I Sense a Trend Here...

Are we all doing confessions today?

I bought a pack of lcd covers for the camera today, arguably that's "photo stuff", though I guess you can say they're not really either since I actually got covers for the DS screens and just cut them down to size...

I bought pants today. I know, I know, no new clothes...but I feel like I overwear my current pairs of work pants, and considering that I pretty much have to dress up at least four if not five days a week. . .well, I wanted another pair to throw into the rotation. I bought a pair of khaki colored pants. I also think this will improve my shoe wearing ability, because I have three pairs of brown shoes I can think of off the top of my head that I can now wear to work/school/clinic.

Yup, it's all one crazy justification.

I've failed

So it took me a while to post this but as of last week, I've broken my first rule. The rule of only one lunch a week. It was tough, not because of my food addiction, but because I was hungry. I forgot my lunch on Monday even though it was sitting right there on the table. So, it was either follow the rules, or starve myself for a meal. Clearly, I know where my priorities lie, so I went out for a bite at Bennegins (forgot my camera, so don't have pictures for this).

Then on Saturday, I was called into work. I didn't bring a lunch this time and I'm not sure why. I think it's because I thought my breakfast at 10:30 would have sufficed as a brunch/lunch, but clearly it didn't. My stomach called at around 1, so I went out for wraps with a coworker.

Sigh...I could make things easier on myself by putting a price limit as opposed to a count limit, but I think that sort of defeats the purpose of my resolutions. I'll have to think about all this becaus it's really an inconvenience on myself in the case of emergencies. One thing learned from all this. I will remember to bring my lunch, especially if it's sitting there right smack in front of my face before I leave the house.

On another note, I may have found a slight loophole/solution. Grocery shopping during lunch time.

family is expensive

weekend expenditures:
gasoline- $42.36
coffee for drive - $5 for 2
lunch @ fuji's in davis - $50.00 for 3
coffee in davis - $9.60 for 3
sister's misc. 'need' items - $32.00
chipotle chips & guac for Jeff - $2.40 (?)
sunday dinner - $16.00
Target trip (for grandma & mom) - $86.00



.... sigh.

Man, do my rules BLOW.

arc here -

I've gone for almost a month without any real set backs. I still regularly browse shopping websites with no serious itch to scratch. I haven't really had any expenditures (minus a car, and carpet runner to protect the mats) and I've only spent 3 bucks on coffee. (OKAY, $3.30...)

Today though, was just real weird.

Jade, Toast and I walked into a chinese bakery, and let me tell you - the smell is ridiculously overwhelmingly AWESOME.

While Jade was buying some cake for his sister, Toast and I were left to our own devices.

I looked at the puff cakes, the walnut cookies and just grumbled.

Toast told me, "Hey, your rules may suck - but you'll get used to it. Besides, your wallet will thank you later."

No snacks outside of normal meals. UGH.

Normally it wouldn't be such an issue, but there is no freaking way that I'll be able to incorporate a CHINESE WALNUT COOKIE into a meal. DAMN.

Continuing the list of "necessary" but irritating expenses...
1. dry cleaning. $50! And they ripped my coat pocket! For $25, I think I should be able to expect that all the seams will be intact when I pick it up.
2. $45 at the post office. Sending packages is $$$$.
3. $50 for a class gift...but I will get reimbursed for that. I guess that one doesn't count...but it's still money I'm currently responsible for.

GREAT.

helllppp

Have been pretty good about alternating coffee and tea and other such things as of late.
Purchased a pair of Teva water shoes last week.

That leaves 2 pairs of possible shoes to go - both work-related and nothing I've seen is to my satisfaction so I'll probably wait for the Spring sales to worry about that. I have faith my trusty pumps will carry me a little further.
But two new MAC collections are being released over the next month... (~.~) Women are such suckers for pretty colors. Must stay away! I'm diverting that money into a gym membership because I don't need makeup to be pretty (especially when I refuse to use more than a minimal amount anyway) but I sure as hell could stand to get rid of some of this extra weight I've been lugging around since the holidays. Sigh.
I miss pie.

Since last Sunday, I have successfully gone through without eating out for the entire week. Similarly, since Wednesdsay, I havn't eaten out for dinner, with the exception of eating at friends houses which don't count. Good job to me. =).

