30x30 under $30: day 28

[top: Shade sale; skirt, boots, belt: thrifted; tights: Target; necklace: After Nine to Five but no longer makes them, can find similar one here]

guys.
it’s almost over!
two more posts and i’m done with the 30x30 under $30 challenge!
are you all bored with it already??
has it become super lame?
do i ask this every time?
sorry.

i realized as i was finishing up these pictures that there were some items i hardly wore or didn’t wear at all [or didn’t take any pictures of]. i’m pretty sure my 30 items got me through way more than just 30 days.
and i’m pretty sure i could take about 20 items instead of 30 and still get through 30 days of different outfits.
and still be under $30.

isn’t that crazy???
here i am not thinking i don’t have anything to wear most of the time, hating my clothes and my style, coveting everyone else’s wardrobe, wanting to spend money on clothes i really don’t need/have money for….
and i got through 30 days+ with mixing and matching the same pieces!!

for me, that’s pretty incredible honestly!
i mean, of course i still want to go buy a bunch of new clothes and hit up the huge Downeast sale that’s happening right now.
but i think i’m finally learning to separate my emotional spending from my “i actually need this” spending.
which is quite honestly a very, very hard lesson for me to learn.

even in high school once i got my first job, i hardly ever thought about saving my money. all i wanted to do was go to Old Navy or Forever 21 and buy clothes & accessories to my heart’s content.
got in a fight with a boyfriend?
go shopping.
angry at my parents?
go shopping.
the girls at school were mean to me?
go shopping.
i have acne and hate how i look?
go shopping of course!!

then when i got married {and especially after i had a baby} and shopping became even more dangerous.
not only did i have more stresses that i wanted to blow off and shop for, but now i had all the GUILT that comes with buying anything outside of food or diapers.
when you have a family to care for and food to worry about, you can’t just go shop whenever the heck you want.
so i have been forced to think of other stress exit strategies.

this is not all to say i don’t shop anymore at all, because i do!
[and i still struggle from time to time with wanting to shop all my cares away]
but i {like to think} that i have become a lot smarter about how/when/why i shop.
i try to understand and assess my emotions before checking out.
i constantly ask myself “do i really need this?” or even “how will this make me feel in a week?”

putting a filter on my emotional spending habits has definitely helped me get a handle on my anxiety a lot better.
at least it’s helped me have one less thing to be anxious about.

 

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and i have winners to announce!

the {new} winner of the Crowley Party ad space giveaway is: Gentri!!
the winner of the Live.Laugh.L0ve giveaway is: Jenni.Austria.Germany!!

congratulations!!