(Lack of) Self-Control at Target.

If you remember, my big goal for 2020 was NO SPENDING MONEY. I wanted to spend the year digging Tommy and me out of our debt hole. I had a bunch of rules for myself, and mostly big dreams. Here's how that went. 

This year I spent:  

-No money on books 

-No money on clothes

-No money on home decor

-No money on my classroom

And while none of those above statements are completely true, they are true enough that I feel like I can say them. Plus, the truth is more nuanced and not interesting. For example, I brought close to 100 new books into my home this year, but I only paid for six of them out of my own pocket. (See, boring!)

I also had big dreams about tracking all of my "beauty" consumption this year. And only buy one-to-one replacements. For me this mostly means (face) skin care and other body things (shampoo, body wash, deoderant). I saved all my empties, and had dreams of doing a blog with photos of all that I used this year while waxing about the cost of keeping my skin young under late-stage capatislism. 

And while I broadly achieved this goal, having a box full of trash stored in my house feels like a trick I played on myself. I can say with confidence that I only bought one skin care item that was not a replacement this year. But, my tracking method needs a little tweaking in 2021. 

Here is a photo of my Empties Bin (Trash Box): 

All of these small goals helped with Tommy and my larger goal: debt relief. And it helped. We payed off over $10,000 in debt this year. I finished paying off one of my student loans. We sold both of our cars and bought a used cheaper car that we share (Tommy rides his bike to school, which he loves.). We have no more medical debt, no accumulating credit card debt, and we are far less stressed about digging out of our debt hole. 

This is probably the one favor 2020 did for us. We were employed the entire year. I finished grad school and got a raise. And we had no major expences that came up. We did no traveling, and we still are not going out to eat. We are fortunate than many have been this year, and I don't take that for granted. 

I want to do a better job of tracking my wants, needs, and purchases through 2020. But, I can say it feels like a big win to be able to practice self-control at Target.