The itch has been coming back, and perhaps for a good reason. My house seems to have been infested with these little...jk. I've been thinking about what to get for my only lens for the year, and I think I have narrowed it down to one of the following:

• Canon 28mm-135mm IS USM f/3.5-5.6 ~409.00
• Has Image Stablization, pretty good range, but also pretty pricy.
• Canon 28-200 USM f/3.5-5.6 ~ 366.00
• Doesn't have Image Stablization...but one word...BIRDS!...
• Canon 17-85 f4-5.6 IS USM ~513.00
• I can take really wide angle shots...but expensive.
• Canon 28-105mm IS USM f/3.5-5.6 ~240.00
• Toast of Great Anger already has this one >_<. I've used it, it has pretty good range, and it's a good bang for the buck.

(and just for kicks canon 10-22mm USM f3.5-f4.5 ~690.00 which will most likely be my second lens when I get one some time next year.)

Hrm...i know, lotsa jargon...but I'm trying to figure out which of the 4 to get. It's funny because I think i started out hoping for something between 3-400, low 400's max and somehow, that 17-85 got added on in there. I've been looking at the 28-135mm IS USM for quite a while, but 400 bucks.... Really, for the value, it seems as though the 28-105 is a much better deal for the range...but Mr. Toast already has that one...>_<. Hrm, I think I will decide by mid to end of February at the latest. I only get one lens this year so I'll need to sleep on it...perhaps for another 30 days...

Even necessary stuff adds up so quickly. Just one textbook, one reader, and a pair of eyeglass frames have totaled to be $295 in the past two days.


I bought the frames because we're going on a field trip (yeah, I know, we're too old.) to an insurance company. We get free glasses & lenses, but I didn't want to count on the frame selection. To be honest, I've got a big head...and a lot of frames just don't fit. Or they look funny. I like these though, and I got them for about the wholesale price, so I'm okay with it. I also haven't gotten glasses in almost three years.

But oh man, why is it as soon as I decide to cut down on spending, things just seem to pop up? I would like a day when I don't have to stop for gas, go to the grocery store, pay a bill, where I might actually be able to NOT SPEND MONEY.

First Post

Because some one told me to post it as well:

So I also picked up a car, a Civic LX coupe which is still currently named "that car" or "that civic" or simply just "car".

A pretty big expense, but the current vehicle is a 1991 Camry and it's almost about time to let it rest. It has served a good 16 years.

In other news, I was pretty focused about not doing the outside coffee thing that I ended up skipping last week without knowing it, but since it doesn't carry over I'm just shaking my fist now, grr....

the search continues

E-mail from KennethCole.com today:

Unfortunately, we have had to cancel the item listed below.

Date of Order: 01/11/07
Item #: KL40199BA
Item Name: OUTSIDETHEBOXBABlack07M
Size/Color: 07M/Black

WAY TO BE OUT OF STOCK AND NOT UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE!!!! >.<

All's Well That Ends Well (?)

arc here.

I haven't bought anything new since the beginning of this month save for:

• cereal for breakfast at the office
• a red shirt (thanks to being forced)
  
• a black Toyota Prius
• carpet runner to cut floor mats for the Prius

I deemed the carpet runner to be a necessary expenditure, what with having a tan interior.

And yes, I have a Prius. Parents wouldn't let me get away with a used car, and my mom even incented me with covering a bit more money to let me get it.

Other than this, no new expenditures, no new purchases.

I walked around the Great Mall today - and it made me feel pretty good knowing that I don't have to pay attention to anything in the mall. I concentrated on my pictures. I came away with a couple that will be up on odd1out next week.

So far so good!

Irrelevant...

Not particularly relevant, but things I hear about but hope never to see in a company work place:

1) People washing their feet in the sink
2) Guys...rinsing themselves (be a little imaginative here) off...with the urinal they just finished using. Yea....you heard me.

Also, it has been established that as unhealthy as bacon is, it goes well with almost everything, of which includes wrapping the bacon around a stick of pretzel. >_<.

On another note...I've used up my lunch for the week. Sigh...that was REALLL quick. This will be a long week >_<.

-theJade

weekend update

Scored a few more items off my need/okay-to-buy list yesterday.
Started off the morning at A Perfect Day (and.... then shelled out just over two bills for repeat visits... haha), intro'd Jeff to Chipotle and then with JJ and Jeff in tow, headed to VF (per Jeff's request, mind you)!

