An up and down week.

Holiday weeks always throw me off. Don’t get me wrong — I was very grateful to have the 21st off work for President’s Day, but I am left floundering a little bit and taking longer than usual to get my head on straight this week (what day is it again?)

I am, accordingly, a little late with last week’s no-spend month update, but here we are. And here we go.

Last week — the week of February 14th-18th — was a bit of an up and down week. There were days I spent no money, and days I fell into my old online shopping ways. I still didn’t do too bad overall, though, and I’m here to share how the week went regardless.

February 14th

I started off the week with a grocery order, like usual. The nice thing about this week’s grocery order was that Instacart gave me a coupon, so I got $30 off of my week of groceries. Although it wasn’t something that I actively sought out, it was a nice way to kick off the week.

February 15th

On Tuesday I made a few purchases that, while necessary, weren’t urgent and weren’t quite in my budget for the month. Nevertheless, I needed a new cheese slicer and a drain stick to clean the hair out of my bathroom sink, so I found myself on Amazon perusing the saved items in my cart and finally submitting an order (note that I did not cave and move anything from my saved items into my actual cart — progress.)

February 16th

I would like to say that I broke my spending streak on Wednesday, but alas, I did not. I only bought dinner, though, so it was my cheapest day of the week so far.

February 17th

Carhartt was having a sale on their beanies. I couldn’t help it, I had to order two. Especially since I got a new winter coat last month that didn’t match with my old beanies.

February 18th

This was my first no-spend day of the week. I wish some of my earlier days were no-spend days, too, but what’s done is done.

February 19th

Oh, Pinterest. If only I hadn’t logged onto Pinterest on Saturday, but that was not the case. I ended up finding a pretty dress on super-clearance for President’s day and clicked “complete purchase” despite my knowing I don’t actually need a new dress. It was only $15 at least.

February 20th

Sunday was another blessed no-spend day. One of only two this week. At least I ended the week more in line with my original plan of spending little-to-no money than I started the week.

Spending money on a day I didn’t intend to spend money certainly isn’t the end of the world, and I know that. But telling myself that it’s not the end of the world over and over again can add up quickly, and that’s why I’m doing this no-spend month in the first place.

The peace I felt with myself and my bank account the first couple weeks of February was notably absent last week. I knew I was spending more than I wanted to, and that left me feeling a bit untethered as I made my way through each day.

It’s all in how you look at it and what your mindset is, and I realize that untethered feeling was my own doing, but it wasn’t a good feeling after such a good mental outcome for the first part of the month. While I don’t want to give away too much about this week as I write this, I can say that so far I am doing better and feeling better (at least when it comes to my spending — the aforementioned holiday week is an entirely different story.)

I’m excited to finish out the month on a bit of a stronger note and reflect on how the whole no-spend month thing went down soon (can you believe it’s almost March already?)

Until then, I’ll continue to track my spending habits over the next several days and continue to challenge my consumerism one purchase at a time.

Previously published on Medium