Gone with the Wind...or Just Gone by Wednesday

I was bad this week. I blew it. I spent $60 last week on TOMS shoes for my best friend who’s turning 21 on April 19. I had to listen to my mom nag about how spending $60 on shoes is “ridiculous.” I was able to convince her that because Heather (my best friend) and I have been friends since we were in cribs and because it’s her 21st birthday that she deserved a nice gift. Besides, TOMS shoes are made for a good cause. They donate a free pair to a child in need for every pair you buy. I decided I would make up for the shoes by taking out $20 less—so $130 instead of $150 for the week.

Well that money came and went a little too quickly. It just so happened that this past week was a week I had to spend more on groceries. In addition to the staple items like fruit, veggies and milk, I needed to stock up on more cereal, bread, tuna cans, cheese, Boca Burgers (I don’t eat meat), energy bars for tennis matches, protein powder (yeah I said it…I like to drink protein shakes), and other odds and ends of groceries to get me through the week. My Jeep, like me, also needed some nourishment—it was pretty much running on fumes so I filled it up with $30 of gas, (I normally put in $20). I had a whopping $20 before Sunday was even over.

I knew the whole week was going to be hectic starting with an hour and a half long presentation on Monday, editing a video for my Electronic News Gathering (ENG) class on Tuesday (which by the way I ended up staying in the studio editing for 7 hours), a paper due and a tennis match on Wednesday, shooting a video for my ENG class on Thursday and a tennis match on Friday. I normally eat dinner at home most nights with my roommates, but not this week. I was way too caught up writing papers and editing stories to even make it home for dinner. Which meant I had to buy food on campus. I had perfectly fresh groceries at home, but it would have taken too much time to drive home to eat. I also probably would have gotten distracted by, oh I don’t know…my comfortable bed…TV…the couch…talking to my roommates—definitely more exciting stuff, I just didn’t have the time. At any rate, that $20 was gone before I could say “Wednesday.”

It was only Wednesday and already I was out of my weekly cash. I had to charge cookie dough on my card at Safeway Wednesday night because the next day I would be shooting a consumer news report to find out where the best cookies are from on campus. I would conduct a blind taste test to find the answer, but the cookie dough I bought at Safeway were part of a little “twist” I decided to throw in my story to see if students didn’t choose campus cookies at all and instead chose mine. The next day, the day of the shoot, was even worse. I had to spend $10 on an 80-minute mini-DV tape for my camera, and 3 cookies from Starbucks, Freshens, and Jazzman’s Cafe, which totaled approximately $18. Charging all of this on my card was frustrating. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re trying so hard to watch how much you spend—the first dollar spent over your limit feels like you actually spent $100 over. It’s not a good feeling at all. I know I’m new at budgeting and have not yet mastered all the tricks of the trade, but each new week offers another lesson learned. This week I suppose I’ll just choose to watch TV on the couch with my roommates over getting good grades. :-)