- 1 blouse (40% off @ the Limited)
- 1 pair earrings (I know I wrote I wasn't to buy earrings, but I lost 1/2 of one of my most beloved pairs, and so I went back to the store and they had one idential pair left!)
- 1 necklace (60% off - only $10, $15 below my alloted amount)
- 2 sports bras (VS Semi-Annual Sale, originally $49.50, on sale for $15.99 ea.)
- 1/2 "Love It" from Coldstone =D Jeff likee.
- 2 bottles of antibacterial bead hand soap ($3 @ Bath & Body Works' Semi-Annual Sale)
- 1 fullsize bottle of Peter Thomas Roth UltraLite SPF 30 Sunscreen (it takes work to stay pale)

On a random note, after lunch JJ and I showed Jeff the Peets next door so we wanted to get caffeinated (after all, an hour at A Perfect Day is quite zzzzz-inducing), but our drinks turned out... different than we expected. I must say, I was tres disappointed with my cafe mocha. :(

Next... the search for water shoes!
=D Sigh.... now that I've whittled down things on my list, I must get myself into an aggresive "no spending" mindset. I did, however, walk through the Macy's beauty department without blinking. I call that progress, people. ;-)

Status report for week 2.

So far, all is well. No temptations really yet, except for camera lenses that I've been drolling to have. But really...they're not really temptations when they're SUCH a huge purchase.

I had ice cream yesterday with my coworker instead of hitting starbucks. It was buy one get one free, and it was only 2 bucks, so I counted that towards my one drink of the day.

Today, my coworker just got back from a trip. I was invited out to lunch but had to turn it down because I already had my lunch for the week. It was hard as I usually do eat out with them if asked. Oh well...2 days to go and I still have a dinner free. Yay =).

On another note, I've been working hard on my food blog, and now i'm all caught up. No more excueses for crappy posts.

No rules broken yet. So far so good.

e-mail marketing...it works.

I bought a pair of black pumps from Kenneth Cole online today.

Luckily I'd already made an allowance for that - seeing as my reliable pair of Nine West pumps are starting to show over a year's worth of wear, tear and daily concrete beatings on the heels... they've held up remarkably well, but the nicked heel just won't do for client meetings anymore.

Presentation is more than half this business.

I didn't go out and splurge on the pair of Louboutins I've had my eye on.... that won't be for a few years yet, at least. Or ever.

It's the new year Kenneth Cole clearance, and they were $85, down from $265... which really just teaches us to not buy this stuff @ full retail... I was lucky, they had a few left in my size.

This morning's dose of caffeine: tall nonfat lightwhip mocha.

200 Calories

To promote healthy living everywhere (at which point I must mention that I'm striking the "red meat once a week" proviso from my list due to a suddenly keen awareness that geezus, cow is in EVERYTHING),

Click HERE to see what 200 cals. of various food items are worth. I cry for Hershey's Kisses. On the other hand, that's an awful lot of celery - and what's with the story of celery actually burning more calories than it contains (due to the chewing intensive nature of chomping on it and its hard-to-digest nature)? If that were true... shouldn't you technically never be able to ingest 200 calories worth of celery (and as such, shouldn't that picture be blank)?!

... of course, it could just be a myth. Urban legend for weed-eaters.

Forcing My Hand On Money.

arc here.

Today was a very odd day.
My mom took me to the temple in San Jose, to help me with my luck in the future.
The sad part is, it was one of the shittiest spiritual/religious feelings i've ever had.


Ever.


I was told to donate money. It wasn't a suggestion from my mom, it was a command.

After giving them the money, (with both hands as a sign of respect) the person just flipped it into a box and scribbled my name on it.
They didn't say thank you, they didn't say anything. Just a flip and a scribble.


After that, my mom ordered me to go to the Great Mall to look for a bright red shirt.
Red in east asian culture is very lucky, FYI.

During my search for a suitable shirt, i found the exact jacket i had wanted before i splurged on a jacket at express: a motorcycle nylon shell jacket from kenneth cole.

It was the hardest thing to do, to look at it - knowing that you wanted this jacket for 3 years, and you had to pass on it.

I ended up with a red hurley shirt for 7 bucks.


7 days in and forced to spend 7 bucks on a shirt.
It felt cheap. It felt like cheating. Unfortunately, I had to; I have no red shirts in my closet.


