebrate by saving money since I'm moving in August.

On the upside, most of the major birthday I've got for the rest of the year are taken care of and I've got a head start on Christmas. I also got an influx of cash from selling books back. I've discovered 2 new apps that I'm hoping will allow me to sell books and clothes for cash. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. I'm hoping I won't be idle for too long but there's no guarantee that I won't be out of work for the next month.

May Shopfessions

Kickstarter
Little Free Library Kickstarter - $44
Rain of the Ghosts Audioplay - $25
Amber Skye EP - $10
MAE Graphic Novel - $50
Broken Frontier - $40

Books
BN - $13.70
BN -$31
Politics and Prose - $45

Clothes
Ruth Badass Ginsburg - $26.59

MISC
Nightwish album - $11.99
Inside Amy Schumer MakeUp song - $1.29
Portal 2: The (Unauthorized) Musical - $5.04

Refunds/Returns
Hot Topic + $42.59
Sold Books + $25.88

I have learned I'm just as dangerous on Kickstarter as I am on other retail sites. Kickstarter has the added bonus of helping a cause or some cool media that might not otherwise exist. I wasn't sure if all of them would get funded but everything came through at the end.

The RBG was an oatmeal unisex tank that was on sale and the last tank top I'll need for summer. After RBG's glorious showdown about gay marriage, I wanted to represent. I'm waiting until I have income again before I get a Notorious RBG shirt.

One of my 2 BN runs were with a gift card and a coupon but it still wasn't great. I felt bad enough that I wound up returning one of the books. Progress? Politics and Prose was from a night with Neil Gaiman. I paid full price for Trigger Warning and Ocean at the End of the Lane but they were autographed. I regret nothing.

My friend got me tickets for the Nightwish concert and they're touring this album. I tried to hold out to get it with Viggle points but they hadn't stocked it in the store after a month so I caved and bought it. The worst part of it was that I got food poisoning and couldn't go to the concert. BF filmed over 30 minutes of footage so I didn't totally miss out.

As for getting money back, I got a Hot Topic return processed (finally) and got a check from selling some of my books. However, there was a con at the end of this month. Inevitably, I did some damage.

Awesome Con Haul
Zorphbert & Fred - $30
Never Have I Ever card game - $25
How to Train Your Dragqueen - $22
Don't Blink Tank - $20
Curls comic - $15
The Shadow of the Gauntlet by Casey Caracciolo - $15
Live Long and Suck It tee - $15
Pirate Eye - $10
Partholon by D. Krauss - $10

Baron Syndicate - $5

Total: $167

I had a cash budget of $120-130. I didn't keep exact track but my plan as to stop shopping when I ran out of cash. This worked reasonably well until I saw Never Have I Ever the card game. I wound up combining my gift budget with my personal fun budget and gave myself some wiggle room on my credit card.

I didn't need any of the shirts but they made me smile. When vendors remember you, it definitely motivates you to spend money. I am astonished by how many vendors remember me. D. Krauss saw me when I was getting worn out and let me chill at his booth for a while. I gave him some banana chips and we talked about dogs.

This brings my grand total of unnecessary spending to $402.14. Ouch. And I just got the wireless bill and my COBRA bills. This is less than ideal timing. I really need money. I've got to hit up that vendor who wanted a pair of my earrings.

March Shopfessions

I figure it will be easier to confess my shopping indiscretions if I add them pat the end of the month. Inevitably I got some birthday gift cards and got some money from books sold during the purge.

I allowed a lot more self-indulgence since it was my birthday.

Clothes I Didn't Need
Keep Your Options Spoke Shirt - $35
(I was waiting for this grand display of snark to come in)
Exactly As It Schemes Shirt - $30
(This is something I could pull off at work with not-jeans)

Books/Comics I Didn't Need
Smut Peddler 2012 PDF - $15
(Sex positive comics? Yes, please)
Smut Peddler 2014 Paperback - $30
Templar Arizona All Four Books - $45
Barnes and Noble - $46 (Went to kill a gift card. That backfired.)

MISC Things I Didn't Need
Lip color from Shiro - $9
(Most shadows can be turned into a custom lip color)
Lip color sample from Shiro - $2
(I never much liked Justin but I did like this color)
Shiro shipping - $2.75
Look Human shipping - $3
(I got a gift card for my birthday and just paid shipping.)
Uber - $32.73
Dessa & Aby Wolf albums - $33

Charity
Green Peace - $15

That makes a grand total of $298.48 of unnecessary spending. It really stings when you see how much 'little' slips total up. Call the Uber 'unnecessary' is debatable. I'd been sick for a couple of days and didn't have the energy for all the metro and walking to get to the Night Vale show I had tickets for. Dessa and Aby Wolf were the 'weather' at Night Vale and they were excellent.

