Thursday, August 13, 2009

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

"I know I've made some mistakes, but I'm turning my life around."

Wise words, Rebecca Bloomwood. Like Becky, today I've decided to become a recovering shopaholic. A friend of mine didn't receive the full amount of loan money she requested and is struggling with trying to afford tuition. I haven't heard back from Sallie Mae, yet. I'm worried.

Also, watching Wifeswap actually inspired it, surprisingly enough. A family on the show paid off their $700,000 house by saving money and only buying the essentials. They are only thirty-one. If their kids wanted something, they had to pay for it themselves. Since I don't have kids, this should be even easier!

I have several things that I've decided to change that should help me save money:

1) Leaving the debit card at home. I will take out twenty bucks for snacks/take out/etc. whenever I go out and just...when I'm out of that, I'm out of money. Period. That way I won't say, "Oh if I just get this and nothing else," or the age old, "As long as I keep my account such and such an amount, I'll be okay."

2) Getting rid of things. My mom oftentimes jokes but with seriousness behind it that she wants to put me on Intervention or Obsessed, once she figures out if she wants to market me as a shopaholic or a hoarder. I keep things. I have emotional attachment to everything...and it needs.to.stop.

3) Change all of my favorites. My list below my toolbar includes ae.com, bananarepublic.com, forever21.com, perezhilton.com, gmail, my university email, and playbill.com. HALF of those are shopping websites. I check them weekly for new arrivals. That's BAD.

4) Use the giftcards and then STOP. I get money for Christmas and gift cards, and I use up all my gift cards and then move in on the money instead of saving it. I'm immediately going to deposit the money into a savings account (which I'm going to open, thankfully PNC has an awesome wallet program) and use the giftcards and only the giftcards.

5) "Do I need this?" In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Becky's roommate Suze gets a DVD called something like "Control Your Urge to Shop" and the second step (after clearing out the unnecessary things) was that every time you go shopping ask yourself, "Do I need this?" Now, this backfires on Becky as she goes to a sample sale, but under normal circumstances (as someone that doesn't live in a place where there are sample sales) it isn't so hard to do. I've tried it and have noticed (sometimes regretably) that no, I do not need it and so I don't buy it.

I'm sure there are/will be other things I come across that help me with my money saving/life changing adventure. We will also see how well this ends up working out. :)

In other news, it's football season in Pittsburgh again. YES. I need it after all of that hockey madness and...let's not discuss the Pirates. The Steelers makes the fall really fall, it gets me ready to go back to school, ready for Halloween (though the decorations in Yankee Candle and candy displays in the grocery store...already, help), ready for Thanksgiving, which ultimately get me ready for my all time favorite holiday, Christmas! :)

Can't wait! Here we go, Steelers, here we go!

"Changes" by David Bowie; 1971

Saturday, August 8, 2009

So Long Sweet Summer

"We could be sitting in the computer lab, four a.m. before the final paper is due, cursing the world cause I didn't start sooner and seeing the rest of the class there, too."

The creators of Avenue Q (closing on Broadway in September) had it so right. Those lines in that song remind me of being in eleventh grade when I pulled my first all-nighter. My teacher assigned us a research project to prepare us for our senior project and of course I (and most of my class) procrastinated. I logged onto AIM at about 3am and the only people on my buddy list were in my class or had my teacher.

I also remember my best friend and I declaring that after all of that hard work that we didn't just want As, but we DESERVED them by that point. She had to go to Walmart at five in the morning to get ink so she could print it and I slept on the living room floor, too afraid that if I went into my bed, I wouldn't wake up in seventy-five minutes to go to school.

Weeeeeell, it's that time of year again, time to go back to school. :) Except this year, things are changing for me.

As is obvious from my abovementioned story, I am the QUEEN of procrastination, lazing about, eating very bad for you things very late at night and I have since mastered the art of an A-worthy all-nighter (unless the subject is philosophy).

It is time for that to end. Rebecca Bloomwood said it best: "I know I made some mistakes, but I'm turning my life around."

Honestly, that's what all of those qualities I listed amount to. Mistakes. And now it's time to turn my life around. It isn't cool to pull an all-nighter, you just sound unorganized and LUCKY if you manage to get a good grade on the assignment. This is especially easy in college when you get a syllabus for every class and know months in advance when assignments are due.

Therefore, along with turning my life around, I'm also turning this blog around, which makes sense since I haven't written since May. Here I will post about the trials and tribulations (haha, oh yes) of a junk food, lazy fiend trying to become healthier and organized.

I'm enjoying the last few weeks of my lifestyle and August 24th, 2009, when classes begin, so does my healthier point of view on life. I will be attending the gym on campus five days a week and, while not excluding anything from my diet, practicing self-restraint, with the help of Real Houswife of NYC, Bethenny Frankel's book, Naturally Thin, which is great and highly recommended :)

I'm spending the remainder of the summer gradually adjusting my life so it wouldn't be such a shock when school began. For example, I'm drinking less pop (or soda, for those of you not from Pittsburgh), I'm trying to drink the suggested amount of water, I'm eating more veggies, etc. This is beyond my desire to lose weight, this is now about trying to get healthy, especially after realizing how many things run in my family, i.e. diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.

So, I'm saying goodbye to a sweet summer, eager for all of the things that this new year will bring. Hopefully at four a.m., I won't be sitting in the computer lab the night before the final paper is due anymore. It is time for me to take Rebecca Bloomwood's advice (something I normally wouldn't say, since I also am a shopaholic) and turn my life around.

"So Long Sweet Summer" by Dashboard Confessional; year unknown.