Hopefully my luck will change.

Too bad I don't believe in luck.

Loopholes?

Week has been so far so good no rules broken yet, but then again, no real temptations either.

I have held onto my one outside drink a day and one specialty drink a week pretty well, but I am starting to realize that (2+) for a specialty drink is really limiting, and sometimes I wonder whether I should push it to 2.30...but I need to commit to my original proposal, so no change here. I got a steamed cider at Starbucks yesterday and the total turned out to be around 2.15. I guess I've used up my specialty drink for the week.

Currently, I am trying to decide what to do if my friends are going out for boba or other drinks or something? If I get a specialty drink ouside with friends, do they cout? I've been thinking about it for a while, and for now I will say they count. Otherwise, this could really get outta hand. Sometimes I used to get boba twice a day with friends. Once at night and once in the afternoon. This is not implying that I won't hang out though, I'll just...order water. I'm trying to be stingy or trying to ruin the nights out with everyone by not ordering a drink...the issue here is my self control and commitment; the rule remains. I will not make exceptions for myself, especially not so early in this experiment. Maybe I shouldn't have ordered that apple cider to begin with. I wasn't even hanging out with anyone at the time. Maybe I need to "allocate" when I should order which drinks better. We were just taking a break from work at starbucks.

Second dilemma is coming up fast. As some of you may know, I'm hitting up the snow tomorrow. I am picking up my snowboard today and at the same time lunching with the friend I'm picking it up with. However, what do I do about lunch tomorrow and my one lunch a week out limit? I should've thought of this earlier. We were planning on buying cheap sandwiches at Safeway and bringing them up. Then tomorrow night, we'll be eating out, so that will be my one dinner out for the week. But does the Sandwich from safeway count as eating out? If not, I guess I've found a loophole in my rules. Perhaps this situation isn't that hard to solve considering it's pretty similar to that boba problem. What do you all think?

This blog is about honesty too, right? Here goes:

I ran a lot of errands today, and bought a lot of things that my friend asked me to get for her. I also bought three books, two paperbacks from Half Price and a Sudoku book from Barnes & Noble. I paid for the Sudoku book with a gift card, so I think that was okay, and I'm not too guilty over the books, since I have at least twenty hours on a plane and another seven or eight hours waiting in airports coming up, not to mention a quick flight to LA the weekend after...even more waiting in airports.

No, what I feel guilty over is a dress. I stopped in at Ross to pick up a coffee press and as I walked through the store, a dress caught my attention. It was $27? Something like that. I was surprised at the low price and riffled through the rack, picking up another dress that was only $17, and then another...that was almost identical to the second except for color. I wandered toward the dressing room as I looked at the tag. "$5.99". SIX DOLLARS. I tried them all on, still not really thinking, not really believing that they could be so inexpensive and look all right. The six dollar one looked the best.

Now I had a problem. On one hand...I wasn't supposed to be shopping for unnecessary things. On the other hand, I didn't have a "little black dress" at the moment, and six dollars was hardly going to break the bank.

I bought it.

At least I stuck to my resolution of only eating out with other people.

pictures of my car after the accident:

Orders From Last Year Arrive...

arc here -

I came home from work today to find two packages on my counter.

I ordered these things before the New Year, and thanks to the festivities, they were delayed for almost 2 weeks.

I didn't immediately rip into them; I know what were in the boxes.

After I helped set up dinner, I opened the first one: my SB-600 Speed Light.

You could not imagine the biggest grin I had on my face. I pulled the flash unit out of its case and set it down on the table, and just said to myself "Holy cow, this thing is awesome." I inserted the batteries and when I turned it on, a high pitched whine indicated that the thing was live.

I hit the "flash" button. It flashed.

"Holy crap!!"

I hit the "flash" button a couple more times.

"OMG, THIS THING IS AWESOME!?!"

I stuck it on my camera and started shooting my dog. I felt like a freaking kid in a candy shop.
I kept fiddling. Kept shooting. Kept flashing.

I typed to AngryToast: "OMG, THIS FLASH UNIT IS AWESOME. TTL I LOVE YOU!"

His response was appropriate: "I....I'll leave you two alone."

Good move Toast. Good move. I went back to flashing.

My dog was seriously looking pissed.

I ran back to my room and packed it in again. I gathered my breath, calmed myself down. Enough.