One expense I didn't add here was shopping for wedding presents. I've got 2 this year and I tackled buying off the registries early before the only thing left was a $300 Dyson vacuum. I feel like I get adult points for buying these items early. I also checked of a birthday present for someone.

I'm including charity because it's not a necessary expense but a nice one. I'm hoping to give to one of my beloved podcasts in the coming months. Support the arts and shenanigans! Now I just need to get better about supporting my wallet.

Final Shopfession of February

I'm closing out February with a Shopfession. I will maintain, if I can get it for free, it doesn't count. I got a reading of Macbeth by a theater troupe with Viggle points so I don't count that.

I splurged a little on music with $3 to finish out an album after a gift card and spending $13 on an album on bandcamp. The bands were Raining Jane (discovered on Dear Sugar), The Vespers, and Fault Lines (discovered on Welcome to Night Vale). Fault Lines is a small time indy band out of Portland and bandcamp is better about places like iTunes about more money going to the artist (as far as I've heard). 

Other than some tunes, I was doing pretty good until I started poking around on ModCloth. I need to get that blocker back on because they had a shirt in stock that I had on my wish list. It said 'Be Nice or Go Away.' If anyone can pull off a shirt like that, it's me. To follow it up I added a fox shirt that I should be able to get away with at work.

If the fit isn't perfect, I'll return them for a store credit. They have enough stuff that I can find something that will work for me and save me on shipping. I'm really hoping these shirts work obviously.

Do Girl Scout cookies count? I had a crappy day to end a stressful week and they were right outside Metro. 

Can I blame The Boy? He was totally inferior of the shirts and appreciated the cookies. I'm going to go turn that website blocker back on.

Music: Love Is a Battlefield by Raining Janes

Valentine’s Day, a Shopfession, and Ensuing Shenanigans

This weekend The Boy and I hit up the mall to find some accessories for a couple of cosplays we have coming up. I’m set but he needed a few things so we hit Hot Topic and Spencer’s. The problem of having fandoms and fitting into Hot Topic’s stock is the massive amount of temptation. I tried on several things but my pickiness lead me to narrow it down to only two items: a TARDIS skirt on clearance for $20 and Deadpool socks for regular price but DEADPOOL SOCKS! I’m wearing them right now. Since the whole store was buy one, get one half off, the whole thing was only ~$23.

Our plan was to hit the mall for lunch, The Boy’s cosplay essentials, run to the local comic book store (love you Third Eye) then go back to VA for dinner, dessert and Downton (we’re still on season 1). Just when we were ready to leave the mall, the movie theater was being evacuated and we had to take a roundabout way to get back to my car. I parked on the top level of a garage area in a way that had me consistently blocked in by the traffic gradually leaving the garage. We tried to wait it out but gave up when the same compensation car spent 25 minutes blocking me in.

Since our dinner plans were shot at this point, we call my mom and suggest killing a Groupon for a nearby Mexican place we all love. We wander the mall, I buy a bunch of clearance Rudolph’s for Toys for Tots next year, and The Boy and I sampled most of the new candy store in the mall. Heading back to the car we are shocked to notice flurries. The second we’re in the car they stop being flurries and start being real snow.

We make it to the restaurant without incident but once we’re all gather around free nachos we find out the Groupon isn’t good on holidays, including Valentine’s Day. There were only 3 tables with paying folks but we still couldn’t use our Groupon. As we sat there, we watched the snow pick-up and accumulate to over an inch by the time we left. The Boy wiped all the snow off my car and we (slowly) drove back to Virginia. We were full and tired and just wanted to watch Downton.

The Boy’s TV has to be on different feeds for cable or DVD. Despite the size of his apartment and our thorough searching, we could not find the TV remote. We finally figured out how to change the feed using the cable remote and watched some Downton. It was a good day all things considered but as far as Valentine’s Day planning went, we could not catch a break.

I almost wonder if the universe won’t let me quietly enjoy Valentine’s Day because I spent so many years actively hating it. I’ve lost the acrimony with time and I want to let The Boy enjoy it. Nothing went the way it was supposed to go but it wasn’t a bad day. I spent the day with the man I love at the home of consumerism which is really the point of Valentine’s Day.

Shopfession: Feminist Comedy and Work Wardrobe

I have another shopfession. I needed more plain tees to wear to work so I picked one up in royal blue for $9 at Target. It's simple and practical.

