$pent Millennial

A few weeks ago, I opened up about my annual March Madness — not the basketball frenzy, but a personal struggle with shopping and spending that challenges me each spring. If you haven’t caught that story, it dives deep into a cycle of retail therapy and self-reflection that seems to recur every March.

As March comes to an end, I have a few updates on my strategies and theories. Here it is: 

Strategy #1: Embracing Rest

I don’t know if I fully embraced rest or not this month. I know at the beginning of the month, I was BURNT OUT! I wrote a whole post on how tired I was. But I think as the month went on, I balanced out my go-go-go schedule and workflow to incorporate more rest. 

As I write this it is 5:30 pm on the Saturday before Easter. I not only worked through the afternoon of Good Friday even though we had it off, office closed, but I also went into the office this morning for a good 3ish hours. I don’t say this to promote hustle culture or boast of my dedication to work, etc. I say this to point out that even in doing this, I didn’t feel overworked, burnt out, exhausted, or even resentful of the extra hours. It all felt like a flow. It felt harmonious, making me think of Tina Wells’ Elevation Approach (I highly recommend the read!). 

This isn’t me saying I solved burnout or work-life balance. If anything, credit for that would go to Tina Wells. I share this part of my journey through the month because, in my last post, I shared a theory that the deep need I was trying to meet through inspirational “girl boss” journals and mugs was rest. I do believe being rested and feeling balanced had a significant impact on my impulse solving; however, this newfound balance didn’t completely curb my spending, and I ended up in Target’s journal and mug aisles anyway. 

I got bit by the ambition bug. Quarterly goal deadlines popping up, professional development conversations at work, LinkedIn connection requests, and inspirational posts… Led me straight to Target’s Spring collection of notebooks and mugs. I happy/excited shopped. 

And then, as the end of the month came and goals were not quite where I wanted them and reporting and deadlines pressure piled on, I stress shopped.  And I bought another mug. 

Maybe though, this isn’t all bad. Maybe it is “allowable”. I am a journaler. I take notes. I nerd out. And my favorite thing to do all that with is… a cup of coffee. So, maybe it is okay that I indulge in a mug or two and a new journal as the need arises. Maybe the root need is a bit of fun and personality to go with my writing and coffee drinking. I think I can live with that. And I think I can keep it manageable within a budget.

Strategy #2: Redecorate on a Budget

I am taking this win. I pulled out all of my Spring decorations and Springed up the place (despite the late March snow). I did not buy additional decorations for Spring, besides a few new mugs to add to the collection…

I believe the key to this for me is taking the decorations out and putting them up BEFORE looking at the new Target items. Living in a small apartment doesn’t hurt. It helps me to see that not only do I not need, or have space for any more pastel plates or Spring-themed wreathes, but also the peace and joy that comes from appreciating and reusing what I already have and stepping away from needless spending.

I’m going to guess that not falling into the Spring decorations bin at Target or elsewhere probably saved me $100-$200. So, good job, me! 

Strategy #3: Guilt-Free Spending Bucket

I added the Guilt-Free Spending bucket to my budget, using the money that would have gone to my phone bill, which is now switched to Mint and paid up for the whole year! In theory, that would be $70!

But the problem came when I realized I had to take $10 from that because that had to go to the $10 increase in cost for my doggo’s monthly meds. 

That left me with $60 for guilt-free spending a month. Okay, not bad. Until… I realized I will need to start a sinking fund for next year’s phone bill to be paid annually. So, there goes $30 a month added into that. 

That leaves me with $30 guilt-free spending. And I think this is going to be okay. I think I can do this. After all, it is more than the $0 I had been giving myself in guilt-free miscellaneous spending. 

But this month, the March Madness got to me, and I overspent the guilt-free budget. And I don’t just mean I went over the $30 budget I will have moving forward, no. I went over the whole $70 I originally thought I had! I ended up spending over $90 in guilt-free spending! 

So, here it is. The honest evaluation of how I did on my March Madness spending-curbing strategies. Not too hot overall. But, I am not going to beat myself up too badly. Luckily the overspend is compensated by a tax refund and the fact that my planned annual renewal for my Motion AI Calendar was less than I budgeted for at the beginning of the year. 

All hope is not lost, I have maintained my Emergency Fund Savings goal and even most of my holiday and long-term travel savings contributions. I just need to tighten up a bit. A goal for the new, upcoming season and quarter! Maybe I will go back to envelopes to help me better visualize and keep a hold on my spending. We will see. 

What about you? What tricks do you have to curb spending – especially when March Madness and Spring Fever hit? I can use all the help I can get!