Halloween Havoc

I love Halloween!

Don’t panic everyone, I’m still alive and well. Yes, I know it has been over a week since my last amazing and awe inspiring blog entry, but I here I am starting of year number 2 with a poor rapport with blog writing so it’s time for me to jump back on the bandwagon. Well, it’s not just the blog writing I’m struggling with, but there are couple other things as well that I’ve fallen behind on. Do you every have those days when a number of stupid little things grind your gears and everything just seems frustrating? Well that was certainly me yesterday. I really wanted to write my blog entry but I was in no mood to do anything other than eat and sleep (in that order).

Those who know me in real life and not just on this blog, know that I am generally a very lighthearted person and when you want to be around someone positive, normally I am the guy to go to. However, there are some days where I just want to say “eff it” and just go home and crawl into bed. Those kinds of days are pretty rare, but every now and then, I really need to step back and not put anyone ahead of me but myself. Truth be told, that still is one of the life lessons that I struggle to wrap my head around. Where I find the most difficulty is just being completely selfish. There’s a tendency for me to put others first but sometimes those people don’t reciprocate and I get frustrated. It’s also a huge source of why I (and others) get into debt.

In any case, I’m feeling better today and a little less strung out so I think that everything is going to work out just fine. What is at the core of my stress is my bank account. I love Halloween so much, but I went overboard on my spending again this year. I had a Halloween party at my place on the weekend and it was lots of fun and well decorated, but I certainly blew the budget. To top it off, with Christmas around the corner, my savings account got a swift kick to the chestnuts and it’s drained back down to under $500. Not really impressive in my opinion, but what’s done is done and I cannot wait to see my family again in less than 2 months! The best part is that I finally (FINALLY) get a paid Christmas vacation. Do you know how hard it is to pay bills, fly home, and buy gifts when you lose 2 weeks of salary? It’s a lot like listening to U2’s music – awful.

But there’s no point in complaining right? With all the knowledge I have, I can certainly get back up and rebuild my savings and get the debt repayment back on track. In a lot of ways, I’m really starting out year two with the same kind of problems that I had before. I have been eating like garbage, I’m not getting as much exercise as I was before, and my meal plan and fallen deep into the toilet and I have to find some extra long rubber gloves to fish it out.

Last month I finished my 30 day challenge with flying colours. I didn’t spend any money outside of the grocery store, but I think that made me go a little crazy with my spending at Halloween. My new challenge over the next couple months is going to be to save up some spending money while I am in Saskatoon, get better at making a meal plan, and find ways to stay as positive as possible while surviving the holiday season somehow - wish me luck!