Shopping Shocker!

I didn't buy a single thing I am wearing!

It sure is nice to get four days in a row off work - paid no less! Now before you all leap across your computer screens and strangle me for being one of those fortunate people who gets this Monday off, stop and reflect about how you all benefit from my time off by getting to read this wonderful blog post! The past 4 days have been relatively spend-free which is largely in part of the generous sharing of delicious food (and booze) by friends and family. Thank you Derek for the delicious chicken and veggies that you made on Friday, and thank you Kim and Tim for the decadent feast yesterday (and leftover chocolate pie today) - it sure is a treat for a man on a budget!

It has been a long time since I was back here writing something for you all to read about so I think that I should start you off with a bit of a recap on what has been going on with me in the past couple weeks. Right after preaching to everyone about how I have weaknesses for buying certain things such as clothes, I went to Montreal to help my friend Andy find some new outfits to wear for work with the caveat that I would not be shopping for me. Well it had been a long time since I had been to Montreal so as soon as I got there, I was reminded of how much I love being in that city and how many good deals on clothes that they have so I broke down and spent! Needless to say that I was a little bit silly with my spending and I purchased more than a couple items. The good news is that I got some amazing deals and still managed to spend less than Andy did!

For $306.41, I managed to pick up quite the collection of clothes, including: 1 pair of sunglasses, a blazer, 3 pairs of pants, a t-shirt, a bow-tie, 3 dress shirts, and a sassy new hat! Not too shabby for that kind of coin. The key part is that I managed to buy what I actually really needed, which was some dress clothes for work and only one (beautiful) t-shirt. I was starting to get in desperate need of some new pants for work and play because I have somehow been able to slowly wear out the crotch in a couple pairs of my pants (feel free to draw your own conclusions here). Not only did I avoid buying a bunch of t-shirts that I didn't need, I left a lot of things behind that I liked, but didn't love.

Shockingly I didn't buy anything here either!

If you want to be a successful clothing shopper such as myself, here are some handy dandy tips. Start off in the stores that you know are usually more expensive and grab anything and everything that you love and try it on. When I was in the stores, I put on so many different outfits and you can ask Andy, sometimes it seemed a little ridiculous. Next, make a mental note of the items that make you feel fantastic, not just the ones that look good on you, but the ones that you really really really love on you. After that, look at the price tag. If the article is something you love and the price is incredible (like my $35 blazer), then buy all means (see what I did there) buy it! If it is out of your potential price range or budget for the day, then set it to the side and spend the rest of your day shopping in the cheaper stores looking for comparable items. If you really like the item and spend the rest of the day thinking about it, then you should probably go for it and buy it when you get back to that store. In the meantime, if you see something like a sassy hat for $75 and think, hmm, I love this hat, it looks really good on me, I love it, then spend the rest of the day trying on similar hats, you will probably find one that looks just as sassy and you will spend a fraction of the cost (in my case, $12.95 = huge savings).  

Now you might be asking, "what if you really love a bunch of things that you try on and then you're way out of budget." First of all, don't even think about your credit card! Step away for the money muncher and think about being debt free. Next, think about all the clothes you already have at home. Will the new item that you selected really fit into your current wardrobe? Will the pink grapefruit colour shirt really match your earthy toned outfits? If you need to buy more articles of clothing just to wear one article of clothing, it's probably not a good idea. Next start checking in to see if this article of clothing is too similar to something you already own. How many shades of blue t-shirts does one person need? Are you only buying this shirt because it's yellow or has a bird on it? Maybe it's time to put down the shirt and start actually looking at birds in nature instead of on shirts...

If you can stick to some of these basic principles, you can really save a lot of money and still look pretty darn fabulous. Remember that there is no shame in going to the sale rack either. Some of the stuff in the sale racks is total garbage, but sometimes there are incredible items that you'll find for delightful deals (like my half price classic black trench coat). Phew, ok, so that's how to shop like John, well, new and reformed John.