The second box: brown evolv casual shoes.

"Oh. MY. WOW."

They looked better than they did online.

I was a little nervous about size, I just winged it and went with my gut size of 9.5.

I pulled it on. The wall of the shoe was stiff, very similar to my rock climbing shoes. I seated my heel. I wiggled my toes. Extended my foot and looked at it.

"Holy crap, it's a perfect fit!"

I pulled on the other shoe and walked around. They felt really good.

I was grinning like a freaking idiot.

I hopped around a bit. Looked at them. Hoooo boy. These are hot.

As I pulled the shoes off, I realized that I wasn't going feel like this for another year.

...

With the exception of an additional package coming, these are literally the last things I'll have purchased in 2006.

I felt sad. Depressed. Uneasy. Nervous.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

But I looked at the SB-600 nestled in the non-descript brown box, the brown shoes I've wanted for a year...and I can't help but smile.

This feeling will happen again.



Just not this year.

Reconsidering...(DAY 2)

I've been reading through the other posts and thinking to myself about my conditions, and realized I have been really lenient on myself. My restrictions are weak. So I will put myself to the test. If by the end of the month, I do follow my conditions easily, I'm going to up ante a bit and stiffen up my rules even more so, here is what I might add.

1. Changes to food habbits probably won't happen. Like I said, I like eating too much, and really, eating out is the only way my friends and I really spend time together. But it will still be limited to 1 lunch, and 1 dinner out. Hrm...parties and such at peoples houses...is not considered eating out.
   
2. NO purchases for personal benefits including music (I really don't listen to my cd's that much after buying it...), dvd's(i'm not even a fan of movies or dvd's), video games (really...you should all know me better than that), electronics, etc, unless absolutely necessary. What do I mean by absolutely necessary? Whenever I make such a purchase I will post what I'm purchasing, and take a vote from people as to whether or not I really need that item. Vote with explanation would be best. Of course, I will still be buying gifts for others, just not for myself.
   
3. Books wise, unless needed to enrich my future goals, such as certain CS books, Study Guides, etc, no puchases. But really, most books I should be able to pick up from the library. That and I have a stack of books I have yet to read....>_<. Still limited to 300 bucks throughout the year.
4. Travel, still not sure what to do about this yet. But relating to the food thing, I realized that if I do travel, the eating out rule will have to be negated. I mean seriously...I'm not going to look for the nearest safeway when I'm in, Mongolia, or something and look for the nearest kitchen to prepare the food. I think I should enjoy the food of the natives as much as possible. FOOD! :-P
   

Thats's about it for now. These changes really won't take into effect until probably the end of the month unless otherwise specified. So the rules below are will still be in effect until then.

I have also decided to make a few non-monetary resolutions. 1) Take 1 acceptable photo a day for the next half year. and 2) Keep my food blog alive for the next half year. 3) Get a personal site running and maybe transfer all this stuff over.

Furthermore, I was juggling an idea around to my sister, and I think I will put it into affect as of now. People sometimes ask me what I want for Christams/B-day, and really I can't think of anything so I usually tell them nothing. But this year, I have decided to make a wish list and there will only be one item on the list:

• Make a donation (money or physical effort) to any one of the provided organizations. (list provided at a later time)
  

Now for a status update. I will be snowboarding this weekend, that trip was already planned before this list was taken into effect, and I find I need things. I need to make snowboard rentals, and a pair of long socks. I will update on the spendings of this a little later.

That is all.

gnomeregan*

To keep myself on track...
Last night I had a burger - that's the red meat for this week.
For those curious about my abnormal french fry consumption, I finally decided that the 7 fries (yes, 7 only, not 7 boxes of..) a year max. was really, really ... hard to explain. And it went out the window. Now it's a much more reasonable 50 or so. Over the course of a year. I think I ate at least half that yesterday, so... you know... all remaining 28 days of January and the other 11 months will be interesting. On the other hand, it's still more fried potato than I'm used to.

I resisted the siren call of bluefly and makeup.com sale emails... Saw them and deleted them without opening. The VS Semi-annual sale might be harder to ignore. But, as per whiffoflemon, I have enough things - I may only make one exception - and as such am stating it here ~ if I find a decent sports support garment, I shall buy it if it's on sale - for women such things could be labeled healthy necessities.

Random: Last night I dreamt of gnomes. Cackling ones.

