How I'm Sticking to a Resolution.

After another terribly expensive trip to Target (for some reason that place sucks me in and I'm totally powerless to stop it), my friend and I turned to each other and said, "Let's make a New Year's resolution. No more eating out during the rest of January and February. Go to the gym at least three to four times a week. And fewer frivolous purchases at Target."

Have we kept to it? Eh, kind of. We grabbed a bite to eat later that same afternoon and vowed once again that starting tomorrow (it's always tomorrow, isn't it?) our new rule would start up.

It's now the end of January and I think I'm doing pretty good (although who knows if my friend's really kept her side of the bargain).

I've only broken my eating out rule twice (once knowingly and once because I forgot my lunch at home-- who can really fault me there?) At least having the rule in place has made me more conscious of the amount of money I did spend both times, rather than giving my debit card to the cashier without paying attention and worrying about the amount later. And I felt guilty-- the resolution's working!

We've both been going to the gym pretty faithfully, and I can speak for my friend in this instance because we usually go together. Having a work-out buddy is exactly what I need. Some people find motivation somewhere within themselves to wake up early and hit the gym before work or go every single day of the week without fail, but I'm really not one of those people. Knowing I have somebody else relying on me to be there makes it a whole lot less likely that I'm even going to consider skipping. And now that it's becoming a part of my routine, I find myself almost looking forward to it. Or at least I feel strange when I don't go (and I promise you that school and work are the only things that have gotten in the way of that). Plus, we both pay for our memberships at the Ray out-of-pocket (seeing as we're not undergrads) so if I'm not using it, I'm literally flushing $80 down the toilet (which is a pretty amazing price considering most gyms charge upwards of that per month). I guess this is where I make a little plug for the Ray: if you're an undergrad, use your gym membership! Use it! It's a great facility and you're paying for it somewhere in your tuition. (This is coming from a girl who only visited the gym at her undergrad institution once or twice and still feels bad about it.)

And as far as Target goes, we've gone a couple more times since, but we've curved our spending. We haven't been taken in by the numerous clothing sales (or at least limited ourselves to items that were $10 or less) and kept to our grocery lists. Lists are what save me. Yes, I frequently go off them, but feel really good when I do stick to them. And if I went into a place like Target without any sort of guidelines, it could be really catastrophic. One other thing I've done is forced myself to only use debit when shopping there. In the past, it was pretty easy for me to go crazy when I knew my handy dandy credit card would make an appearance, but now all Target purchases go on my debit card which means less buyer's regret later!

It's important for anyone to reevaluate their spending habits and make adjustments, but I definitely feel like the time for me is NOW. Graduation is looming and with that the impending doom that I'll soon need to begin paying back my student loans (guarantee I'll be blogging about these in the near future). If I can begin to curve my spending habits now, before I necessarily need to, I won't feel like I'm severely depriving myself later when there just isn't the money for lunches out and elaborate weekend plans. Plus it never hurts to have a little money saved away in a rainy day fund in case that high-paying dream job doesn't come a'knocking immediately.