Letting Go of Perfect

Last week, I gave myself a beautiful gift: I let go of the idea of perfection.

I always feel as though I need to be perfect for those around me, perfect in my school work, perfect in my house work. It becomes exhausting, as many of you may already know!

I let go of that idea. I threw it out the window and just said that I will try and do well at everything. No need to be perfect because that's just a crazy ideal.

It has been freeing to let go of that. If you're like me and hold yourself to a certain standard, you may be making yourself sick or stressed or worried over things that you don't need to stress over.

Let 'perfect' go. And know that whatever takes its place will end up being good enough and possibly even great.

One Week Spending Challenge Update!

We will successfully complete our one week spending challenge today!  We went one (school) week with the goal of only spending money on necessities (like gas) and not purchasing extra food, coffee, or stuff.  We paid for gas, parking, and some things like toilet paper but we managed to only spend $1 extra (I really needed those Lorna Doones to get me through my afternoon class!).

Just like many of the bloggers I have read who do these kinds of challenges, I really didn't miss that coffee that I thought about or the extra snack that I wanted but did not actually need.  We cooked at home every night and made our lunches to bring to school.

It was a really great feeling to have not wasted at least $10 on Starbucks and who knows how much more on other things!

Now...we're leaving for Vegas tonight for a short two night stay with my sister-in-law so we know a few meals out are in our near future.  But since we did so well this week, we don't feel bad at all at splurging a little on this mini vacation.

Have you ever tried to go for a period of time without spending superfluous money?!

The One Week Spending Challenge

I freaked out the other day.  I'm not a freaker outer really but I saw how much money I owe in loans, I panicked and came home and told my husband that we could never spend any money, ever again.

Obviously, this was an unrealistic expectation.  BUT we DID decide on a one (school week) spending challenge.

This week, we are seeing just how little money we can spend on non-essentials.  We are "allowed" to buy gas, toilet paper, dog food, etc.; the things that we need to live.  We are "not allowed" to spend money on extra food, coffee, and stuff...no Amazon purchases of books or things for the house.

So far, we have succeeded in only spending $1 on extra things (I really needed some sugar to get through my late class on Monday, thank you, Lorna Dunes).  We haven't gone out for food or bought unnecessary things.  Only two more days to make it through before our weekend in Vegas!

So far, it feels really good to NOT spend extra money.  Each time I DON'T spend $7 on a burrito or $3.50 on a coffee, I know it's that much more money we can put towards the things we really want!

We'll see how the rest of the week goes!

Minimalist Fail

We bought Groupons for a yoga studio nearby (which was a great deal and we didn't mind spending money on, since we don't spend money on a gym, etc.) but then we decided we needed some yoga clothes.

Let's just say that if you tallied up what I've sold so far (one really nice leather briefcase) and the amount we've spent on the yoga stuff, we're still in the hole.

Onward and upward!!  We'll just need to do better moving forward!