No Spend October

Hey guys, so this week I did a lot of self reflection. I was looking at my credit card bill and
I realized how absurdly high the bill was. I’m in college, living in a dorm, with a meal plan;
I have a total of $0 in monthly expenses. Yet somehow I manage to amass a thousand dollar
credit card bill every month. This money is spent on clothes, skincare, makeup, and shoes
that I just don’t need. So I’m going to do something crazy and drastic, I’m going to try to go
the month of October without shopping.

So clearly there will be some times that I need to go shopping, such as toothpaste, soap,
and laundry detergent. Other than necessities though, I plan on going cold turkey on the
shopping. So I have laid out some rules if you want to try this out with me.

1. Subscriptions- So I have a few monthly subscriptions that I have, and after thinking about it, I decided that I’m not going to cancel them. So I’m keeping my Netflix, Spotify, Play! By Sephora, and BirchBox (technically I have an annual subscription for this one, so I can’t even cancel it if I want to.)
2. Food- I’m allotting myself $20 a week to spend on food that is outside my meal plan. Wegmans is my happy place and I’m not going to deprive myself of that joy filled building, but I am going to limit my spending. So far in September I have spent $168 at Wegmans, and that is on top of my meal plan money. That is so unnecessary, so my organic granola and vegan ice cream pending is getting majorly cut back.
3. Necessities- If I run out of hand soap, shampoo, or advil, those will obviously need to be replaced. I will also probably need to get gas a few times this month. I’m not going to make a budget for these expenses because I don’t know how often these will come up.

I’m going to be posting weekly updates on how this no spending is going, so make sure to
stay tuned for those. I’m really excited for you guys to be coming on this journey with me
and I hope to learn a lot about my spending throughout the month.

Things I'm Loving #2

This week I have been enjoying my time back at school and have been getting settled into my dorm and my class schedule. This week I have loved things that make my life easier and fit into my daily life well at not too high of a cost.


1) Day Designer Planner- I have used the academic year weekly vertical planner by Day Designer for the past three years. It's the only planner I have used in college, and it has everything that I need. They are out of stock in the one that I use but are coming out with the yearly ones for 2019 this week. I love that the days are vertical and that you can easily see across your whole week. Stay tuned for a post later this week on how I organize and use my Day Designer. On top of each day it has a three task to do list and this is one of my favorite features. Three things each day is a good amount of things to accomplish each day and leaves you feeling productive yet not overwhelmed.

2) Simply Modern water bottle- I picked up this water bottle the other day in Target and have been absolutely loving it. I have been using it every morning for my iced coffee and it does a great job at keeping it cold. They also have so many cute designs and colors that are fun and unique.  The main thing that is important to me when buying water bottles is that they don't leak and this one does a great job at that. I throw it in my bag when heading out to class and my bag stays nice and coffee free. It also doesn't create condensation on the outside of the water bottle which is great for on the go.

3) Birchbox- I go to college in the middle of nowhere with the closest mall being almost an hour away. As a shopaholic this creates a huge online shopping addiction for me. For Christmas this past year my mother got me a Birchbox subscription for while I was at school. I loved receiving the monthly presents and it was a great way to try beauty and makeup products before committing to the full size one. I stopped my membership while I was home for the summer since I had several great makeup stores less than ten minutes away. Now that I'm back at school I just bought myself a year long membership and I'm so excited for my September box to arrive.

4) Dynasty- I have been binge watching this show all week on Netflix and am so excited for season 2 to come out in October. It is a remake of the show from the 1980's and it is so entertaining. I love keeping it on in the background while I'm cleaning and getting ready.

Cheap Ways To Make Your Dorm Room Feel More Like Home

I'm all moved into college this week and have found many things that have been so great for my dorm and help make it feel like home. Lets be honest, dorm rooms can often be bland, stuffy, and sometimes even depressing. This week I have found several easy, cheap ways to make my dorm room feel more like home.

1) Candles or wall plugs- Candles are a great way to make your room feel more cozy and since often the air in dorms is recycled air so sometimes it doesn't smell that great so candles are cute and relaxing. Yet most dorms don't allow candles so wall plugs are a safe way to achieve the same thing. Target has a great selection of both wall plugs and candles. My favorite candle from Target right now is this tulip candle, but all the Signature Soy candles have amazing scents, cute packaging, and are all ten or five dollars.

2) Fresh Flowers- I always like to keep a bouquet of fresh flowers in my dorm room. I know this sounds pricey, but I buy most of my flowers at Wegmans and I bought these sunflowers at Wegmans for only $5! I even bought the vase there for less than $10 and love how it looks on my desk. Flowers can get pricey so I try to stay away from the flowers that come in their own vases and the large bouquets that have many different types of flowers.





3) Frames- Putting your pictures, posters, and prints in frames can make your room look so much more put together. I bought these fun watercolor flower prints on amazon for only $15 for the pack of three. I found the frames in a pack of six on amazon for $30 and they are pretty great quality. They are easy to hang up with either command strips or push pins, make sure to check what your dorm allows.

Things I'm Loving #1

Hey guys, so welcome to my first actual post! This is something I want to do every Sunday as a way to kind of reflect on the week and let you guys in on some awesome products, ideas, music, people, or anything else that I have loved or that has inspired me in some way this week. So this week was my last week home before I have to go back to college tomorrow so it was filled with a lot of shopping, saying goodbye, and packing everything up.  So a lot of my favorites have to do with things that have helped me make my move back to school easier.

1) In store pick up- So many stores now are offering free in-store pickup for online orders. This is so great for when you are moving to college, I was able to buy everything I need for my dorm without worrying about how I was going to fit it all in the car for the drive up. I have everything arranged to be picked up at the target next to my campus on move in day. It was so easy to do and I got to avoid the crowds of everyone picking up the last minute items they forgot.

2) The Friend Zone podcast- This podcast has been going on for several years, but came across it this week and have been listening to it almost nonstop. They talk about all things mental health yet still have a very fun upbeat mood to the podcast. Each episode is over two hours long so it can definitely last you a while. The episode I'm listening to right now is Caption This and I'm really enjoying the things they are talking about including A and B personalities, companies that "give back", and social media. Here is the link if you want to check it out, here.

3) L'Occitane perfecting mattifying fluid- I found this product a few weeks ago but I am just realizing how amazing it is. I struggle with pretty oily skin which then leads to acne, especially during the summer time. I put this stuff on every morning and has made my oil problem disappear. I forgot to bring it last weekend when I went on a weekend trip with my friends and even though the rest of my skin care routine was the same, my acne started getting worse again. When I got home I started using it daily again and my acne cleared right up. It smells amazing and is so easy to apply. It is a little on the pricier side but so worth it, you can buy it here.

4) Beauty Counter glow shimmer oil- I live on Long Island so I went out to Montauk for a long weekend last weekend. We had a great time on the beach but on Saturday it was raining so of course we went shopping. I found this shimmer oil on our shopping trip, and wow it is amazing. I'm very pale, even in the summer and it made me feel tan and sparkly and I got so many compliments on my skin that weekend. You have such a nice summer glow with this on and I think it will be amazing to use in the fall for going out and to keep your tan feeling alive.

Those are all my favorites from this week, I plan on doing about 3-5 a week, but some weeks it might be a little more. Thank you for reading, see you next week!

Welcome!

Hey guys, so this is my first blog post and I'm really excited for this. Let me start with a quick introduction, my name is Cloe and I am a college student living in New York. On this blog I'm going to write about shopping on a budget, finding deals, saving money, and everything you need to know about avoiding debt and staying financially savvy as you start your journey into adulthood. I hope you guys stick around, see you on my next post!