Monday, October 31, 2011

November on $200 or less

I just returned from another work trip to San Francisco and the Napa Valley area. On the last night of my trip I realized how expensive work trips are for me. When I go on one of these trips I spend all of my free time shopping I find lots of cool things but I really need to slow down on the spending. For example on my San Francisco trip here is a list of what I bought in the short 3 hours between my meeting and picking up my car at the airport - poncho/sweater at Anthropologie, hair stuff at sephora, new boots, a new dress, paper at the paper source, a dress at disIgual, Pastries and misc items at Miette, lunch at the Ferry Building, honey at the farmers market, honey sticks at the farmers market, books and stationary at lola north beach in ghirardelli square, cupcake from Kara's Cupcakes.
Clearly I have a problem. So I am going to see how far I can stretch $200. I am hoping to make it all the way through the month of November. Here are the rules I am going to try to stick by -
Purchase of fuel, medical and home related bills do not count towards the $200 dollars
Any money I make at the farmers markets, holiday sales, or anything I sell on Amazon or ebay or purchases I have made then returned can be added to the $200.00
To accomplish this i am going to have to do without dinners with friends, pass up new clothes purchaes, no massages no hair appointments, no treats for Ruby Foo. Now is the time to use up Cafe Rio free meals, McDonalds Monopoly food prizes and Kneaders points and gift cards.

I am excited to see how far I can take this and how long I can stretch out the $200.