After my trip to Montreal, I have been diligent in paying down my debt. My regular line of credit is on track to be completely paid off by May which means that after that is gone, I will have nothing but "student debt". I think it's funny though that we call only the debt that has "student" in the title our student debt. I accumulated all of my debt while I was in school, so it's hard not to think of it all as student debt. I would like to believe that if I were never in school that I would have managed to get out of debt years ago. Mind you I might not be able to have the kind of job that I do without a degree, but my debt would be a lot less.

Sassy new hat!

One thing that I have really noticed is that after paying off my MasterCard, the rest of the debt seems to disappear much quicker. It's also really nice to not have to remember to pay 4 different creditors and be able to focus on only one 3 of them now. As soon as I get this line of credit paid off, I am going to close the account for good. I don't want any more temptation and I want to help out my credit by not having so much accessible potential debt as I do now.

Other than that, everything else is going well. I'm going to spend the rest of my day enjoying some time off and maybe reading my book club book. I might even head on down to a consignment shop and see about selling some of my old vintage clothes. I'm also overdue for a spring cleaning and getting rid of some of the crap that I have acquired over the years so maybe I'll get a start on that. Oh yeah, and then there's those freaking income taxes to do! Maybe my melancholy Monday could be pretty busy after all...

Thanks for continuing to read everyone!

xo

John 

Off Track

Off Track!

Following last week, I have gotten lots of texts and calls from friends and family reconnecting with me which I must admit, has felt pretty good! I feel like I am more connected than ever to those who I love and clearly, this means that lots of people are reading my blog and they love me. I already knew that they loved me, but this just goes to show the power of the internet to bring people together.

I am always surprised by how many people are actually reading all my financial rants! Not only that, their friends and family (especially the moms - hello all of my friends' moms) are reading my blog. What a wonderful thing to know that others are just as interested in getting their debt back on track and that I am not alone in this crazy pursuit. When I started this process, I never imagined that I would get my debt paid off as rapidly as I am today. I was just gunning through all this debt at the beginning  but this year I really have not been as good as I wanted to. The truth behind me not posting as much is that I have kind of been effing up my finances these past couple weeks and I have been a little embarrassed to admit that I have been dipping into my savings account to go out for beers with friends. I guess it's better than taking out money from my line of credit, or even worse, my evil MasterCard!

I ♥ your mom. 

But these are the sorts of things that happen, right? It's tough to always put your social life on hold because you have debt to pay off and the general attitude out there is "everyone is in debt anyway, so why worry?" which I totally get, but I also know what the stress feels like when you have $40,000 of consumer debt and you don't even have a permanent job so I sometimes feel the need to shake some sense into these people. What it really takes is a culture and attitude change to start convincing others to stop spending and finding other ways to find joy in things that require no spending. In one of the exercises that we did at my yoga "off the mat" challenge, we talked about the ability to give up buying "stuff". I have several kryptonites such as music (the latest thing is records), clothing, home decor, and all sorts of other "stuff". What makes my need to shop so stupid is the fact that I don't even need any of this stuff. If one of the things that I mentioned is resonating with you, let me break it down for you:

Music

LOVE THE BALCONIES!

As a firm supporter of artists/musicians I have a hard time just downloading something I love for free and never sending a penny to the artists themselves, but I also was buying 2-3 albums per week, which translates to about $60 which is more than $3,000 each year on music. That doesn't even include the concerts that I go to! What makes this so stupid is that I have albums where I only listen to one or two tracks that I love and never get through the whole thing. To add to it all, I have a record player, but it's not portable so I only get to listen to one of the 100+ albums I have per week  on average. So it's clear to me that this is a habit that I need to get under control. So what I have decided to do is dedicate at least a week to listening to the whole album online before deciding to purchase it. If I really feel that the album is something that is mindblowingly amazing, then I will buy it, but otherwise, I will move on and listen to something else. Don't worry the Balconies, I will ALWAYS buy your music! Oh and you even have an amazing new EP on iTunes? Well I better put a link to that then!

