Monday, March 9, 2009

Spending Hiatus Update: Week Seven

Money poster by Howard Sokol via allposters.com

I might as well come right out with my confession.

I bought a shirt last week. A completely unnecessary shirt. It was at Take 2 Apparel, a really awesome "upscale" (i.e. no grandma sweatpants) secondhand store where they sell not used but "experienced" clothing (because experienced sounds so much more positive). I fell in love with this dark purple satin blouse- it fits perfectly and looks fab with both dark blue jeans and my slacks and skirts for work. I have been lusting after a jewel-tone satin shirt for awhile and this one was only $10, being secondhand and all. Plus, there was no guarantee that it would be around in April when this spending hiatus gets over with. And so...I bought it. I felt a little guilty afterward but to be honest shh, I don't feel all that bad. The shirt is perfect, at any rate, and I can't return it- the one downside of buying second hand.

So now that I've confessed, my good news is that I haven't felt the need to buy anything else lately. I know, I know, I keep saying that every week, but it really is true. Once I got out of the habit of shopping all the time, I haven't felt the compulsion to buy things. The one exception lately may be shampoo, because I decided to try out a new brand and it makes my hair frizzy and not at all shiny, le sigh. So I AM tempted to pick up a new bottle, I'll admit. But that would be cheating wouldn't it? I've resisted the siren call of better shampoo so far, telling myself that I will wait until the current bottle runs out (which it can't do fast enough).

Last week was, again, a pretty busy one. This quarter's classes are nearing their end and I've got research projects and exams looming, so I had to work on those during the week. The weekend was great, though, since I decided to take some time off and relax. At any rate, here are some of the things I did instead of shopping.
  • On Friday I grabbed sushi with one of my coworkers and her friend. I forget the name of the restaurant we went to, but it was located in the most charming Victorian house right off the main drag and had excellent avocado sushi rolls. I even got adventurous and tried the eel sushi that my friend got, which tasted more like mush than anything.
  • Also on Friday, we plopped down on my couch and watched Mamma Mia! with Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep. My feelings on the movie are mixed. It was cheese to the extreme, but also hilarious. I am seriously lusting after some long wavy hair now.
  • On Saturday we (same group as sushi the night before) hit up the gallery hop in the Short North, which is when all the art galleries open their doors the first Saturday of the month and you can walk around checking out awesome art exhibits and street performers and generally have a great time free of charge. This is also when the Shirt Buying Incident occurred, and I blame peer pressure (ahem, Sarah A., ahem). We also stopped by Jeni's, my favorite ice cream place in the entire world, which I wrote about back in January. It was the first warm day of the year, so the place was packed but the wait was worth it for a cup of Riesling Poached Pear sorbet and Honey Vanilla Bean ice cream (mmm).
Gallery Hop Night: image via the Short North website (see link above)
  • Sunday I worked on this damned biology paper that would have been easy had the instructions not been vague and contradictory. That, church, and a nap consisted of pretty much my entire day.
At any rate, I had what I consider an amazing weekend and I didn't feel too guilty about slipping up on the spending hiatus. I have another 5 weeks to get back on track, after all.

How about you- how was your week/weekend? For those of you doing the spending hiatus, how has it been going?

You can check out the rest of my spending hiatus posts here.

PS: If anyone wants to suggest an afforable shampoo that doesn't turn my hair into frizzy straw, that would awesome! :)

3 comments:

  1. Salon shampoo is the best but since I can't afford to buy it I go with Pantene Pro-V. It works pretty good for me. I get the "red expressions" stuff which really brings out my red hair!

    Your weekend sounds fun/eventful. I love doing things like going to art shows and stuff like that, and really, hanging out with friends is fun no matter what you're doing. I've been seriously craving sushi lately so I've gotta get on that! Haha.

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  2. Amber- I agree, salon shampoo does always do wonders for my hair. But I always feel silly forking over $15 or more for shampoo! I feel like there has to be a drugstore brand out there that works as well, you know? I haven't tried Pantene in awhile so maybe I will give it a whirl. Thanks!

    ~Amanda

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  3. Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet? Is that for real? That sounds SO amazing.

    With my shampoos I tend to alternate. I'll buy an expensive saloon shampoo and then when I finish them I'll use a cheap drugstore brand. I have really dry hair, so one shampoos I really like using is Neutrogena Triple Moisture (I think that's what it's called, something on those lines)

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