Frittering Week #4

I have been so busy frittering that I almost forgot to write my weekly frittering post. This was an eye opener, I can tell you. The big lesson here is that when it gets too hot to do anything and Noodle Arms and I get bored, we eat. There was not a day last week where we didn't have an unhealthy snack of some kind or other (chocolate bar, cake for morning tea, chips while watching movies...). Back on the healthifying wagon this week - last night's pizza notwithstanding - so hopefully that will be an end to it.

I failed my mini goal of not buying coffee for the 4th week running - it's a long boring story but the short version is that I was disorganised and found myself in the city late morning and getting a caffeine headache.

lunch $31.50 (!!!!!)
magazines $21.40
dinner $19.38
coconut water $3.75
coffee $3.90
breakfast $3.50
snacks (healthy) $9.78
snacks (unhealthy) $30.32 (!!!!!!!!!!)

It seems like all I did last week was eat and read magazines.

This week's mini goal is more of an experimental period of two weeks from the day I get paid next (Thursday this week), and that is to not buy one single thing I don't need. I don't mean groceries - I mean, I have enough staples that I probably don't need to buy food and could cobble together meals, but I'm still going to do a normal grocery shop and market shop. I mean the one off impulse buys - the chocolate, the magazines, the coffee, the morning tea macaron, the coconut water, the $5 mascara in the clearance bin at Chemist Warehouse, the sushi on the way home from work because I'm peckish, etc. It will be interesting to see how much I'm left with at the end of the fortnight if I don't fritter once. It will be more interesting to see if I can get through a fortnight (or a day, let's be honest) without frittering once!

Frittering Week 3

You know, this would be a lot easier if I had the slightest amount of willpower or ability to deny myself anything.

snacks (unhealthy) $11.46
snacks (healthy) $2.32
coffee $9.10
breakfast $11.40
beauty $108.75
dinner $22.30
magazines $17.35
coconut water $7.50
lunch $33.00
accessories $15.59
perfume $45.00

So the plan to not get coffee fell through after a sleepless night thanks to the rat, and then having to go pick Noodles up from the airport the next day. That also accounts for one of the magazines (though the other was just an impulse buy), and lunch.

"Accessories" was a random impulse purchase of earrings on Etsy. I have tons of earrings (and I never wear most of them), I definitely do not need another pair. I am blaming the perfume purchase on Suzanne. I have been pretty good at resisting the lure of indie perfume reviews over the past few months but she made these sound so enticing that I went a bit cray-cray. Grrr! And the beauty purchase... it's Strawberrynet - a Tweezerman mirror with a light (thanks to Karyn's video), a pair of eyelash curlers because I can't find mine anywhere, a Laura Mercier tinted moisturiser as I don't have any at the moment (I've been stealing Noodles' Body Shop one and I kind of hate it), and a MAC MSF Natural. Don't know why I bought that last item - I rarely wear powder. *sigh*

Mini Goal #1
Again, my mini goal is to not buy any coffee this week. Theoretically this should be easy - I have all week off, I don't have any major plans, I don't have to pick anyone up from an airport... so we'll see how that goes.

Mini Goal #2
No unhealthy snacks this week (chocolate, chips, cake, etc.). Noodles and I are back on the healthifying wagon anyway so this should hopefully not be difficult.

How's everyone else going with their New Year goals and resolutions so far?

Oh, and totally random - HELLO, DREAM KITCHEN!

Frittering Week 2

It's amazing how much I managed to fritter away this week considering that pretty much nothing was open for at least two of those days, and little was open on most of the other days. Adelaide kind of dies down in the week between Christmas and New Year - I had to trek a long way to get my coconut water!

Alcohol* $16.99
Beauty Subscription** $14.95
Breakfast $8.90
Coconut water $7.25
Coffee $14.70
Dinner $62.14
Lottery*** $9.05
Lunch**** $18.40
Magazines $8.95
Snacks (healthy) $0.85
Snacks (unhealthy) $8.05

*I bought a 6 pack of cider a few days ago when it started getting really hot. I still have two in the fridge as I've just been having one or two at night.
**Okay, I have no rational explanation for this. It's a Glossy Box subscription that I impulsively signed up to while watching jodik76's video bagging them out for their crappy customer service and shoddy organisational skills. This is truly a hardcore fritterer's fritter.
***I only ever buy lottery tickets when it's a jackpot. I may be walking around with $31 million and not even know it.
****I can't explain this. I bring my lunch to work, and I only worked 3 days this week. I don't understand where this came from.

All in all, better than last week, but really that's just because most of the time I have been at home. I'm on holiday this week and as soon as the heat dies down in a couple of days I'll be heading out the door to stretch my legs - that will be the testing time.

Mini Goal #3
Buy no coffee. Not a single one. I want to say I'm going to attempt my Mini Goal #2 and give up coffee entirely but I already have a non-stop headache from the heat and needing to have a fan on all day, I don't think I could battle a caffeine headache on top of that. I might leave that until next week, when hopefully it will be cooler (IT HAD BETTER BE).

Frittering Week 1

I thought that this week I might be less inclined to fritter, since I was aware that I would have to record it all here at the end of the week. Ha! Brain - you don't know me at all! So the following is the list of definitely unnecessary items bought this week, perhaps with some justifications...

Alcohol*  $56.98

Breakfast  $10.65
Coconut Water  $21.05
Coffee  $24.50
Dinner  $73.90
Gum**  $3.90
Ice Cream***  $11.80
Lunch  $24.90
Snacks (healthy)  $9.95
Snacks (unhealthy)****  $14.73

*That's more spent on alcohol in a week than I have spent on it in the last 6 months. In my defence, it wasn't all for me - Ben (ex) came over for dinner on Friday night and I bought him some cider, because I'm nice like that. And there's a bottle of wine still in the fridge that will probably sit there for weeks before I drink it.
**Not really a fritter as it was for Noodle Arms before she got on a plane to help blocked ears, but I included it because it's one of those small, impulsive purchases I would not normally buy but that adds up.
***This is well out of left field. I'm not a fan of ice cream - I might have one twice a year. I had a weird urge Saturday when it was really hot, and my local IGA only sells them in boxes so I bought some and only ate one. Noodles will hoover up the rest of them when she gets home - probably within seconds since there is hardly ever ice cream in this house.
****What can I say? It's been a snacky week. Mini chocolate Christmas puddings with coffee, BBQ shapes, an overpriced pastry at the airport... not keen on getting on the scales this week, I can tell you.

Mini Goal #1
My mini goal for the week is to cut the coffee purchases. I am only working for three days this week, and then I have a couple of weeks off, so this is the perfect time. I want to try to be organised enough to have my two morning coffees at home before I go to work, rather than one at home and then buying one (or sometimes two).

Mini Goal #2
During my holidays, I'm going to try to break the coffee habit entirely. Not sure how I'll go on that one, as I've tried several times before when I've had time off work and it's always been a crushing failure, with me giving in to the headaches by the third day and scoffing a large cappuccino. However, I am determined to try again. Caffeine - I WILL DEFEAT YOU....eventually....maybe.

So did you have a big spendy spendy week? Of course you did, who doesn't the week before Christmas?