Clothing

This is an underwear ad, a very sexy underwear ad. 

By far one of the most unnecessary things that I buy. I have dozens of t-shirts, dress shirts, pants, shoes, jackets, underwear, and the list goes on. I have zero need for more clothes but yet I still see things that I like and purchase them anyway. I found the best way to kick this habit was to avoid malls and my favourite stores altogether. If I do wander into a store, I look at the item on the rack and then I think about how many other articles of clothing just like it that I have and that usually convinces me to not buy it. If I still feel the urge to buy it, I leave the store and come back in 2 weeks if I am still thinking about buying it. That way if I forget about it, it's clearly not something that I wanted all that bad in the first place. This rule usually applies to everything that I want and it has proven to be pretty darn effective!

Home Decor

Are you cluttering your home with too much stuff?

Now I know that we all like to  have the coolest and most comfortable place on the block, but how comfortable is a place that is filled to the rafters with stuff? There comes a point when all the home decor stuff we buy creates discomfort because it is all just so overwhelming. When you want to create a space that is homey, stick to the principle that less truly is more. When you're more concerned with whether someone is going to break that new knick-knack that you bought than whether they feel safe enough to fart without getting thrown out the window, you may need to evaluate your need obsession with stuff.

Phew, that feels good to get out. It's much easier to get back to practicing what I preach when I have it all down on paper. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't shop at all, but I'm say that you should focus on smarter shopping. Buy things that you need first and then get one of the things that you want afterward. If you don't know what a need is, ask yourself if you will die if you don't have it. I think I can survive without the latest record or spandex yoga shorts. One more thing, as I have said a bazillion times before, leave your credit behind and pay with YOUR money, not someone else's!

All in all though, my spending has not been in check and I am feeling the effects! Last week I had to do some major dipping into my savings more than once for things like eating out, birthday presents, medicine (don't panic, I had a cold), and other things that I feel that I should be a little more prepared for. It's not like it's a big deal or anything, but there really is no excuse since most of the things that I had show up were things that I could have planned for so I guess it gets on my nerves a little bit that I am not as aggressive with my debt as I want to be. Not to say that all this socializing is negative, I'm spending money on things that I enjoy such as hanging out with friends for their birthdays or farewell parties which I feel are important things to do because you can't really put a price tag on friendships (unless they're an escort). But I am really going to try to get it together again and set a goal to get my line of credit completely paid off by the 15th of May!

Lots of love!

John

To Halifax, With Love

John and Kate minus all the effing children!

I’m not gonna lie to you, like a drunk sorority girl at a fraternity party, I was out of control (with my spending this week). On Wednesday, I headed east to the Halifax (aka Hali, or HFX) for a business trip, followed by a weekend of local beer and seafood – and it was freaking delicious.  Hate to say it, but I strayed far from the budget in a few ways so I think it would be best to go over the reasons for my financial fudge-up in order for you to learn from my mistakes.

 

The beginning of my financial demise is that I had been depriving myself of shopping and spending on me for far too long, which leads me to my first point – everyone breaks at one point or another. Like a fat kid deprived of candy for a few hours, as soon as I saw that sweet temptation, I filled my hands with the sweet sweet satisfaction of shopping. Can you believe that it has been since the end of October since I bought myself ANY clothing? Now, those of you who know me, know that I am the kind of guy who has a lot of clothes; perhaps too many. I’ve taken the time to count up some of the numbers just so you can understand how unnecessary it is for me to go shopping. I have:

20 Dress shirts

18 pairs of pants

20 pairs of shorts (including gym shorts)

9 scarves

15 jackets

14 non dressy button-up shirts

5 sport jackets

6 hoodies (or bunnyhugs for all you Saskatchewanians)

80 shirts (sweaters and cardigans included)

Oodles of underpants

Stacks of socks

Piles of Pajamas

Bundles of belts

Too many ties

And the list goes on

So as you can see, I really don’t need to buy anything else for myself as far as clothing is concerned, but I have been depriving myself of the rush of how good it feels to put on and buy a new piece of clothing. This is where I have run into a problem. For 6 months, I have been away from shopping malls and clothing stores for month because I know that if I remove the temptation, I won’t be tempted, however by not ever treating myself, when the temptation is there, I am shopping as if everything is 90% off!

