prioritizing

there comes a time in a girl's [and man's, i suppose] life when reality settles in and you realize that things just must change. mine came about five days ago as i was reading this article from cnn. holy toledo. sure, i contribute to my 401K. yes, i have an emergency fund like a good little saver should. duh, i follow the [very flexible] monthly budget shown above. of course, i want to buy a house and throw a humongous party [ahem, wedding] in the next fiveish years. but the road i am on right now is not leading me to a path of security and wealth [weekly pottery barn outings being the main issue here]. and so my friends, i am here to publicly announce that i am officially on a spending hiatus. you heard it here first. no more mindless swipes of the debit card. here are the ground rules

: food and toiletries are still okay [although that would really thin things out. aka my booty. tempting.]. decor, clothes, kitchen accessories, eating out are not. 

: thrifting, repurposing, DIYing are excusable. and encouraged.

: the old gets-me-every-time-gimmick [beautiful, must have piece severely on sale] must be important enough to remember and still not be able to live without seventy-two hours later.

: traveling home and to texas is permissible. sorry guys, i just can't live without having something to look forward to. 

: gifts are great. but before scouring the big box stores, look to independent sellers like etsy for that perfect find.

so there you have it. i've decided to start with a simple twelve week plan. they say it takes twenty-one days to form a habit, so i am hoping my spending can be kicked in a good three months. do you mind if i share my journey with you? temptations, lessons learned, culprits, cheating? i [and my retirement fund] would be forever grateful.