I also bought the album of a feminist comic for $9.99 on iTunes. Liz Miele got a lot of attention recently for her bit about feminist sex positions that is definitely worth a watch/listen. I would have downloaded it from her website or Bandcamp but it was only on iTunes or Amazon.

I've been checking out Beck post-Kanye idiocy and he's got that sound I expect would accompany me in the indie movie that would be my life. Other groups I've thought would fit this bill are Now, Now and The Joy Formidable. Maybe a little Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs.

Honestly, before Kanye decided to prove he's an egotistical man-child again, the only thing I knew about Beck was that he had a really cool music video back when MTV and VH1 used to air those. I know I like one song. I don't count this album as part of my shopfession since I 'bought' it with Viggle points.

The big shopfession I have is two dresses I got from eshakti. They make great clothes, I was bored, and everything on the website was 30% off. I got one jersey shirtdress for $56 plus $7 for customizing the sleeves in addition to this red and black color block dress for $46 plus $7 for nixing the sleeves.

The color block dress is what started this. It reminded me of Deadpool and I could wear it to work. If I 86 the sleeves it will be easier to rock them in the summer and I've got all sorts of shrugs and cardigans. While both dresses are practical, it definitely does remind why I use website blockers. I considered asking for them for by birthday but I figured if I want to embrace consumerism, I should pay for it.

I really suck at this not buying stuff thing.

Current Music: Think I'm in Love by Beck

Shopfession: More Books and Konmari

I’m really kind of rubbish at this whole not-buying-stuff thing.

BookOutlet.com has a monthly 50/50 special (50 books at an extra 50% off) and my mom told me this month was sci-fi. I did pretty well on that list putting all but one title on my to-borrow list on GoodReads but then I was reminded of my wish list. I decided to remove all future temptation in one go. I gutted the wish list putting almost all of it on my to-borrow list and a few titles I was genuinely excited about in my cart.

It’s Not You: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You’re Single               $4.99

Jane Austen’s Guide to Thrift {oh, the irony}                    $3.99

Joe Golem and the Drowning City                                        $4.99

Lockdown (Escape from the Furnace 1)                               $1.99

Miss Jane Austen’s Guide to Modern Life’s Dilemmas    $3.99

Robert Asprin’s Myth-Quoted                                               $2.99

The Golem and the Jinni                                                         $6.99

Jesus Feminist {I had to know}                                            $6.99

Minus the $5 off coupon and add the $6.99 for shipping it came to $38.91. Not a bad price for that haul but more than I needed to be spending after my Deadpool Corp splurge.

I took myself off the mailing list to avoid temptation and I’ve got limited reason to go back. However I’m not sure if this just reinforces a bad habit rather than removes temptation. I’m trying to save money to move later this year but I’m not doing a very good job.

Another temptation I recently found was a book by the founder of the KonMari method of organizing. The English translation was released this month and it blew up. The biggest shift from American thoughts about organizing are that you should do items by category and go through all of them at once. Want to minimize your closet? Gut it all at once. Cut down on your books? Dump them all in the same place at the same time.

How do you decide what to keep from that category? “Does it spark joy?” If the item doesn’t spark joy, it goes. Simple as that. One person I read said that you need to go with the gut reaction you have in the first 1-3 seconds of looking at the garment. After that you’re just arguing with your instincts. I want to try it but I want to read the book first. That means buying the book. I seriously question if this is the best idea.

A Graphic Year Week 4: Thy Enemy Is Thyself

Working my way through the Minibus brought me next to Deadpool Kills Deadpool. Following the adventures of killing the Marvel universe and great heroes of literature in the multi-verse, Deadpool concludes that he must be the creator of these worlds instead of the inhabitants on the other side of the 4^th wall. Now he makes it his mission to kill all Deadpools to free them from the tyranny of suffering.

I think my favorite random Deadpools were Pandapool (the species that makes you extinct) and Groot Deadpool. Some of the other Deadpools were impressive. I may have to nickname a future pet Dogpool and the robot Deadpool was funny for all 5 panels he was in. It combined the violent insanity that is Deadpool with the philosophical nature that comes from (literally) fighting oneself. I felt like this really hit on the essence of this character.

The only downside is that I discovered a short, out-of-print series of the Deadpool Corp. Since this finally gave me the story on who blonde Deadpool (Wanda Wilson) was, I splurged and bought them. Fun fact, people will charge through the nose on out of print comics. I’m embarrassed to admit what I paid so I’m not going to. I’m not pleased with the amount I spent but I finally get the dish on Wanda and Dogpool so I’ll make my peace when the comics arrive. Next week, Deadpool Kills Carnage.