The second factor in my overspending evaluation was being on travel status with work. Admittedly, I am new to this whole travelling with an expense account process and since I was allowed almost $90 per day (whoo!) to spend on meals and incidentals compared to my usual $120 for an entire week of living, so I quickly got used to spending like one of those insane couponers on TLC. I was right back into eating out, drinking too much, and buying any odd thing that I “needed” because I knew it was covered (very much like those crazy couponing ba$tards). This spendy spenderson mentality seemed to stay with me after I was off my work travel status and into my personal weekend of fun! I kept spending as if it was all covered by some magic money wand that would automagically fill my wallet with cash. The problem was that every morning when I opened my wallet, that $100, $200, or even $300 that I had in it, disappeared. Had my money turned into food, and my wallet Rita MacNeil’s mouth?

Donairs in Halifax are EPIC!

Alcohol is my worst friend when it comes to making logical spending decisions and believe you-me I drank a lot more of it than I usually do while I was in Halifax! With every great meal, you need to have a great glass of wine (I tell myself that it brings out the flavour). See Alcohol is happy to point out that the server is hot and they deserve a 20% tip for being hot, or that cab driver let you bring a leaking donair into the back of his cab, so he deserves a $10 bill for a $5 cab fare, or sure I can spend more money on booze, that’s why I took it out of my bank account, right? Oh Al, you get me every time!

So what does that translate into dollar amounts John? Well, let’s see, without factoring in my meals and incidentals:

Wednesday:

$50 for swim trunks from American Apparel

Fancy new clothes from H&M ($36 for the shirt and cardi)

Did you know that employees at the Halifax American Apparel are actually helpful and not pretentious d-bags? I didn’t know that was possible. Usually you get eye rolls for asking for something on the top shelf. And why swim trunks you ask, well I wanted to go swimming in my hotel, and of course when I did, I lost a contact lens and there were annoying children in the pool who never actually swam, but preferred to throw a ball around my head while I was trying to relax in the hot tub.

$20 for a case of beer (to share with my friend, and an attempt at trying to get people to want to hang out with me in my hotel room (I ended up drinking 4 on my own – sad face).

Friday (gotta get down on Friday since everyone is looking forward to the weekend):

$244 at H&M. Now to my credit I made out very well; with this money I bought 1 pair of pants, 3 pairs of shorts, 1 cardigan, 4 t-shirts, and 15 pairs of socks.

$50 on supper – but it was the best duck confit and pizza I can remember having in the past forever.

My awesome owl art print!!! 

$30 to see Hey Rosetta!

I was so drunk I didn’t realize that they were on stage and then ended up meeting the bass player at another bar afterward – so ridiculous.

$75 on beers throughout the night

$5 for the best donair I ever ate

$10 for a drunk taxi ride home

Saturday:

$40 for yummy in my tummy food at the Market.

$15 for an art print of a kicka$$ owl!

$15 for more beers to go with my amazing supper made by the loveliest hostess ever - Kate.

For a grand total of: $554 on a really fun trip. Obviously I need to learn to get a little better with my money when I’m travelling or only take out a limited amount of cash when I’m hammered, but honestly, I feel like I needed to reward myself for all the hard work I have been doing. It doesn’t look like I am going to be getting wooden Catan soon, but I have learned a valuable lesson for when I travel – make a plan and stick to it! If you’re ever planning on going to Halifax, I highly recommend going – the people, scenery, and food are all marvelous!