This past weekend has been super lovely and relaxed, but still quite productive as I managed to accomplish quite a bit on my to-do list. I’d also made it a mission of mine this past weekend not to spend money frivolously, because I feel like the little things lately are adding up too quickly. My boyfriend was away so it was a nice opportunity to chill at home and have some Duchess time. The whole don’t-spend-frivolously thing didn’t go very well, and so last night I started working out how I can curb the spending that doesn’t feel like you’re really spending, but actually adds up to quite a shock at the end of the month.
Why am I doing this? Beyond the obvious answer of not wasting money, I just want to be much more purposeful of where my money goes to ensure I’m using it in the best way. After all, there’s only so much of it and I want to make sure I’m managing my money as wisely as possible.
Here’s when I went wrong: Saturday morning. Yep, I didn’t get far. I rarely carry cash (apparently a huge mistake when you’re trying to tighten spending), and I got caught on the way to the dog park at the coffee shop when the barista told me that there was a $5.00 minimum if you want to use a card to pay. Ughh. I’d just wanted a $2.00 drip coffee and now I’m spending $5.50 on a coffee and croissant. Which I obviously had to eat. So now I’ve wasted a bit of money (not a lot, I know, but it felt annoying when I was trying to be conscious of my spending), and I’ve gained calories. Good start Olivia.
Duchess and I went off to the dog park, a seriously wonderful place where you don’t have to spend a penny and you just have the best time. Dog parks are magical. As are dogs. They’re so ridiculous and sweet and funny, and taking Duchess to Duboce Park in Hayes Valley on Saturdays and Sundays is something I really treasure.
The rest of Saturday was very successful. We cuddled up on the patio, had home brewed coffee, made brunch, and read the newspaper, Porter magazine and Vanity Fair (Vanity Fair and the paper we have delivered, Porter was purchased in New York, so no money spent). Then we snuggled on the couch as I wrote a blog post, I had a lovely bath, made a little dinner, did another walk and soon it was time for bed.
Sunday I had planned to take Duchess for a nice walk over to the Fillmore Street / Union Street district where there are lots of lovely shops and restaurants with the sole intention of purchasing a few things that we need for our kitchen from Sur la Table. As mentioned in yesterday’s post about my undying adoration for newspapers, we found ourselves in a fabulous newspaper and magazine shop, and these are one of my weaknesses when it comes to spending frivolously. I could buy magazines and newspapers (with no real time to read them) for days. I walked out with British Vogue, an international magazine whose airfare you have to pay for. The owner of the store sold me when he said it was Edward Enninful’s first issue as EIC, which it turns out, it is not. So there’s $11.00 + tax unintentionally spent.
Then I followed my nose to ice cream and happily paid $5.75 for way too much ice cream, but f*ck was it good. Haha. There were mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in it. Can’t argue with that.
Now we’re at $22.25 in unplanned spending.
I did luck out at Sur la Table fortunately. I picked out a beautiful sunny yellow Le Creuset utensil holder for the counter which, remarkably, was marked down to $19.99. Boom. Also picked out a matching yellow spatula, a rubber spatula spoon thing for when you want to get the sauce out of the pan but don’t want to use a metal spoon, and one of those things that sits on the stove top to rest your utensils on, all surprisingly half off! So $47.50 purposely spent there.
By this point Duchess was getting a little unruly and I was getting tired; we’d walked 45 minutes from our apartment to this area, so I decided to call a Lyft. Couldn’t do a Lyft Line seeing as I had the dog, so had to get a regular Lyft. Another unplanned spend: $10.00.
After dropping Duchess at home, I made the final trip out that day to the grocery store where I’m proud to say I only purchased what I went for, a few bits and fresh flowers: the roses seen in the feature picture above and sunflowers. Safeway: $63.30.
Tally of planned spending: $110.00
Tally of unplanned spending: $32.25
Oh fudge I forgot about the Miu Miu card wallet and Elizabeth & James cashmere sweater (unworn) I bought online from The Real Real (a luxury consignment site and pretty much the only place I buy anything designer because of the amazing prices) on Saturday afternoon… $120.45. Pretty good though for those two designer items, no? I’ve been looking for a card wallet for ages (Duchess ate my last one a year ago), and at full price they’re well over $120 each. So I don’t feel too badly about this and I’ll include the wallet in my planned spending.
Tally of planned spending: $175.00
Tally of unplanned spending: $87.70
If I did this every weekend for a month, that’s just over $350.00 spent outside of my planned budget. Time to start carrying cash and leave my pretty new wallet at home.
