Girls Weekend Recap

I had a FANTASTIC weekend with Anna and Rose. I did PRETTY good with my spending but I did go over my $40 budget by $26 - EEEK! I'll discuss here what happened and why I went over.

It was great seeing the two girls I consider my "bestest" and closest. I met them at the hotel on Saturday morning but before I got there I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items. My assignment was to bring water and wine. I spent $12.71 on three water bottles and one bottle of pinot noir. I also wanted to take out $40 cash but instead of pressing $4-0-0-0 into the key pad I put in only 4-0 which meant I only got 40 CENTS cash back. I didn't even know that you could get an amount that small!! Anyway, I felt pretty stupid and my first mistake of the day was not going to an ATM or going back to get the cash. Instead I just figured that I'd be able to count in my head my spending.

The girls piled in my car and we drove to La Jolla to do some window shopping. La Jolla is a pricey area of town but the window shopping is fabulous! We wandered around a few shops but none of us bought anything (we couldn't afford it!). Then we drove to Golden Hills and got lunch at Influx Cafe. Anna bought my lunch to make up for gas for driving us around - my lunch worked out to be about $8.00 so that seemed spot on. Then we wandered around South Park for a bit and went into a bakery where the three of us shared two cupcakes (Anna is a huge cupcake fanatic and this is something we alway do when we go out!). The total was $6.00 and I gave Anna $2 for my share.

After that we headed to Solana Beach - wandered around and ducked into shops every now and then to get out of the heat. Rose and Anna at this point had dropped about $30 each but I hadn't bought anything other than the groceries that morning and the cupcake.

Anna was looking for something in particular and by the time we reached our last destination in Encinitas she still hadn't found it . . . I knew there was a store in Pacific Beach near my house that I thought would carry what she was looking for . . . when we got there I started thinking, wow, I haven't bought a single thing all day! My mind set suddenly totally changed. Instead of thinking "this is great!" I started thinking "I NEED to buy something - I MUST CONSUME!" (Insert Robot face and movements). I ended up dropping $33.40 on a sundress/beach cover up.

We headed back to the hotel - it was about 4 PM at this point - and changed into our swimsuits and headed out to the pool. We splashed around and lounged . . . talked . . . and then we got hungry!! We were exhausted from our day so instead of sticking with the plan of going to the grocery store we decided to just grab dinner in a restaurant. We went to Spices Thai in Del Mar and shared three dishes. We all had water so we just spit the tab three ways. Including a three dollar tip the total was $18.01. We had such a great time at dinner. We ended up staying long past the waiter clearing our dishes. On our way out the door an older woman approached us and said she couldn't help but watch us because we looked like we were having such a great time with one another! It's so true - we were laughing, having deep conversations about our lives (Rose and her hubby are trying to have a baby!!!) and just really enjoying each other.

Finally, we returned to the hotel where we jumped into our pjs and watched movies and talked the rest of the evening.

So my total spending was $66.12. If I hadn't bought that dress I would have only spent $32.71 and would have been well in my budget. I'm really annoyed with myself and disappointed how that urgency to consume washed over me. At one point I actually had returned the item to the rack and declared that I WASN'T going to purchase it . . . until the sales woman told me that it was the last one in that size and she wasn't going to be getting any more . . . the sales pressure and my lack of self control did me in.

However, in order to spin this in a postive way and to bring attention to my improvement, I would like to note that spending less than $100 on a day out with the girls is a pretty big accomplishment! Last time I went shopping with the girls in Pasadena I dropped well over $200 on clothes!!!

Sunday morning we had Anna's home-made scones for breakfast and headed to the beach. We splashed around in the waves and talked . . . and then the girls left to head back up to Riverside and I went home.

I was so happy to spend time with A and R but in the end I was really happy to go home and hang out with SB! I missed him! He made me lunch and I watched a little t.v. We both took a nap because I was EXHAUSTED! When it cooled off a little we went back to the beach and ate dinner (veggie sandwhiches from Henry's - SB paid) on a bench overlooking the water. We took a walk on the pier and then went and did our grocery shopping for the week.

I spent: $15.78 at Vons and got items for my lunch for the week.
I spent: $10.21 at CVS where I picked up some essential hygenine products.

Total spent on Sunday was: $25.99 All items were essential.

Also, a recap on Friday's spending:

$1.95 on a croissant from Starbucks for breakfast (forgot breakfast in the microwave at home - ARGH!!)
$41.84 for a full tank of gas ($3.69/gal!!!)
$6.44 Dinner at In-N-Out for SB and I (two grilled cheese and two fries - no drinks)

The breakfast was obviously non-essential. I need to stop leaving my breakfast behind at home!! The gas was essential. I treated SB to dinner because he's a fab boyfriend and sort of bummed about some things at work. Total spending on Friday was: $50.23

Anna did give me a check for $125 which covered her share of the hotel ($65) plus what she owed me from back in January ($60). Rose still needs to pay me her share of the hotel which she will do via Pay Pal this week because she forgot her checkbook (no big deal - I trust her). I'm taking the extra $60 from Anna and deducting the amount I went over budget and putting the rest in savings $34. In fact I'm pausing to do that right now before I forget . . . Okay, done!

My mini goal of the week is to eat every lunch at work and not buy anything other than gas this whole week! I definitely think I can do it. If I can stick to this I'll feel so much better about blowing that thirty bucks this weekend on that dress.