[Shopping] Results

On Monday, I asked for some feedback, and was impressed with how much of it I got!! I wasn't surprised by the response to the sweater - I was leaning towards returning it anyway, and most of you said that was the right move.

However, I was super surprised by the response to the shoes!!! I had posted this question on Twitter Saturday when I had found the shoes, and got a resounding "get the sparkly ones!" Monday's poll, however, was a resounding "get the cap toe pumps!" There were a few neither votes, but it was heavily in the favor of the pumps.

So, what did I do?

I picked the cap toes. They had another pair at my local DSW that wasn't frayed or stained, so I nabbed them. 

Honestly, though - I'm still thinking about the sparkly ones. I may go back and get them with February's budget....or perhaps even nab them this month, because I'm $7 under budget currently, and I still haven't spent my $20 allotted for beauty items, and I'd rather put it towards the shoes than a few new nail polishes!! (I think that's totally allowable, don't you??)

I am now done with my shopping budget for the month of January. I learned a few things sticking to a budget this month:

• I am more apt to hold off on ripping the tags off an item when I may want to return it to make more room in my budget. I usually don't return things (sometimes even when I should!!) especially if they were cheap. This month at least 3 items went back, which gave me about $30 back in my budget. Worth it!!!
• I found that shopping just once in the first 24 days of the month was torture. (Which is probably because I had a budget to spend - when I did a spending freeze for a month last year, this was pretty easy if I just stayed away from stores!) Actually, I shopped twice in the first 3 weeks - once to thrift and once to the mall. Since I'm trying to be more careful with my purchases, I found I was way pickier than I normally am, and ended up with money left. So I did go out another time or two after the mall. Also, and I feel kind of ridiculous saying this - I actually really missed shopping. Not necessarily spending money, but just browsing, having some time to myself doing something I really enjoy doing. I think I'm going to change up my way of shopping and allow myself 2 shopping days a month (plus a thrifting day) if I so desire and if I still have money in the budget the second day. That way, if there's no money, I don't go and won't be tempted, but I have the option if there's budget. It also should work out since I'm being much pickier. If I find that I'm having trouble sticking to the budget with 2 days, I'll go back to 1. 
• I did my vlog for this month's shopping and it was way long. Like 14 minutes long. So I'm going to chop it and post it in 3 5-minute chunks. I now know for next month that I should just do a weekly vlog on what I bought that week - which I can do, now that I'll be changing the way I shop a bit. Also, I think this will help you guys, my readers, because I can show you stuff I recently picked up and if I got some great deals (like I did this week on these awesome shoes - I know, I know, I went shoe crazy this month) you won't have to wait 3 weeks to hear about them. (Side note - these shoes are currently under $10 in store and should still be available in every color and size - at least they were at my Target! Go check them out if you love them!)

That's what I've learned so far in January....next week all 3 vlog pieces will be posted. Keep your eyes peeled!