Consumerism

The eagle eyed readers among you may well have noticed that after my grand declaration in January I haven’t actually posted all that many accounts of my spending. There’s two simple reasons for this, one is that I got bored with writing about it and the second is that I soon forgot to keep a spending diary. It has still been in my mind though, and despite not keeping track of everything I spent I *think* I can recall where my money has gone. Even if I’m not keeping myself accountable by publishing what I spend I really do need to continue keeping a spending diary, because for those last few months where I haven’t, my budgeting has gone to hell.
As of next payday I am resolved to go back to logging my outgoings. There’s no point starting this month because I haven’t got anything to have any outgoings on.

In some effort to keep to my word I shall attempt to now recall the stuff that I’ve spent my cash on, since my last post. This comes from my shoddy memory and the few things I’ve recorded:

Comics: A no brainer.

Books: Sadly, not all second hand. *shame*

2 dresses and a t-shirt: All from a charity shop and all on 3 different occasions.

The top I saw when I was out with the boyfriend and I rather liked it. It’s black and white stripey, a combination I’m rather keen on which is how it caught my eye, but the thing that clinched it was that it has rather long sleeves – half way between my shoulders and my elbow. This is pretty unusual and means it’s an ideal t-shirt for work because it covers my scars. Then once I’d bought it I realised I have another black and white stripey top, except that the original one is made out of wool and has a polo neck. Otherwise they are the same. Damn.

The first dress I bought simply because I liked it, thereby making it a frivolous and needless purchase. The second dress I bought because I’d just walked to work in the pouring rain and was soaked. I wanted to buy something dry to change into. Great, except what I bought turns out to be far too short for work but will go quite well as a long top over shorts.

A belt – A friend bought me a Batman belt buckle, because she’s awesome, so I had to buy a belt to put it on. This has turned out well because it will be used at a fancy dress party next week. I was going to go as Batwoman, now I’m going as Dinah. I’ve also bought a few accessories for the costume but those will be used again and again.

A memory stick for the phone: My phone is shit. I was lied to when I bought it and the camera and memory is appalling. So I bought a memory stick in order to be able to save more than 50 photos on the damn thing. This isn’t something I’ll get bored of though it may become defunct when I get a new phone that actually works.

The job paper: In order to get a new and better paid job.

Anti histamines: very necessary. Medication is allowed under my pledge. As are my rags in order that I don’t bleed over my clothes. Luxury items my arse.

Dry cleaning: Not a physical thing, but quite necessary.

Shoes from ebay: To wear to a wedding because I knew my day shoes would cripple me. So not strictly necessary but in my defence my feet have shrunk and now 3/4 of my shoes are too big for me. At least they were second hand.

CDs from ebay: Because music is good for my soul. And they were second hand.

Nail varnish and base coat: Bought for vanity reasons. I have no defence for this. *hangs head in shame*

Hair dye: Allowable because it’s not physical stuff that clutters up the house. I decided I was bored with being blonde so attempted, twice, to dye my hair pillar box red. It failed. I’m now a sort of horrible peachy colour. I think I shall solve this by getting it all cut off.

Diva magazine: This was always going to be allowable. I am now trying to dispose of my stack of back issues. Anybody interested? They’re free. I’ve got about 30 of them going back to 2003 I reckon.

Presents for people: Birthdays, housewarmings, weddings etc.

Furniture: Definitely allowed. It was brand new stuff because we needed it, it didn’t replace old furniture (we had none beforehand) and will definitely be a keeper. It’s lovely. I feel so mature. Both pieces were brought from an independent shop in the city, who has kitted out most of our house actually. I’m a little scared we might look like a show room.

Non physical stuff includes taxi journeys, train tickets, beer, food and gig tickets.

So, this exercise has taught me that unless I keep a note of everything I spend I rapidly run out of money. Also that I’m so good at not buying stuff as I rather arrogantly thought I was. I can think of several occasions where I’ve gone shopping, then remembered I’m not meant to be buying things, and left the shop. But that may also have been to do with the fact I don’t like much stuff in the shops. Hardly a moral victory.

This ‘lil exercise did prompt me to look at how much I spend on my comics each month. I’ve worked out that next month I will be buying 25 individual issues, which will come to approximately £55. Before the price hike to $3.99 for some titles it was about £50 a month. I was surprised by how little it’s gone up, but I reckon the small increase is due to having most titles on standing order, which gets me a 10% discount on them and that the $3.99 ones aren’t that much more expensive than the $2.99 ones, what with the exchange rate. I think I pay £2.69 or £2 per issue (I have no idea if this is comparable to other shops in the UK). I should check that next Thursday, mostly I don’t look at the cost I just hand over my card and assume I’m not paying more than a tenner a week. Although this is no longer true because of the price hike.

I have decided that I won’t be buying the Red Tornado or Doom Patrol books. Lack of shelf space and an urge to not spend so much is the reason behind this.

Oh, and due to lack of money I now won't be going to the Phil Jiminez signing on Friday. Shit the bed.