Living Paycheck to Paycheck

I’ve been pretty good about not buying random extra things for myself for several months.  My mom bought me a bunch of clothes (with Dad’s money) back at the beginning of May, so I haven’t felt the need to spend.

Until the last couple of weeks.  I finally got my free new phone from Verizon, an LG Black Cherry, but they know what they’re doing with the extras.  I bought three new ringtones (my last phone had one that I purchased), signed up for the monthly insurance (even though I’ve had a cell phone in one form or another for over five years and never needed a replacement, something niggled at me that I should be safer than sorrier), and…alas…signed up for the VZ Navigator for $9.99/mo.

I love it.  Love, love, love it.  I’ve been wanting a gps for a long time because I am AWFUL when it comes to following directions.  I get lost constantly; I have zero sense of direction.  I don’t have the money to spend on a normal gps system at all, even though I wouldn’t have the monthly payments, and I decided that I NEEDED this service immediately over the weekend when B and I were stuck in traffic in Connecticut on our way back from spending time with his family.  It was fine except that B hated the gps voice and made me turn it off after yelling at me (which he NEVER does) when I didn’t want to.  We took the route he wanted and he groaned when we saw more traffic.  I decided not to say, “Oh, if only we had a device that would have warned us about the traffic and taken us another way,” but I wanted to.  Shortly after B apologized nicely for yelling and I told him what I’d wanted to say–he said that it was a good thing that I didn’t then, but it was funny now.

Anyway.  I’m spending a lot on those unnecessary things and now I have a new expense.  The girls are dressing up for the bachelorette party on Saturday night and I had no idea what to wear!  I gchatted my pal, L, a party gal and asked her what I should wear.  She instructed me to go to Forever 21 and get a summer dress for $20, or to go to her closet because she has 80 of them (probably not a huge exaggeration).  She and I are not the same size, or even close enough to it for me to borrow her stuff, so I’m going to go to Forever 21 after work and see if I can find anything that works with what dressy shoes I have currently.

So, another expense.  I saw some dresses that I liked on the website, and I hope that they’re in the store in my size when I go there…the most expensive was less than $25, so I don’t mind too much the spending.  I have two weddings to go to in August and I bet I can wear the dress to the one not associated with this bachelorette party, as well as to Mass throughout the summer, and to the beach in July/August.

*Crossing fingers that I find something I like!*

Two days ago I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk–only milk.  I was not going to walk down any other aisles.  Giant Foods is pretty smart, though, or at least the one by my apartment is; they have the clearance bins right by the dairy.  I happened to glance down and see the brand of hair dye that I normally use, Clariol Hydrience.

My best friend dyed my hair last week and I had to go with a different, cheaper brand because my brand wasn’t there.  The time she dyed my hair before that, back in February, I think, the dye I got was “discontinued”, but I thought that they meant only that color, since it was the only one marked down.  So when I went last week and didn’t see Hydrience, I figured that they must have discontinued it all.

Apparently they have, but there were still boxes leftover in the clearance bin.  Since college, I have alternated between three shades (all dark brown) mostly to cover gray (yep, 25 years old and already going gray) and to keep my hair shining.  None of those shades were there, but several boxes of a shade just a little bit lighter were, so I picked up three boxes for $2.30/each.  Three boxes will only get me through one hair dyeing experience (my hair is VERY thick and fairly long), but it’s better than spending between $10-$25 every few months.

So I now have the three boxes waiting for later this summer.  I may scope out the local drugstores to see if they have any deals, too.

On Saturday morning I closed out my Bank of America savings account that generated almost no interest for me.  I’m keeping that money in my checking until I pay off this month’s credit card bill and my rent due 1 May.  Because my mom’s name was also on the account, I wrongly assumed that she had to go with me.  It turned out that she didn’t, but it still worked out well for me because we went shopping afterwards.

Both of my parents hate clothes shopping.  My dad dislikes the hassle of going somewhere where other people are waiting to annoy him by shopping near him.  My mom dislikes shopping because she can never find anything that fits (more on this) and when she comes home with something, it’s usually twenty years too old for her or twenty years too young and my dad is not shy about telling her so.

My mom said that if I came shopping with her, Dad said that she could buy me “something”.  “One thing or lots of things?” I asked.  She confirmed that she could buy me whatever I wanted (within reason), so I jumped at the chance.  I consider that any clothes they buy for me on an outing like this is actually payment for being a personal shopper.  It didn’t take too long to find what my dad wanted:  two pairs of pants and a couple button-down, short-sleeved shirts…except he’s particular on colors and they had only one shirt that I deemed acceptable.  This is why my dad likes for me to go:  I’m not going to let my mom buy him shirts that he won’t like just so that she can say that they didn’t have anything better.  The rule is not to buy unless you really like it / will wear it a lot, etc.

I don’t know why my mom has horrible taste in clothes or where she got it from.  Firstly, she wears a petite size and this particular department store had a reasonable, but not extensive section.  She told me her size and we found a bunch of things for her to try on–nothing fit, but one shirt. 

“Well, I’m just going to put all this back and go to Penney’s,” she said when I insisted that she try on everything again in a larger size.  I responded that she’d have the same problem at Penney’s and I wasn’t going to spend another two hours helping her find too-small clothes to try on and nix in the end.  We ended up finding a few of the things she tried on in her true size and she bought those.  I felt bad that I didn’t sound more understanding.  I do understand how hard it is to shop for clothes because you’re too big for the ones that you have; I don’t understand being okay with looking like crap until you can fit into your smaller size again.  My mom actually tried on a pair of skintight khakis and told me that they fit…convincing her that they didn’t is what earned me the expensive sweater I got!

All in all, I picked up a summer sweater, blouse, pair of brown flats, a dress, a couple summer nightgowns, and a few pairs of underwear.  I put away two skirts, even though Mom said I should get them, because I thought that she was spending too much on me (everything was on sale, though!) and the skirts are the kind that flare out at the hip, making a woman with hips look even hippier…and I am a woman with hips.

If I’d known that my dad was seriously okay with all the money spent, I could have gotten free gas and maybe a new purse, too, but all in all, I did all right.  This will help me be less tempted to spend my own money, too.  I hope.