Shopfession: Something Tiny and Something Showy

I was bad. There was a crack in the ice of my shopping freeze. I bought a book and tickets.

I procured Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn. I went to add it to my Powell’s wish list and saw they only had 1 copy left. My lack of impulse control means I bought it. With shipping and paying full price, I spent a grand total of $22.49. I love seeing the inside of tiny houses and it’s supposed to have a lot of photos. It feeds my desire to see how other people live and lay out their spaces but also how to make the most of a little space. Tiny houses are a little extreme for me but I’m not a Rockefeller so if/when I buy a house, it won’t be huge.

I also bought tickets to a live Welcome to Night Vale show. It's touring through DC at the end of March. It's on Saturday night a few weeks after my birthday. I bought myself tickets as a birthday present to myself and was promptly shafted a $17 processing fee to print tickets at home. At least this one was on an experience I can share with someone. So much for being good until April.

I have an update on my ModCloth dress. It wasn’t the forgiving jersey cotton I was expecting. It turned out to be more of a stiff poplin so I put in to exchange it for what should be the right size. We’ll see what happens.

A Festival and a Shopfession

MAGFest was last weekend. As I predicted, I was bad with my shopping freeze. How bad you ask?

-Sparkly purple dice for upcoming Pathfinder campaign + two 6 sided dice        $14

-Super Art Fight program (autographed by several featured artists at con)                     $15

-Portal Tee with Cave Johnson’s rant about lemons                       $20

-Plush puppy cow (created by a Super Art Fight artist)     $10

-Mystery box (I kept the hairbow and candy)                                 $5

-Several charms (made by Super Art Fight artist)               $24

-‘Don’t Panic’ hand towel                 $14

-Fabric bracelets                                 $2

That equals a grand total of $104 spent at this con. I kept getting dragged into the dealer’s room where it’s hard not to spend money. I got a great birthday gift idea for The Boy but I spent way too much time around temptation. On the plus side, most of what I spent was cash instead of charging it so no interest. I was also putting money toward local artisans instead of some massive corporation.

I have no guilt over any of my Super Art Fight Artisan purchases. It’s one of my favorite things about some of these cons and all the stuff I’ve seen has been great. I’ve even turned some of my friends into big fans. Most of the folks I saw were small entrepreneurs making some really great niche products like the customized nerd towels. I have a birthday coming up in about a month and no major cons again until April so I should do better in February.

It was interesting to speak to one of the artists having just finished New Domesticity. She just quit her ‘real’ job to go full time at her crocheted coolness. It sounded like her husband still had the standard gig but she’s in such demand that she won’t need him nearly as much as some of the moms in Matchar’s book. 

Craftigurumi is doing so well that when I inquired about a custom order she said she probably wouldn’t get to it until March. Her impressive work ethic combined with her unique material and consistent con presence should keep her business booming for quite a while. She said she crochets at about 3 feet per hour for the scarves and she’s doing it for about 8 hours a day. I recommended 4 podcasts I absolutely love since she listens to TV a lot.

The con itself was great. Most of my friends were there and I got to see all of them for at least a little bit. I played my favorite arcade game, saved the earth from aliens with The Boy, checked out some indie games, and sat in on a panel about Girls in Geekdom. This con is always fun but this year it was especially great. Being with friends really just made the con for me.

I did a Con Bingo list of all the crazy costumes I saw. I was able to check off:

-A furry

-A brony

-A punny costume (Teenage Mutant Ninja Bros)

-The Doctor (4, 6, 7, 11)

-A member of the Disney Princess franchise (4 total)

-Guy with a Japanese body pillow

-Person on stilts (full Groot costume)

-At least 3 Deadpools or one with a twist (2 with twists, 2 women, and at least 2 standard)

-A pregnant woman who worked her pregnancy into the costume (Season 1 Khalessi)

-Unnecessarily slutty costume (Charmander)

-Waldo & Carmen San Diego (separate counts but bonus points if they’re together)

-A crazy expensive screen accurate costume (Master Chief)

-Gender bent costume (Princess Peach followed by Ash from Pokemon)

I missed:

-Man in anime girl outfit

-Hot guy in shirtless costume to show off abs

I found a few different cartoons that I might have to adjust and make an actual Con Bingo for my friends and I for Awesome Con in a few months.

Shopfession: News Dress

I feel like this one is kinda sorta but I’m acquiring something new so I’m counting it. I ordered a sweater on sale from ModCloth that I thought would be great for work that was on sale, the last one, and in my size. In addition to suboptimal impulse control, it’s hard to pass up those circumstances. When I finally got it, it didn’t fit quite right. Since I’m trying to limit the number of things I’m adding to my collection of stuff, anything I keep has to be really special.

