Two Month Shopping Fast - Why I'm Doing It + Have I Stuck To It?

     Happy Monday Friends! I've mentioned in the past few Midweek Ramblings posts about how I am currently doing a two month shopping fast.  I wanted to give a little more explanation of that in today's blog post! I have done one month long shopping fasts a few times before and also blogged about that, but never one for two months.

{Photo originally from this post}

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     How do I define a shopping fast? Taking a break from all personal purchases for two full months! This obviously excludes food (although I am trying to be more conscious with eating out during this time) and any necessary expenses like running out of a toiletry item, etc. But I didn't want anything related to unnecessary purchases to be happening between May-July. This includes clothes, jewelry, shoes, makeup, home decor, books... really anything.

     Here are the reasons that I decided to do a shopping fast for two months during this time:

     *Moving costs - The biggest reason for the shopping fast: I'm moving over Labor Day Weekend! Not leaving Charlottesville- just moving into a different apartment in another neighborhood. I will probably write a separate blog post about my reasons for moving at some point, but for now I just want to say that moving isn't cheap. It's something that I've done multiple times in the past few years, and I'm not excited for all of those expenses again. My new lease begins before my old one ends, which is great for moving logistics (I have a few weeks to move stuff out of my current place), but terrible for finances. It's going to be a lot for me to pay double the rent and utilities for a month, not to mention other expenses like movers and moving supplies. It's going to be a lot.

     *Trying to finish paying off my last student loan ASAP - One of my resolutions for 2019 was to finish paying off my last school loan! At the time I made that last resolution, I didn't know that I'd be moving this year and well and also have serious expenses with that. But I don't want to give up on that goal! I feel very fortunate that I had minimal debt from undergrad as compared to a lot of people I know thanks to my parents paying for a lot of college and also having a merit scholarship (I had under $10k from college, and then about $15k from broadcasting school, which I already paid off thankfully!), but I still want to get rid of what I do have quickly. I am in the home stretch now- hoping to have it paid off before my birthday in September, but it's going to take some serious budgeting and saving for me to knock out that last bit of the loan!

     *Trip home in July - I will be home in Maine for 10 days next month! This is the longest I've been home consecutively since 2015, and also the longest amount vacation time I've taken since I started my first full-time job. I am super excited! Although it is a trip home to stay with my parents, it is still my vacation for this summer, and I want to treat it as one. I love shopping at my favorite local Maine spots when I'm home, and I also want to eat out and do some fun day trips! I need to start saving proactively for this trip as well.

    *Gifts - Several of my friends have summer birthdays, so I have a few birthday gifts and festivities to budget for this summer! Father's Day was also last week, which is another gift expense.

    *Summer fun - Summer in Charlottesville is a great season. While still keeping up with my savings goals, I want to be able to have some extra cash to do more fun things with my friends- things that create memories. Wine tastings, going out downtown, gas for day trips, etc!


    So these are the reasons I have decided to do a two month shopping fast! I began it the second weekend in May, and it will finish in July right before my trip home to Maine.

    Now that I'm about five weeks in, you're probably wondering how it's going! The answer is pretty well, but not 100%- haha! I have made two personal purchases in that time, but I felt I was able to justify each. Here's what I've bought and why:

• Lilly Pulitzer dress from Darling Consignment Boutique - One local store in Charlottesville that I love to support is Darling Boutique! They're an upscale consignment shop, and I've been selling my clothes there at the end of each season since I moved here. When I went to drop off my last batch of clothes to sell, I found the cutest Lilly Pulitzer dress in my size for under $50! What a deal for Lilly. I purchased it, but I used the money I had just made from selling winter/spring clothes to buy it, so it wasn't money coming out of my paycheck from work that week. You'll see the dress on my blog later this week for National Wear Your Lilly Day!
• High waisted bikini from Amazon - This purchase was technically unnecessary... but I'm happy about it so I'm glad I got it! I really wanted one new bathing suit for my trip home next month, and I fell in love with this cute Amazon find. It comes in many colors, but I was worried if I waited another month to get it that it might be sold out in the color I liked. It's under $30, and so cute on! 

    I am 100% determined to have no more unnecessary purchases between now and July though! Maybe I can consider these to be "you made it halfway" presents to myself? 😂

    I'd love to hear in the comments about if you have any experience with shopping fasts! Let me know.


    God Bless,


     xoxo Annaliese