No-Spend November: Week 2

No-Spend November is a month of resetting spending habits, reevaluating priorities, and overall just making better decisions. In this post, I've detailed how my second week of No-Spend November 2022 went.

Week of November 8-14

My goals and resolutions for the month are related to making more mindful use of my time outside of work, and paying off lingering credit card debt from traveling between Memorial Day and mid-October. Basically, no more "bovinating" after work, and a break from spending money on anything but the essentials.

Here's how I did day-by-day:

Day 8: (Tuesday) ELECTION DAYYYYYY!!! After working out at my hospital's exercise room, I went home and got out to vote with my husband to do our part to keep/get more DFL candidates in office. Once I got home from voting and could wind down, I helped my husband make dinner and enjoyed a drink. That was about it for the night, as I was pretty tired and ready to sleep.

Day 9: (Wednesday) Despite seeing a lot of great results in our election, I had a bad mental health day. The day passed by mostly in a fog. Once I was home from work, I did a quick weightlifting workout and then got laundry going. I used leftover empanada filling from a few days ago to make an empanada pizza for dinner, then had a couple of drinks while watching some TV with my husband. I also gave myself a fresh manicure as a little meditative activity for myself.

Day 10: (Thursday) Much better mental health day with an end-of-day workout at work. I did spend a little bit of money today, but on a responsible purchase--return labels for recyclable clothes from Girlfriend Collective, which comes with the bonus of about 2x as much store credit as I spent on the labels. I also signed up for a free donation kit from ThredUp to benefit Girls, Inc. while further curating my wardobe. I decided today that all I want in my closet are my favorite clothes, and if it's not a favorite, it goes. Some will go to ThredUp and some will go to the local GoodWill. I also got paid early and put as much as I could comfortably pay toward my CC and car loan balances.

Day 11: (Friday) I acted on yesterday's decision to cull my wardrobe and removed 7 items from it. In the morning before work, I got a beef roast going so we'd have a great dinner and a perfect opportunity to portion out the leftovers for lunches at work next week. I did some other miscellaneous chores around the house, and wound down with some writing, chatting, and some TV.

Day 12: (Saturday) With almost all the laundry done for the upcoming week, I went through my closet again and removed a few more pieces. I took most of the day easy, and in the afternoon I went along to a free event where one of my husband's bands was playing. Once we were home, I chatted with friends for a little bit and got to share some blog posts, and then wound down for the night watching TV with the husband.

Day 13: (Sunday) I took time in the morning to journal. I didn't have any chores to really do so I took it easy throughout the day and made quesadillas from leftover beef roast from Friday. I had enough ingredients to make 5, with 3 left over for work week lunches. I dropped some packages off at the post office, and came home to exercise (bike and a book). I finished the night with snacks and tea, and finished my long journal entry before watching some TV with the husband.

Day 14: (Monday) It snowed and made the roads messy enough that I opted to work from home, which means I can hold off on gassing up the car until tomorrow, the start of week 3. I drank a lot of tea throughout the work day. I ran network cables for my house, and ended the day with a meal prep dinner and a beer.

I think this week went well. In total I did spend $28 on labels to recycle some clothes and get $60 in store credit; this ultimately has a twofold benefit of keeping recyclable clothes out of landfills and getting me a much-needed new piece with store credit. Stay tuned for Week 3!