My options for returning it were to get back what I spent minus return shipping or have ModCloth pay for return shipping and reimburse me what I spent in store credit plus $5. Guess what I did? I had to wait until my item went back to the warehouse and was processed. That took a while but I got my credit today and it went to their Start Spreading The Pooch Dress.

Normally I'd never buy something this overpriced but my store credit will be completely killed off and it makes what's left on the tab reasonable. I ordered it a little small so it will wear like a long tank top rather than a dress. I did this with another Doctor Who dress and it works pretty well. I can wear it to work, on a Friday, maybe. 

I poked around the site but only one thing didn’t seem grossly overpriced. I just had a feeling if I got it I’d be doing this all over again in a month or two when I finally got it. Better to end the cycle before it begins.

Shopfession: Daria & Grumpy Cat

January hasn’t even hit double digits and I’ve got my first Shopfession. To be fair, this wasn’t solely for me.

The Boy and I like watching 30 minute shows together. Previously it was The Big Bang Theory through season 6. Now it’s Scooby-Doo Mysteries Incorporated. Since Scooby only ran for 2 seasons, we started talking about our next short show. We’d watched Daria with some friends of ours on Saturday and thought that would be a good idea. 

The entire series was $13 on Amazon. Since I needed to get his Valentine’s Day presents anyway, I threw in Daria: The Complete Series and Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever to get free shipping. GCWCE was funny and not nearly as stupid as half the movies you see on Hallmark and ABC Family this time of year. Tell me GCWCE is worse than Holiday in Handcuffs and mean it. I thought so.

Combined this frivolous spending rings in at $22.98 before taxes. Amazon has a warehouse in Maryland and Virginia now so there’s no escaping it. I could do worse but I need to try to do better.

Music: Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon

New Year, Modified Goals

I've never been a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. The few times I have made them they’ve royally backfired. Anytime I’ve tried something similar again, I’ve made it more general. As opposed to ‘lose 10 pounds,’ I’ve switched it to ‘eat better and exercise more.’ So my goals for 2015 are as follows:

-Pay off my credit card

-Regularly cook from healthy recipes

-Continue to make progress at the gym

-Earn back some of the savings I lost during my unemployment

-Get my retirement plan in better order

-Enact a shopping freeze

One of the first pieces of advice on almost all the minimalist websites and essays I’ve found is a shopping freeze. I'm far too impulsive on buying things I don't need and I need to get better about it.

Fundamental Rules

-If I enter a store, I must have a reason. The thing in the window is pretty is not a reason.

-I will only stay in the sections of the store where I need to be. No wandering to browse.

-Before buying something not on my list, I must ask myself “What do I need?”

-No browsing stores or websites for something to do. There are better things to do like chores I’ve been putting off or books I’m not reading.

-All items I run out of can be replaced. If I run out of mascara or fancy face wash, I can replace it. I can't, however, buy the replacement other friends.

-I must report all nonessential or replacement purchases here.

Addendums

-I know my music habit won’t go quietly since several bands I love will be dropping new music next year. Ergo, I can only download 1 album OR 10 individual songs in any given month. Any album I download must have been on my wish list for a minimum of two months or pre-ordered.

-I have a couple of conventions coming up next year. I have notoriously poor impulse control at these. To encourage better habits I need to be able to get it autographed and you’ll hear about it. I have a Zatana and Black Canary team up in hardback that the artist drew Zatana for me. Bill Willingham made a funny reference about my lack of subtlety while signing one of my comics. These are worth bending a couple of rules.

I’ve figured I’ll have to make a couple of other allowances since there are items I’m waiting to purchase.

-One or two pairs of mid-calf leggings from Torrid. They’re practical and perfect for summer.

-A couple of books that won’t be released until May and I’ve been waiting for.

-Something I’ve had my eye on to get free shipping whilst ordering The Boy’s Valentine’s Day gift.

-Any pair of rain boots I’m happy with. If I miraculously find a pair that fit, my credit card is coming out.

To help keep myself honest, I’m going to install a website blocker on my computer. Any time I try to access a website like Amazon, ThinkGeek, HerUniverse, or other retailers, it will stop or redirect me. I should be able to take it down in order to shop for other people but any time I remove a block, I must put $5 from checking into savings.

I’ve read some of what people have done and found that it gets easier the longer you do it. Rather than say this is an indefinite lifestyle change, I will be doing this until September 1st. I plan on moving toward the end of the summer so there will be inevitable expenses and necessary purchases. I'll report back about the freeze and see if I learned anything.

Music: Do You Hear What I Hear by Idina Menzel