Selective Spend Summer - Update 3

Woo. July was a rough month and I definitely overspent and somewhat forgot about my priorities, I’ll be honest. We had a girl's weekend and a couple girl's nights out that resulted in a few too many glasses of wine, although always completely worth it, definitely went against my budget goals. Let’s take a look at the actual numbers. First a quick recap of June:

Clothing: $332.00

Food: $464.00

Home Décor: $137.00

June was pretty good in comparison to May, but I can pretty honestly say, this month is worse. Let’s look:

Clothing: $395.00

Food: $930.00

Home Décor: $370.00

Let’s look at the percent change from June to July:

Clothing: +$63.00, 19% increase

Food: +$466.00, 100% increase (woof!)

Home Décor: +$233.00, 170% increase (woof!)

As a reminder, the numbers for Clothing and Home Décor above, are items that WEREN’T on the approved original list of items.

As far as clothing this month, I definitely did better in terms of Emma. But that’s the only category. I think the only unnecessary items purchased was a skeleton onesie from Old Navy for Halloween and a couple fall items in her next size up because they were all like $7-$10. (leggings and sweatshirts) I also purchased a stripped (surprise surprise) dress from Gap for myself, earrings from Amazon for a wedding, and a body oil that was on super sale from a website I found called Sample 260. I also purchased a coat from the Nordstrom Anniversary sale for myself, but that was the only item this year! Everything else I ordered ultimately was returned because it didn’t fit my list or just wasn’t that great on me. The overall number of $395 will actually go down because I have a few Old Navy returns to do (onesies I got for Emma that I don’t want to keep) and one of the pairs of earrings I purchased.

On the home décor front, I purchased nothing that was on the original “approved” list. We bought some new bath towels from Parachute to try out. I absolutely LOVE their linen sheets and my organic cotton robe (on sale!) from them, so these can’t be bad, right? We don’t often get a chance to go into the Parachute store, so when we did this month, we took advantage. I also bought a few planters(similar)/vases (similar) during my girl's weekend at a small business that we love. And then HomeGoods got me. I found a new blue and white lamp (Similar) for our newly styled bar and a couple of coffee table books because I am obsessed and can’t help myself. I also purchased a summer inspired hand towel from a company called Geometry House because they are a sustainable company that I wanted to try out. (I'm going to do a review on them at some point because I have some thoughts!) And then I purchased some curtain rod rings for the curtains on Emma’s closet.

The only items that I purchased that WERE on the original list this month were dress shirts from the Nordstrom Anniversary sale for AJ. He loves the Nordstrom brand and we use the sale each year to stock up for him. The other item was a summer clutch from Amazon that I purchased for a wedding that we went to. I also purchased a few necessities for Emma during Prime Days - mesh crib bumpers now that she's sleeping in her crib. I didn't want her to get her arms or legs stuck and I've heard people swear by these so I considered them a necessity. And then a sleep sack in the next size up. We purchased one last month that stays at my mom's house. She's been kicking her feet out of the Ollie and the Halo sleep sacks we have were in the 0-3 month size. We bought one 3-6 month Halo sleep sack as a back up to the Ollie if we can't get her little legs to stay put!

Eating out on the other hand. Absolutely YIKES!! And I 100% am the culprit this month – girl's weekend, and 2 girl's nights dinners will do that. But holy cow do we need to reign that in. That’s absolutely terrible and I’m almost slightly embarrassed. But that’s also why I’m doing this – because I am embarrassed and I’m hoping that’s motivation to change our habits for August.

Speaking of August, this is TECHNICALLY my last month of my Selective Spend Summer, but I think I might keep going. Because we haven’t nearly reached our goals for the summer, I want to keep going for the rest of the year to see how we can adjust and move forward through the fall.

I think in September I’ll kind of “refresh” my original post and set some new guidelines for the fall, but the basic premise will be the same. Wish me luck for August, I definitely need it!