*(© blizzard entertainment)

Not a unique idea!

This is not a new idea!

The Compact folks mentioned in the article can be found here.

Their blog can be found here.

I intend to pore over both sites for helps, tips - and possibly tightening the reins as we move along.

arc here -

It makes me happy that what we're doing is not a new idea at all.
In fact, it makes me really happy that what we're doing is actually very watered down compared to the folks in the article above.

A friend of mine, dkwan, even felt my goals were not even that hard to achieve, considering all the exceptions I made.

I'm really glad he pointed that out.

When I was writing my rules, I really wanted to go all out: shun consumerism, fuck materialism, flip the bird to the man and his retail.

But some things really cannot be avoided. I love my friends to death and while they wouldn't think any less of me if I didn't eat with them, or go on vacations with them, it's the experiences together that binds us. For my friends, I make most of my exceptions.

But it also can't be ignored that my goals seem easy to achieve. Gotta start somewhere, and I chose to start with a goal that I can attain - as opposed to giving up on January 10th.

The Second Day...

It's been one day and I've already been tested...

A friend asked me to go to Costco to buy some things for her, and I realized that I'd probably need to renew my membership to get the stuff she asked for. Hurdle 1, I actually didn't have to renew yet. Probably next month?

Hurdle 2...Costco in general. There's so much random stuff there! Fortunately, right after I'd grabbed everything on the list, one of the cashiers yelled "NO LINE OVER HERE!" and I was in & out of the warehouse in ten minutes.

Hurdle 3: The Victoria's Secret Semi-annual Sale starts tomorrow. The commercial came on and I automatically began planning out my day to fit in a visit to the store. Then I remembered that I'm not doing any shopping.

These first few weeks will be the hardest, but I hope to get into the habit of not buying things soon.

enter rainshiney

Hello all! To: whiffoflemon, arc, angrytoast, thejade, help! Keep me in line!

If anyone needed a shopaholics anonymous support group, it'd probably be me. The holidays have been a spending-with-impunity pass for me! IT'S ON SALE! BUY EEEET!! Limited edition? Must have! And gifts, gifts, and gifts galore. Yes, my friends. If we hadn't gone on a no-gift thing this year, you would have received some pretty, pretty things. On the other hand, my credit card and bank acct thank whiffoflemon for the idea. =) Well, to proceed, these resolutions aren't all shopping related, but more related to improving the rainshiney lifestyle in general. Duration? 6 months, to be extended if at all possible to a year. Just to see... =)

1. Shopping

• Make-Up: No more! No exceptions. Especially no buying things just because they say “Bobbi Brown.” Okay, sigh - one exception –waterproof (not merely water resistant) products (2 total) are okay if I find good ones between now and April for use on water activity-laden vacation.
  Other beauty-related products: shampoo & conditioner is okay, esp. since I'm buying for 4 now (grandma, cousin, sis & me), face wash if I run out, I've got a year's supply (at least!) of body wash from the last B&BW sale, face cream/lotion if I run out - but no age-defying serums (because I am still young, dammit!), primers or other tempting things that I just really don’t need at all.
• Shoes: Limited to 1 pair of new black pumps for work, 1 pair of black boots if I can ever find a decent pair (have been looking for past 3 months and no luck yet so who knows) and 1 pair of water shoes if they ever turn up.
• House: No kitchen stuff. No more room stuff. Have enough furniture. Need to put up wall hangings and new mirror. Enough nesting! Ignore mother’s interior decorating disaster. No more buying new things for the parental abode.
• Clothes: No new jeans until lose poundage. New tops only if stellar value and good for work.
• Jewelry: I am absolutely NOT allowed to purchase any more earrings. In fact, I should resolve to start wearing all the ones I haven’t worn yet or have only worn once or twice. Necklaces – up to 3 maybe. Only if they really do look terrific with work attire and don’t break a quarter bill. Bracelets – haven’t purchased one yet and have been looking, so if I find one that sends me over the moon, I shall. But I haven’t seen any that come close yet.
• Gifts: It remains a free-for-all. ;-D Lucky you.

