A bit of the Monday Blues . . .

I'm feeling a bit of the Monday blues but I got super excited when I logged on to blogger minutes ago and saw that I have my first commenter! Thank you!!! :-)

It was a good weekend and I got A LOT accomplished . . . wasn't quite as frugal as I would have liked though.

The run down:

Saturday morning SB and I drove from SD to Riverside to move the last of my things out of my old townhouse. I had to rent a U-Haul for my queen sized bed. That cost me $164 PLUS $35.00 in gas. We ended up taking my more fuel-efficient civic instead of SB's SUV - gas for the trip up and back for the car was about $20.00.

After we dropped off the U-Haul at the San Diego location, I took SB to Chili's for a "Thank you" beer for him and a "I'm SO GLAD I'M DONE" mango margarita, chips & salsa. That cost $18.

Then we went across the street to Target to pick up some items. Before I go into what we bought, I thought I'd bring a little background "rationalization" into the shopping. SB has been living the bachelor life for five years and his apartment greatly reflects that. In the kitchen: mismatched plates, cups, and pots and pans. I don't have my own kitchenware because I'd been living with a roommate who already had everything. Now, I COULD have lived with R's tacky mismatched plates, bowls but I didn't want to. We picked up a new set of sage green plates and bowls for $25.00. We also picked up new bathroom rugs because his were threadbare and pretty disgusting and he didn't want to use mine (pink!). We split the cost of the rugs (picked out a neutral tan color) - about $40. We also got a cabinet for the bathroom to hold towels and my makeup and accessories (not enough room under the sink for these things and no counter space) - SB bought that item. At the check out counter I ended up dropping $110.00. I bought one item that really didn't count as a "moving item" or a "necessity" - a pair of pink over sized Jackie O style sunglasses for $17. I KNEW that I probably shouldn't have bought them but since I lost my last pair about two months ago - I've been dying with out a pair.

Saturday evening SB and I unpacked my things & rearranged furniture. I was AMAZED by the transformation that the apartment went through. It looks great now!

On Sunday, SB and I met our friends A & N for breakfast at Pipe's in Cardiff. SB treated me to breakfast - we ended up splitting the Vegetarian Scramble. On our way home I washed my car $3.99 with coupon. We stopped at Vons grocery story to pick up a week's worth of supplies - I spent just over $20 and picked up lunch supplies as well. My last purchase of the weekend was $28.00 for an entry into next Saturday's St. Patrick's Day 4 mile run. No, not necessary but running is a hobby and these races help provide me with motivation to keep running and stay in shape.

Sunday afternoon I did some uncluttering- focusing specifically on my clothes. I have a lot of clothes . . . decided that I really didn't need them all and couldn't even STORE them all in our tiny closet (photo above is not our actual closet but the size is pretty close!). It was a somewhat painful process but oh so necessary:

I used the method employed by a show I've seen on the TLC Channel where teams from the show help people unclutter their homes (can't remember the name, I've only seen it a few times but it's a good show!). I created a Definitely Keep pile, a Maybe pile, and a Toss/Donate pile. I made 10 second decisions on each item and tried not to let my emotions sway my decisions. I ended up throwing out my prom dress even though I've kept it for 10 years for "sentimental" reasons and I don't even know why - it's not like prom was that great!! (I didn't have a date - long sad embarrassing story - SIGH! I ended up going with a group of friends.) For the Maybe pile I used a technique I'd heard about (can't remember where so I can't give credit). Basically I asked myself "Does this item reflect the person I am presently or the person I will be in the future?". If it didn't it went into the Toss/Donate pile. This process took several hours and sometimes I had to try on some things to see if they still fit and to get SB's opinion (I learned that guys aren't the best at giving advice on clothes - everything he said was "yeah, looks good."). As I was going through my Maybes there were some items that I just couldn't decide on - I like them and they fit the requirement of it reflecting me as a person presently or in the future but I didn't know if I would ever actually WEAR them. So I used a third technique that I had heard of (again, not sure where I got this bit of advice from): I hung these items up in my closet with the hanger facing the opposite way. If I end up wearing an item from a backward hanging hanger, the next I hang it up I'll put in the closet hanging the correct way. At the end of six months if I still have any items hanging the wrong way I'll know that I should just donate/give them away! Pretty smart, huh?!

By the end of the evening I had all my clothes washed, hung up in the closet or folded in my dresser and the bedroom looked GREAT. It definitely felt good to get rid of all the extra clutter that I had in the way of clothes and accessories.

As I was in the shower last night I had a thought (I do some of my best thinking in the shower!). I quit smoking last year. I wasn't a heavy smoker but I smoked about a pack a week for almost 5 years. It was a bad habit picked up from my ex-boyfriend. It took me a long time to break the habit - I was never able to just quit "cold turkey". I basically weaned myself off the smokes . . . cutting down the frequency and trying to be more self-aware of when and why I smoked. For instance, I loved to smoke on my way from work - helped relieve the stress of the workday. For many months I wasn't smoking regularly but I'd relapse, purchasing a pack and smoking it all in a weekend (leaving me feeling and smelling like crap). In the end, I ended up switching out one bad habit (smoking) for one good habit (running) and can't remember exactly when my last smoke was - several months ago for sure. While I still occasionally crave a cigarette I know I'm never going to purchase another pack EVER. I have a feeling that practicing frugality and giving up bad spending habits is going to be a lot like quitting smoking for me. I'm going to get better and better over time until one day I can look back and say "Wow, I can't remember the last time I dropped $200 at Banana Republic for no good reason" or "Wow, I can't remember the last time I had a bank over draft charge." It's hard in the beginning but it will get easier and easier . . .I'm hoping to replace my bad spending habits with the good habit of blogging!!!

So with that said, I'm looking forward to not spending one dime on anything other than gas this week with the except of a cup of tea with G on Thursday. Other than that I've got everything I need. I look forward to the challenge!!