What I Bought on My Long-Awaited Shopping Spree

I bought five bras. This should tell you something about the bras I was previously wearing.

Regular Billfolders might remember that I had a lot of big freelance checks arrive in May—and another big check showed up at the beginning of June. This is after a few months of doing a lot of work but not receiving a lot of paychecks, and worrying about when I’d have to pull cash out of my savings account to cover my basic expenses.

Checking In With My Savings Plan: May Edition

But now I’ve been paid, and I am finally cash-flush.* After calculating the balance in my checking account, the income I had coming in this month, and my fixed and anticipated expenses, I ended up with $975 in discretionary income for June**—and yes, some of that is going to go towards meeting with my CPA and (probably) setting up a LLC, and some of it will remain untouched in case something happens, but some of it could go with me to THE MALL.

So I went on a shopping spree. We can divide my purchases into four categories:

Items purchased because the versions I owned were literally full of holes:

Bathmat: $16.43 at JCPenney (and guess who doesn’t have to wipe up a wet bathroom floor every morning anymore???)

Two bras, two bralettes, one strapless bandeau bra, and seven pairs of underwear: $95.26 at JCPenney (the fact that I purchased five bras at once should give you an idea of how long I’d been wanting these, and how falling-apart my previous bras were)

Items purchased because I had Old Navy Super Cash:

One white top with lace detail, one pink top with lace detail, one black top with lace detail; one pair of shorts because it is going to be a hot summer; one blue dress just because: $49.34 (Old Navy informed me that I had “saved $70.68” on these purchases)

Items purchased because I wanted to buy one frivolous, ridiculous thing:

Sparkling Limoncello Fine Fragrance Mist: $15.34 at Bath and Body Works (yes I picked the one that smelled like a sugar lemon liqueur, I told you it was both frivolous and ridiculous)

Food that I didn’t think was going to be that expensive:

Blue Fin sushi buffet: $38.87 (Yelp said I could expect to spend up to $30, but I ended up tipping 20 percent on a $29.99 tab plus $2.88 tax, and I felt weird about tipping 20 percent on a buffet and a glass of water, but I felt weirder about not tipping 20 percent even though it was a buffet)

TOTAL SHOPPING SPREE COST: $215.24

*This is where I feel a little guilty about having extra money now when I wrote so much this year about how I was watching every penny. I knew this month would come if I waited long enough, and now that it’s here I feel like I should find a good way to share some of this wealth instead of just saying “I got mine, and I used it to buy booze perfume.”

**Yes, I’m predicting that this discretionary number will reset in July. Given the checks that are scheduled to pay out between July 1 and July 31, I’ll have plenty of cash going forward, at least through the summer. Which is good, because I have a shower curtain I want to replace. (Feel free to tell me I should just replace it now.)

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