Near the end of December 2015 I decided to approach the new year differently. Instead of setting goals as I usually do, I decided to set a different goal for each month of the year.
For January, I resolved to limit my spending to only the essentials- groceries, gas, household supplies and such.
It was a little more difficult than I expected and for the very reason I thought it would easy. In December I had honed my shopping skills for the holiday season and a bit (!) of that shopping was for myself. I got into the habit of "one for her, one for me" and overbought. I assumed that all of that shopping would carry me through January. However, I found that I had created a habit that was difficult to break.
To ease the cold turkey effect, I set up a Pinterest board called "Not Today, I'm Just Looking."
If I saw something online that I liked or thought I needed to buy, I pinned it to the board. Kind of like putting something in the shopping cart and walking around the store for a while. Except that once I pinned it, it was gone from my mind. A few times during the month I visited the board and ended up deleting things that I realized I didn't really need. Kind of eye-opening, to say the least.
I almost made it through the month. On the 27th realized I really needed some art supplies to be able to continue my design project. So I ordered $38 worth of pens, paper and other items. I suppose I could have waited a few days but I was on a roll.
Do I feel like I can return to the hog wild behavior of December now? No. Do I feel like a little trip to Marshalls is in order? Perhaps.
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