Saturday 22 March 2008

Confessions of a shopper.

I have shopped again. In fact, I have shopped a lot.

It seemed to me that March was going to be the easiest month to not spend any extra money. I'm not sure why I thought that, I just know that I wanted to go for a month following a strict budget. It was a good experiment and it didn't quite work. I am not completely abandoning it but I am realxing it a bit. I have learned that my budget was a little too strict. I need to make some adjustments and try again.

Wednesday 19 March 2008

Missed Connection

Ok, so here is something really fun. You know on Craigslist how they have Missed Connections? Well someone wrote about me!

It is weird that I even saw it. I never look through missed connections. This was the second time in my life I checked it out and it was on a whim. I was looking on Craigslist to find tickets to Spirit of the West and the missed connections caught my eye. I clicked on it and scanned the headings on the first page. Near the bottom was one that said the name of somewhere I'd been recently with the date of when I'd been there. That caught my attention because while I had been there earlier in the week, I had made eye contact with someone and when we left we smiled at each other as we got into our cars.

I clicked on it and this is what it said....

I was at ____________yesterday morning and made contact with a beautiful lady with curly black hair. You had a black jacket on. We made eye contact and exchanged smiles. Both had coffee/tea to go and left making eye contact and smiles when getting into our cars. Would love to see you again.

How fun is that?!

Very, very fun!! It's a bit of a thrill being written about like that.

This is where it ends though. I am not going to reply to it. He was lovely but not 'the one'. I am following my gut on this one. My instincts say to not reply. If I've learned nothing else in life, I've at least learned to trust my gut. So I will.

Sunday 16 March 2008

Spirit of the West

Last night, TT and I went out for dinner with some friends in Yaletown and then headed over to the Commodore hoping to get tickets for the sold out Spirit of the West concert. A friend of ours was teasing me about Secreting myself into the concert. He kept asking me if I was visualizing getting the tickets.

I realized at that point that I wasn't at all visualizing getting tickets but I was seeing TT and I in the Commodore with our friends and having a great time. Well, we got there and walked up to the ticket window and asked if they had any tickets and they did. We paid and walked right in. During the show in a moment of stillness and presence, I looked around at my friends and the band on stage and thought, "yep, this is pretty much exactly how I saw it in my mind."

We had a really great time. During the show, they introduced one of their songs called Goodbye Grace. One of the other guys in the band sings this one, not the usual singer. He said he wrote it about his son who was born prematurely at Grace Hospital. They spent 3 months at the hospital not knowing what was going to happen or if he would even live. Then he said that this is the first time they have played at the Commodore that his son could walk in through the front door with everyone else. But, he still preferred to come in the back door with his dad. Then his 19 year old son came out on stage and joined them for the song, playing the tambourine and a shaker. It was sweet and such a lovely song. The whole moment was a bit of a tear jerker. Even for the robot.

Here are the lyrics to Goodbye Grace

the angel watching over me
was needed someplace else
kicked out the feet from under me
and watched me fall to earth
i learned a thing or two, you know it
it's true
goodbye grace
there are no words i'd rather say
than goodbye grace
never want to see your face again
three long months of going steady
no promises were ever made
everyday hands scrubbed and ready
to rock the cradle with you grace
i am indebted to you, you know it
it's true
goodbye grace
there are no words i'd rather say
than goodbye grace
never want to see your face again
valentine's day and i'm walking your wings again
i don't come with red ribbons or a long stemmed rose
my heart is pounding hard in my chest again
i need you now, and everything you know
i am indebted to you, you know it, you know it
it's true

Returned two, kept one.

My mom and I went to visit my grandma yesterday and afterwards we went to Superstore. I returned two of the shirts I bought and kept one. My mom tried on a number of things and bought three. She looks adorable in them all.

I am happy to have returned the two shirts, they were alright but they weren't great or perfect. Plus it left me an extra 32 bucks for the weekend which I spent on a concert ticket. Details to follow tomorrow. Plus, my missed connection.

Wednesday 12 March 2008

On tonight's menu...

crispy garlic chicken
steamed sesame spinach
yam fries
fresh strawberries
gala apples with white chocolate peanut butter

mmmmmm

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Seriously, where's my will power??

I shopped today. It's the 11th. I didn't even make it two weeks without shopping. I didn't spend a lot and I used play money, so it didn't really break any rules, but come on! This was supposed to be the month of no consumerism. I might return what I bought. We'll see what happens to my conscience after I've slept on my decision.

Saturday 8 March 2008

I live alone, how is this possible?

I spend entirely too much money on groceries. My fridge is overflowing!

Thursday 6 March 2008

Gone Baby Gone

Loved it!
What an interesting and well made movie.
Beautifully acted, beautifully directed.

Tuesday 4 March 2008

It took 4 days.

I nearly went shopping today.

Ok, I say nearly, but that's not entirely accurate. What I really mean is that the thought popped into my head today of "it would be fun to go shopping at Superstore and check out their new clothes." As soon as I thought it, I felt a release of some lovely mood enhancers and I got equally excited and relaxed thinking about shopping for new clothes.

A second later I remembered my committment to not shopping for the month of March and the good feelings evaporated. My sister was just at Superstore and told me that they have cute clothes there NOW. What if they aren't there in a month and I miss out on the greatest thing ever!? I can tell you, "what if?" The answer is nothing, so what, oh well.

This experiment just got more interesting. I thought I was doing it to see how it would affect my budget but I have realized with this incident today that it is going to affect so much more. I have an emotional attachment to shopping and while it may not be huge (or maybe it is - it is possible I'm in denial), it still exists. I love that this month is going to push my boundaries and comfort zones and challenge me.

The other interesting thing is that I actually had a physical reaction to a thought. Nothing changed in my physical environment to make me release endorphines. I had a thought, I got a dose of endorphines. I had another thought and physically felt the depression of those endorphines leaving me. I've read about this but this is my first time experiencing it with an awareness of it. Hmmmmm. Fascinating!

Saturday 1 March 2008

A new way of living.

I am trying something different for the month of March. For the next 31 days, I am going to live on a very strict budget. I have been following a budget since last October and it has been working really well for me. The thing is that I still seem to find away around it and buy things that I don't necessarily need.

Years ago, in a past life, I used to be a moderate shopaholic. I fell into that category of people who spend money to feel better. I had no budget and spent every dime that came my way. If I felt lonely, blue or bored, I'd go shopping.

For the past 5 or 6 years, I have learned to live within my means or at least much, much closer to them. And now, since October, I am not only living within my means but getting smarter and smarter about it. That leads me to now.

For the next 31 days, I am going to follow my budget down to the last penny. I will not be shopping or spending any extra money on anything. I do have a 'play' fund in my budget where a percentage of my income can be spent on anything I like, so I am not going completely without. The plan is though, to not spend any of that money on 'things'. I like going to movies and out for dinner and drinks with friends. I want my play money to be used toward experiences not things.

I have regarded my budget as a guideline up until now. If I ran out of 'play' money, I would just dip into another account to fund my need for a new pair of boots or a dinner out with friends. For March, there will be no dipping. When my play money runs out, that's it. It will get me to think creatively about how to spend my time and my money.

My play fund as of right now has $34.65 in it.