Budgeting Bloggers: January

January Budget Breakdown

I’m sitting here working on this post and watching Parks & Recreation, which is LIT-RALLY the greatest show in the universe. If you don’t watch it, you should start immediately and don’t stop until you’ve caught up on the first 6 seasons. Done? OK, great. So now you understand the concept behind “Treat Yo Self.” That’s what Tom and Donna are doing in tonight’s episode, and it’s what I did for myself this whole month. I opted not to bedazzle my elbows because it’s just not practical in the winter. Instead I stocked up on sweaters, coats, and jewelry.

As you probably remember, I use my blogging income to supplement my shopping budget, and January was a good month so I had plenty to work with. I would have spent the rest of my budget, but I had to hold back thanks to good ol’ vehicle troubles. It’s a little too cold to walk 15 miles to work, and I have exactly zero pairs of shoes appropriate for such distances. So. New tire thingamajig for me. #TreatYoself

My Budget

  • ~$335 ($150 starting budget plus $185 leftover from December)
  • ~$479 (blog income)
  • ~$18 (sold old clothes)

        = $832

What I Spent

        = $644 (total retail value: $1,115!)

Look at that, $188 under budget. That almost makes up for my bill at the mechanic. There were only a couple things I bought at full price. I definitely took advantage of all the post-holiday sales.

What I Received

See how the rest of the budgeting bloggers treated themselves this month – linking up with Franish!

Planning Ahead

embellished striped shirt layered under gray sweatshirt, dark skinny jeans, black menswear loafers, blush satchel, leopard coat, outfit planning, at-a-glance planners

embellished striped shirt layered under gray sweatshirt, dark skinny jeans, black menswear loafers, blush satchel, leopard coat, outfit planning, at-a-glance planners

embellished striped shirt layered under gray sweatshirt, dark skinny jeans, black menswear loafers, blush satchel, leopard coat, outfit planning, at-a-glance planners

embellished striped shirt layered under gray sweatshirt, dark skinny jeans, black menswear loafers, blush satchel, leopard coat, outfit planning, at-a-glance planners

embellished striped shirt layered under gray sweatshirt, dark skinny jeans, black menswear loafers, blush satchel, leopard coat, outfit planning, at-a-glance planners

similar Shirt (on sale) // similar Sweatshirt (on sale) // Jeans // Shoes // similar Bag (on sale) // similar Bracelet // Sunglasses // Nails

Planning for the future is important. You want to be prepared. You don’t want to wake up one day and realize you don’t have what you need. One of my biggest fears is to look back and be filled with regret for not thinking ahead. Oh, did you think I was talking about retirement or something? No, silly. I’m talking about planning for the really important stuff: what to wear. I might be working til I’m 90, but I want to look good doing it.

I’m always coming up with ideas for pieces to put together: sometimes the ideas come from what I see someone else wearing, and usually when I buy something new I start brainstorming different ways to style it. The problem is that I have trouble recalling one of these great ideas when I need one. Like if I’m trying to come up with something to wear to work, all I can manage to think of are outfits that include jeans or short skirts. So I end up starting from scratch, which usually turns out fine, if a bit experimental. It’s not that I want to stop being experimental, it’s just that I want to spend more time wearing more carefully thought-out looks that feel like me. The outfit you see above was one of those outfits – I just really loved wearing it (so much so that I wore it twice).

My new plan…is to plan. To actually write down my outfit ideas and then look at my schedule to figure out when I might have an appropriate occasion to wear that outfit. I recently received a bunch of awesomely nerdy planning goodies from AT-A-GLANCE, and their weekly planner is perfect for planning my outfits and (bonus!) scheduling my blog posts. I just started using it a couple days ago, so stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it works out.

embellished striped shirt layered under gray sweatshirt, dark skinny jeans, black menswear loafers, blush satchel, leopard coat, outfit planning, at-a-glance planners

You’ll see these shoes in Thursday’s post! Yes, it’s scheduled in my new planner. 🙂

For those of you who share my love of both clothes and planning, be sure to enter the #myAAG sweepstakes sponsored by AT-A-GLANCE! The winner will get a $100 Visa gift card and more than $200 worth of AT-A-GLANCE Collection products. To enter, just post an original photo to your Instagram account showing an outfit that represents your 2015 style, and tag it #myAAG #entry. The sweepstakes runs until Jan. 31, and 1 winner will be chosen randomly. Full contest rules are available here.

embellished striped shirt layered under gray sweatshirt, dark skinny jeans, black menswear loafers, blush satchel, leopard coat, outfit planning, at-a-glance planners

Disclosure: I am not a sponsor of the #myAAG Sweepstakes, but I received compensation from AT-A-GLANCE in exchange for this post.