Should Bridget buy new sweatpants?
our week 3 diary
Sam:
Hellooooo girly. We’re entering Week 3? What’s your vibe?
This was a paycheck week for me, which was great but highlighted my worst habit. When pay day hits, my immediate instinct is that I need to spend. I first started to think critically about this habit in college when I listened to the podcast Bad With Money and unpacking my pay day psychology has been huge in understanding the way I spend.
This week I got hit with the immediate urge to get some new matcha. This is actually a very practical purchase and doesn’t go against my no buy month since I’m restocking a tea. But I also didn’t need to buy it at that very moment. Mostly to challenge my own psychology, I’m just delaying the purchase a bit so it’s not associated with my pay day.
Another pay day urge is make-up, which does go against my no buy month. I sent you some panicked texts this week about wedding make-up. Getting married is so stupid expensive. Even when you think you can do it cheap, cheap doesn’t mean what it used to. This TikTok had me feeling really seen because sometimes wedding costs make me feel insane.
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Anyway, all this to say, I was on the verge after looking into wedding make-up and hair costs. I ran the numbers and it just makes more sense to do it myself. Making that decision set off all my alarms ,and I felt like I needed to buy the make-up now to start practicing.
But I’m sort of going into that blind, so Ella and I are going to go get lessons at Sephora to find the right products. So every time I start to get on edge, I remind myself that there’s step I need to take before I can go out and buy products.
I was also humbled this week by paying off some medical bills from throwing out my back last month plus scheduling an upcoming car service. When I was looking at those expenses, I felt grateful for this no buy month because the money I have to spend feels accessible right now, while in the past, facing these expenses has just been a source of stress.
My other bit of wisdom for this week is that I think the influencers we should all be looking to are the ones within our same tax bracket. I started following latenightsecondhand on Instagram. She’s fun and silly, but I also find where and how she shops to be far more relatable to me than many other influencers I follow.
She also posted this on her story and I loved the sentiment, it’s a huge goal I want to work toward myself.
I also have two recs via Harling Ross’s Substack. This list of reader recommendations was phenomenal but did almost make me spiral thinking I should buy everything.
But also I LOVE this article she wrote about overhauling her home clothes collection. As someone who has an overstuffed drawers of comfy clothes, it was inspiring me to pair back.
Bridget
Hey girly, I'm writing this five hours after consuming my “treat” of the week, a ginger turmeric latte, and I’m feeling uncomfortably caffeinated. It did help me knock out a bunch of work emails and also inspired me to finally start a new running playlist, so perhaps it was worth it. Also it WAS delicious.
Speaking of “home clothes", it dawned on me this week that I only own one pair of sweatpants now. My second pair, ones that I’ve owned since the 8th grade (!), officially need to be retired since the elastic waistband is completely disintegrated. I own a sufficient amount of pajama pants and workout leggings, both suitable as “home clothes”, so do I really need to replace the sweatpants I’m getting rid of? I have my eye on these Aritzia ones, but I’m so sure I could get an equally nice pair for half the price elsewhere. I’m going to sit on this for a while. For so long my thought process has been, if you get rid of an old item of clothing, then naturally you have the justification for replacing it with something new. But I’m wondering if a better strategy for me is to wait until the need actually arises before replacing the item. Laundry machines exist for a reason, and I suspect I can get by on just one pair with all of the pj pants/leggings I already own.
Another item I realized I need to retire is a long sleeved black t-shirt from Everlane. My order history says I bought in on September 26, 2018 - 7 years of use is not too shabby! It feels so satisfying to use something to its fullest extent. It has a big hole in the armpit, and normally I would try to stitch it up but the fabric has gotten so thin that I don’t see it holding up for more than one or two more washes. Same as the sweatpants, I’m going to hold off on replacing it and make do with the long sleeves I already have for a little while. Also, I’d be remiss not to mention this article from which I learned each person should buy no more than 5 new articles of clothing a year, recommended by the Paris Agreement to limit global warming. It’s definitely something that’s been on my mind when deciding not to replace anything right away. If I can only buy 5 new garments this year, what do I want to prioritize?
My biggest takeaway this week is that each time I challenge an urge to spend money on a nonnecessity, an actual necessity comes up shortly after and makes me feel glad I held off on the thing I didn’t need. And that’s not to say I’ll never indulge again, just that it’s a reminder to take a beat and see if that thing I want still feels as enticing a month down the road. More often than not, the appeal starts to wear off.
The California Wildfires prompted me to remember an ongoing question of mine: how can donations figure into my budget? My current strategy is to donate when I feel like I have the wiggle room to do so, but I know some people set aside money each month specifically for donations. It also brings up the question, what am I willing to give up each month in order to put money toward something I want to support? I don’t have a precise answer to that yet, but I do know the reason I’m considering those questions is a result of this no-buy and how closely I’ve been tracking my spending over the past couple of weeks.
I was going to share some things I was tempted to buy this week, but in the spirit of not tempting anyone else with shit they don’t need, I thought I would share some free things I enjoyed instead:
Waxahatchee’s newest album, Tigers Blood. The line from ‘Crowbar’, “You can take it pretty far on a prayer that’s pale and synthetic”, is stuck in my head. Katie Crutchfield is one of my favorite lyricists.
The Substack app - it feels so crazy to recommend this but I’ve just been reading people’s Substacks via email up until now. The app has introduced me to so many new reads! I loved this piece in particular on sobriety.
The first three episodes of the new season of The Traitors!! Technically free to me because Samantha let’s me use her Peacock account, tysm my love <3
Painting my nails at home. I’m so sick of my clothes lately, and having my nails done has helped me feel a bit more fresh. This is my favorite nail polish.
This photo of Pamela Anderson that is my new phone lock screen.