New Year's Resolutions

 It's New Year's Eve today and I got to thinking about some resolutions. I didn't decide to do the same old lose weight or quit smoking. I always fail at those, probably because I am not ready to do those things yet.

My first resolution is to limit myself to only buy 2 full bottles of perfume. The restriction is no back up bottles, it has to be something new. The two perfumes that I did pick out is the Gris Charnel extrait and the Viktoria Miny Eau de Hongrie bottles. The other part of that resolution is to use up what I can with full bottles and decants of what I have.

My second resolution is to seriously start using up the candles that I already have and make an effort to not buy more. Or at least buy as little as possible with the candles. I keep making that resolution and keep failing at it. I can never seem to keep that one. As soon as I start to make some serious progress, Bath and Body Works seems to either release old favorites or have a really good deal. And I can never refuse a good single wick candle sale. For right now, I am only allowing myself 2 candles every 6 months.

I guess the main part  of this whole post is just to make an effort to spend less money. I am thinking the whole idea of saving some cash is to maybe do a short trip somewhere. With one of my vacations, I would like to do a 3 day trip to Gettysburg and maybe around October, I can do a ghost hunt at the Mansfield Reformatory. I don't think that I will have to try all that hard to convince a friend of mine to go. It just comes down to if the cost would be reasonable for him. Well, tax season is right around the corner so it might be a whole lot doable then.

Does anyone else have some resolutions?

Taxes and Stuff

Last weekend I meant to file my taxes but got sidetracked with other things. But I did manage to file them yesterday. I am hoping that I will get my refund relatively quickly. My plan is to pay off my Sephora and Ulta credit card bill and pay off the rest of another credit card. I just want to get ahead of some things.

The flies in my ointment is that since I have a new puppy, she needs more puppy shots and my dog food bills have gone up due to it. The other fly is the Sephora sale that is coming up sometime in April. I might have gift cards but I don't want to go hog wild.

The great debate is either get that massive bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense or another bottle of no 5 parfum. I am leaning towards the CM bottle because I already have tons of no 5 and I don't need more of no 5. I don't need anymore perfume but it's hard to pass up a sale. Rarely there is a sale when Chanel is included. Ulta does have perfume sales but never seems to include Chanel. So let's hope that Sephora hasn't changed the whole sale policy when it comes to Chanel. 

It's been a long assed time since I have bought any kind of perfume that was larger the 100ml. A couple times, I could have but didn't. Something else always seemed to demand my attention and funds. I needed shoes or I have something else that was somewhat expensive that needed to be replaced or fixed. At this point, I am hoping that things financially will be okay and no major disaster will happen that requires funds.

Sunny, the puppy, I think has gotten used to us and bonded with us. Because now she is a little terror. She wakes me up between 4 and 4:30 every morning wanting to go to the bathroom and eat. After those things are finished, she will not settle down. She wants to cuddle for a few minutes and then she wants to play. But there comes a certain point, shortly before 7 that she seems to get a little bored with me playing with her. She wants my other dog and father to come down so she can play with them. When that happens, she can make all the noise she wants. I would rather her not wake the household at 5 in the morning with her barking. At this point, I can't wait until she gets a little older and she will sleep a little longer and I won't be so sleep deprived.

 

Panic

The year 2020 is a difficult year so far with some major financial changes that I hope to resolve in the next couple months. It hasn't been the easiest time for at least 4 months but I am starting to make some big changes and the panic comes and goes.

In years past, I thought of nothing to spend whatever on bottles of Amouage, Chanels, Serge Lutens, vintage perfumes. Those days are loooooong gone. Now it's mainly considered to the occasional decant or two at this point. Last year, I was happy to get that bottle of Ubar and get the Kiehl's Original Musk Blend gut those were rarities and I was a little anxious about spending the money on perfume when I have plenty. I did my taxes and decided to splurge on getting a bottle of Coco Mademoiselle from Sephora. I offset a little bit of the cost because I had gift cards to use. That mini Chanel no 5 travel set was a splurge as well.

I am trying to appreciate what I have and tightening my belt right now. Last year's Ubar was a little bit of a surprise but still worth it due to Fragrancenet having a really good price for a 1.7 ounce bottle. I really don't see Amouage offering 1.7 ounce bottles of Ubar.

Why did I decide on Coco Mademoiselle and not the others that were at the top of my list? I felt like I couldn't quite justify the price of the others at this point in time. I had to set a hard and fast line with myself. Only get the smallest, most affordable bottle that was available and that was the 1.2 ounce of the EDP. I don't know what the intense version smells like, nor the EDT. For those of us who are pretty familiar with Chanel, every concentration smells different. I also did see some people say that the EDT has the tendency to disapear pretty quick, so the EDP it was.

In this economy...

I've had to change a few things. Okay, I've had to cut back on certian things. My make up routine had to change. I used to wear foundation, but not anymore. I ran out of foundation a year ago and just don't have the extra funds to keep buying it. I simply can't justify the need to replace my foundation every 2 months. I have had to forgo the wearing of eyeshadow everyday. I'm down to 2 eyeshadows and 1 of them is on it's last hurrah. My makeup routine was pretty simple but as the cost of just about everything went up, I really realized that how fast the little things added up. It's always the $5 here the $10 there that can make the difference. Perfume is a little different for me. A 1 ounce perfume can last me for a good year or more, but I have plenty of perfumes to use up.

I cut out a lot of my cell phone extras. I dropped my text message package. I used to pay an extra $4.99 for 400 messages. A good most of my friends either disabled the texting feature on thier cell phones or just stopped texting altogether. So there isn't much of a need for a text message package to keep it. I have switched to a cheaper plan because I use nowhere near the 1,500 minutes a month that I am allotted. I am lucky if I even hit 400 minutes a month so 700 minutes is a better deal.

Groceries is another big thing. I really have to look at the grocery store fliers that come in the mail and look them over. I've had to make decisions on what do I really need and how much do I have to spend on 2 weeks worth of groceries. Coupons have helped me out tremendously. If it is something I eat on a regular basis and on sale, it's good. A great thing is when I can use a coupon on top of it. I freeze a lot of my meats (roasts, chicken thighs, etc) when there is a phenominal deal because meat has really gotten expensive. I have gone the generic brand food instead of name brand food. I haven't noticed the difference between generic brand macarooni and cheese and the Kraft version.

I've combined and eliminated some of my errands. Since I live in a rural area that doesn't have a bus service like the RTA, I have to be careful with gas. The price of gas fluctuats so much that I've had to combine trips and think about how vital is something before I head out.

By changing just a few things and over the course of a year, I have been able to save myself almost $800. I am working on scaling back a few more things. Stay tuned for that.

Credit Cards

I was checking out at the grocery store the other day and I paid for 3 things with my Amex card. My total was only $15 and I didn't have the cash in my wallet because I hadn't gone to the bank yet. The guy behind me said a few snarky comments to which I replied, "When I get the bill in the mail, my Amex card will be paid in full." The idiot makes another smart comment of that his ex left him with about 8 grand of credit card debt that took him 2 years to pay off. I said that the credit cards are not the problem, it is about being honest with yourself and your partner about money and have a reasonable plan about credit. If you can't afford to pay the credit card statement before the due date, then you can't afford it. I believe it was that guys lack of knowlage about credit cards and finances and too lazy to educate himself about credit and money. Credit is fine in it's place as long as it is not YOU who is out of control.