Wowza this was an expensive month! My goal of only spending $1000 after rent, in cash has clearly failed, in a crash and burn manner, kind of like how my plan to not eat sugar or carbs went. Shall I remain fat and poor for all my days?

I spent $3580 in total, and with only $1076 going to my housing costs, I spent $2504 on shit I probably don’t need.

Oh well, we live, we try, we fail and we try again tomorrow!

Why was November such an expensive month? Two words: shoes and looking pretty. Okay, that’s more than two words, but it’s two general concepts. Actually, it’s one concept: myself.

I went to New York this month to visit a friend and was completely bowled over the shoe selection there. I ended up buying 4 pairs of sneakers. Firstly, shoes are WAY cheaper in American, and secondly, they have better designs. We all know sneakers are in, and truth be told even though I am more of a “heels” sort of girl, and not at all into Man Repeller fashion,  the thought of comfortably but stylishly walking around the city did me in. I even bought two pairs of sneakers from Sketchers, and I have never even been inside a Sketchers in Canda. Something about that American air increased the levels of consumerism within me. I must have been on a cheap-shoe roll which is SO unlike me since I am usually so snobby about my all-leather-made-in-Spain shoes, but I ended up walking into The Shoe Company in Toronto one fine day and buying a pair of fuggs to take the trash out, and trendy over-the-knee black boots that I can wear with skirts, since I guess my under-the-knee black boots I bought last year just won’t do.

Honestly, $430– ish on six pairs of shoes is pretty great, but it’s still $400 that I didn’t need to spend, so ‘aint even going to try to justify it.

My second major and completely unnecessary purchase was a package of facials, because my birthday is coming up and I am invested, emotionally, in looking fresh and dewy for as long as possible. I blame both the  patriarchy  and also my mother for making me feel this is a necessity and as a punishment for falling for it,  I am going to re-read Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth.

How can I cut back in December?

December is never going to be a cheap month. It’s my birthday. It’s the holidays. What I can do is freakin obvious though: stop shopping, take out books from the library instead of buying them and eliminate cabs/uber completely in favour of public transit, or not leaving my house to go anywhere.