2. Eating

• Alternate morning caffeine intake between coffee and green tea.
• No more $10+ lunches. Bring lunch (with one piece of fruit). Buying lunch is only okay up to 2x a week if eating with co-workers. Must be within limit.
• Limit self to fewer than two cans of diet soda a day. Supplement with at least 1.5 Aquafina bottles of H2O at office, more at home.
• Well, I don’t really eat snacks or junk food anyway, so not much to limit there.
• Eat more fruits & veggies. This shouldn’t be too hard since the vegetarian grandmother is visiting. The hard part is making sure she doesn’t steam everything so that it’s not only utterly tasteless and devoid of nutritional content, but that it also looks incredibly unappetizing. Gerber’s mashed peas look better than spinach left in water too long.
• Red meat maximum: once a week.

3. Living Healthy

• Outdoor exercise with cousin Jeff when at all possible and if time and temperature allow.
• Weekend fun in the park with Cali.
• Daily stretches on balance ball – try for 20 minutes a day, esp. with “TWW” on.
• 15 minutes with free weights daily.
• Try to get into bed before midnight every day.

4. Flying

• Never fly full fare. This is more or less a given, but I’m putting it here just in case I’m ever tempted to bite the bullet.

This list to be continued/updated as the ideas grow..

Here’s to resolve… and great friendships.~

Another person jumps on the bandwagon!

I am joining arc, theJade, & angrytoast in their resolutions. Partly because I checked my credit card balances and they're a little scary. Partly because I think it's a good thing to do in a group because we can support each other in this. And a little because the rampant consumerism of Americans in general is pretty disgusting. Myself included.

So, for the next six months (I'd say a year, but I'm not that strong.)
1. No new shoes. I can't use the "I need clinic shoes" excuse anymore because, well, I have at least ten pairs of shoes I can wear to work in the clinic.
2. No new clothes. I don't have room for what I already have, how dare I continue to buy more? Also, maybe this will also break me of the habit of the last year or so where I buy shirts in multiple colors.
3. No books. This one should be a little easier to keep given that I am cheap about books and have really only been buying them off bookcloseouts.com or from Half Price books. Of course, textbooks have to be exempt. Ugh.
4. No gadgets/techy things. This one should be ok too. Exception is my camera lens, which I am going to pay angrytoast for as soon as he figures out how much he wants for it.
5. No dvds.
6. No kitchen stuff.
7. No shopping, period. (The above specific items are things that I admit to buying too much of.)

Necessities like shampoo are exceptions of course, although, actually, given my habit of buying in bulk, I think that's the only thing I need to get through the next six months.

I've gone through my trash folder and unsubscribed to all the shopping e-mail lists that I'm on. I won't check slickdeals.net or wantnot.net anymore. I'm also going to stay away from Target and Costco as much as possible. This makes me wonder if I'm even going to renew my Costco membership. Hmm. A thought for another post, perhaps.

8. I'm only going to eat out if I'm with other people.
9. As an extension of that, I'm going to pack my lunch as much as I can, and eat out at school only if I'm with classmates.

I'm going to enjoy London, so I'll shop there, or buy things that I feel are necessary for the trip. But I'm going to try to follow these choices until the end of June.

And AngryToast joins the fray!

"Quote"

I'll join in this experment with...let's see:

• no new photo stuff, unless like, my camera falls in a pool, film not included
• no outside coffee twice a week (this'll kill me more than anything else)
• no computer stuff/gadgets
• 6 games for the year max
• no new clothes, (thrift is fine)

"Unquote"
I'll continue updating for him.

Entering...theJade

Greetings everyone. I call myself theJade, my friends don't, but that is what I will refer to myself here. I have decided to join Arc on his accidental experiment not simply for the sake of saving money, but perhaps to test my devotion and self control. Perhaps. And thus, I have set up my own conditions in which I will attempt to abide by for the duration of 2007.

I don't really know if I agree with Arc on the wording of the question "What concerns us as a society?" but I'll tell you what I THINK are inessentials that I think I value more than I should.

1. Luxury foods of which include "Fine" dining, dining out, and junk food
   
2. Photography needs
   
3. Extraneous clothing
   
4. Movies, music, and other audio/video entertainment, Video games, etc.
   
5. Climbing needs, etc.
   
6. Books, books, and more books.
   
7. Car needs.
   
8. Coffee, pearl tea, and other specialty drinks.
   
9. Travel
   

Well, that's the list for now, it might grow once sometime comes up, who knows. Lets go through them one by one. Just as a side note, like Arc, gifts are an exception. And certain group activities will be exceptions...CERTAIN. As will hopefully be chosen through my good judgement.

