Challenge: Shop-Free February.

THE CHALLENGE:

- Shop-free February. Keep track of every impulse purchase I WANT to make, and blog for your entertainment.

THE GOAL:

- To pay off completely at least 1 Credit Card, and maybe save some $$ for the new house.

THE RULES:

-NO SHOPPING.

- No morning stops on my way to work. Iced Tea, Soda and Breakfast have to come from home.

- No eating out for lunch. This will be hard. I will miss sushi.

- No AVON orders.

- Any crafting has to take place using existing supplies.

ALLOWED EXPENSES:

-Food Shopping - I do need to eat. However, I will be limiting myself to $50 a week.

-Toiletries - Shampoo, Soap, ETC as NEEDED - nothing until current bottles are empty.

-Snow Tubing - I will probably need a few bucks for food, locker rental, etc this day.

- Gas for my car. Obviously.

- I may have earned a $10 certificate to Moore's. They expire within a month, so if I get one I am allowed 1 trip to Moore's, but spend as close to $10 as possible. (They won't give change from the $10.) Any amount over $10 will come off that week's food shopping budget.

-V-Day present for B, IF I can't come up w/ something awesome to make him.

Wish me luck.

For those interested, here's a bit of background and my reasoning.

I used to be pretty good with my money. Last year, however, my dad died after a rather short and harsh fight with lung and brain cancer. My brother died in a car wreck a month to the day after my dad's diagnosis, on 4/20 ; hit by two high drivers goofing off. The aunt that came to 'help' take care of my sick father was an evil cancer in her own right. She berated me constantly, and convinced me that not only she, but my entire extended family hated me and had wished that *I* had died in the place of my brother.

What does this have to do with my wallet? Well, I developed a pretty heavy case of retail therapy. When I was at my bleakest, just stepping into one of my favorite haunts, AC Moore, Target, hell, even WallyWorld, and I'd feel better. Crafts are my crack, and I can't just get a few things, I have to get EVVVERYTHING. Coming home with a new bag of paper, yarn, clothes or shiny things would just make the bad go away for a while. Online was just as bad. . . the idea that going home every night without Daddy sitting across from me at the dinner table to crack jokes at the nightly news, or pick on and piss off Jay with. . . well, it wasn't an easy notion to face. Coming home to a few new "toys" in the mail soften the hit, if only just a little bit.

The result? Maxing out my two (thankfully pitifully small) credit cards, paying only the minimum so that I could peruse Amazon or Ebay for the next new craft or hobby supplies. I've got no savings, 3 store cards and two credit cards, a car payment, and school loans I can't even THINK about. (HA. "Go back to school and make more money". Here I am 3 years later making a WHOPPING .25 cents an hour more than I did before I owed $9000 in loans, AND I get less than 40 hrs a week! Ugh)

So, PROJECT!!