I decided to sign up to Frugal February recently. You can read more about it on Gemma's blog here. Basically you can buy basics like deodorant and toothpaste but not makeup, clothes, music, books, magazines, etc.
My spending definitely got out of control over Christmas and in the January sales and I've known for a long time I've had a real issue with spending. I'm a little worried about what I'm going to do instead of spending, because I spend to cheer myself up when I'm down, and I'm down quite a lot.
I'm hoping not buying will give me time to dredge up lovely things from the depths of my wardrobe and my make up stash, and perhaps lead to me making things out of my craft stash as well.
There's also a bigger implication. Things are possibly going to get very financially difficult for us in the near future, so this is a test to see if I can hack not just a frugal month but a frugal life. Also, I really need to address why it is I overcompensate with spending to cheer myself up. I've spoken about this at length before but I still haven't learned to break the habit.
How do I envisage the month will go? Slowly, ha! Thank God it's the shortest month! :)
On a serious note, I will be deleting any emails that come in with discount codes immediately. As Oscar Wilde said I can resist anything except temptation! Even reading blogs will probably be very triggering for me. I might turn the want to spend into a positive and post wishlist blogs along the lines of 'What I would've bought this week.'
Whatever happens, I'm sure it'll be an interesting experience!
Are you doing Frugal Feb or have you done something similar in the past? Any thrifty tips you want to share?
Thanks for reading!