1. I live for food, for me, this is inevitable, but too much "fine" dining, or even dining out is really starting to spoil me. I will limit myself to eating out at most once a week for dinner and once a week for lunch with people outside of family as those are obligatory. No purchasing my own junk food...with the exception of chocolates in which I choose not to have self control over (actually I really don't eat that much chocolate on a daily basis so even if I splurge on chocolate, it will last me a good couple of months).
   
2. I will purchase no more than 1 lens in the following year and perhaps a protective bag for my camera, but nothing more, unless it is something that prevents me from continuing this hobby whatsoever, like my CF card snaps in half or something.
   
3. Extraneous Clothing. Things I probably don't need for the next year. More Beanies/hats, more shoes, more sweaters, more jackets. More t-shirts. Heck, I probably don't need more clothse for a while, but I do need to donate some, which I will do. So unless absolutely necessary, no purchasing of clothing.
   
4. Cannot spend more than $100 on audio/video entertainment in a given 3 month period.
   
5. I cannot purchase any more than my monthly CB membership, one new pair of shoes, chalk when necessary, and no more than one visit to an outside gym.
   
6. No more than $25 per month on books. Yes they can carry over, and yes I can take loans..but that means in the end, no more than $300 throughout the year spent on books.
   
7. Unnecessary driving trips of car limited to once a month, meaning highway 9. Tracking events limited to twice this year if any. No unnecessary aggression with the car except for maybe on my driving trips. I know what I mean, don't worry.
   
8. At most one outside ordered drink a day, even if it is to accompany a meal, unless included in the meal. Coffee/tea limited to once a day. Specially prepared drinks, pearl tea, fraps, lattes, jamba juice, etc, limited to once a week (defined as drinks $2+). (refers only to drinks purchased for myself)
   
9. I'll need to think about this one.
   

And that's all folks.

The Accidental Experiment

Because of my accident, I'm going to have to purchase a car. That goes without saying.
I also need to somehow save all my money as much as possible.

I need something drastic.

Like the woman in Miller's book, I think I can go without buying any clothing for a year.
But let's expand this thought.

What concerns us as a society?

Cars.
Liquor.
Clothes.
Jewelry.
Cell phones.
Name brands.

What if we gave all that up? What if we just said "No." to most of it, if not all of it?
Would it enrich our life any? Would we feel more fulfilled?

Let's find out.

The rules are as follows:

• Until 12/31/2007, I cannot purchase any non-essentials for myself. This includes music, video games, clothes, shoes, candy, crackers, etc. This goes without saying that if you give me candy or cheez-its, I will scarf it down and probably ask for more. On the same token, if I need to buy something for a party, I won't actually eat what I bring.
  
• Essentials can include, but are not limited to toiletries, gas, repairs for cars and computer, metro ticket, etc.
  
• I can purchase gifts for other people. (Can't skip birthdays, now can we?)
  
• I have a total limit of $20 a month (or $240 a year) for my hobbies which are but not limited to:
• Photography - this includes film and processing and creating prints.
• Reading - this includes new books and coffee for sitting at the shop. I'll probably be visiting the library a lot more as well.
  
• Rock Climbing - this includes additional chalk. (Membership needs to be an exception though.)
• Liquor - I just got into single malt whisky as well as other fine liquors. This one, I feel I can't give up just yet.
  
• Note: The $20 can be carried over from month to month.
  
• Food, drink and events are excluded, since that is the one thing that tends to glue me and my friends together.
• Food is defined as anything involved with a legitimate meal: breakfast, lunch, dinner.
• Drink is defined as any kind of drink that is coupled with the meal including soda or liquor. Drinks outside of a meal does not count for whatever reason: milk tea, smoothies, shakes.
• Events is defined as any kind of concert, expo, convention, vacation trip to a distant place, etc.
  
• If a get together is held at a restaurant, unless it's for a legitimate meal, I'm there to hang out.
  
• If we go to a foreign country, or go on vacation, the same rules apply - no souvenirs, no purchasing outside of what's necessary.
  

What I intend to do is rapidly reduce the amount of money I'm spending, and at the same time, lead a normal life.

Can I do it?

I have faith that I can. It doesn't seem all that hard. But I know it will get tough.
And I hope this blog can help me keep me on track.