I am beyond thrilled to be able to write that I am on the train on my way home for reading week (or spring break as I think it is called in the US) now.  I am going to be home for ten glorious days.  I have been looking forward to this short break since the Christmas holidays ended.  After this it’s all business all of the time until exams are over.

I am happy just to be home for the week, but it’s not going to be a vacation really because I will be so busy.  I am working 9/10 days and I have a factum to write from start to finish during the time.

The part that I am actually most excited about is that I will be able to finally devote some serious time to cleaning and de-cluttering.  Even if I can only make time for 1-2 hours/day, I will still be able to get lots and lots done.  So finally, after all of your patient waiting, get ready for some after shots of my cleaning efforts in the next few days!

This weekend I had one real budget success, and other budgeting choice that was not so hot (but I’m okay with).

I had a friend with a February birthday, and I also had a great idea of something to get her.  She repeatedly mentioned something that she wanted, but she felt that the price was more than she was willing to spend.  I knew that she thought it was silly to spend so much money on something frivolous, but that she really wanted it.  It was also $34.81, almost double my budget of $20.  So I asked my brother and another friend if they would each pitch $10 and we would buy it together.  They agreed, and so my price tag was reduced to $14.81, bringing me happily in under budget!

My friends actually do this quite often.  We’re all still pretty young, so our budgets aren’t huge.  It’s nicer to get a $50 gift that is something you need or want or will actually use than 5 $10 gifts that aren’t useful, just affordable.  A few of my friends got together for Christmas this year and bought me an external hard drive, for example.

Friday was a very long day for me as I was working frantically to get an assignment finished.  I was frazzled, exhausted and totally wiped out.  Just as I finished it late at time, a friend sent me a message asking me if I wanted to go for lunch on Saturday.  She asked me at just the exact moment where all the pressure went away and I was left feeling like I deserved a huge treat, so I said yes.  This was VERY out of character for me.  Eating out is definitely one of my weak spots.  My groups of friend do it a whole lot, and once I do it a little bit, I start doing it a whole lot more.  So I am always extra careful about which invitations I accept and decline.

In general, I am more likely to accept an invitation if there are more people there.  I pay the same amount of money for dinner out with one friend or twenty.  I like to kill a lot of birds with one stone, even though you don’t always get that quality time.  I also never, never, never do things last minute.  I like to make plans far ahead so that I can budget in my head and anticipate the cost.  It also takes impulse out of the equation and ensures that I am spending intentionally.

I spent $13.00 on a delicious brunch/lunch with two good friends.  I could have just gone home and eaten for free, so it was not at all a necessary purchase.  If I thought through the decision, I never would have done it, but I’m kind of glad that I did because I really needed some good conversation with friends to recharge after working so hard.

As a final note, I’m pretty sure I’m crazy for analyzing each and every time I spend money, but I swear I can’t help it!

I managed to take pictures and get a bit of cleaning done this weekend, but more than anything I realized what a big project this is going to be to tackle.  Definitely something that is going to stretch out over the whole month.  On top of it all, I have a huge project due on Friday, so I’m having trouble even posting things on this blog right now.  I’m going to keep going and trying my hardest though.