Amy Do Nguyet Anh

Time for some movies! Borrowed from the library of course. I watcher Her and The Looper. They were very different haha. Her is very critically acclaimed - so I was curious. Well, it's a hard movie to relate to... It feels like a movie targeted to lonely Silicon Valley nerds.

Why spend money eating out when you can have tons of good food at home: family dinner time!        I also spent the day finishing up my exchange application. It's good to go!

Here's a full proof recipe for the perfect day inside: books, spotify, homemade dinner.   I also spent a good amount of time going through lectures on Soren Kierkegaard on Coursera. Getting some studying done is also the perfect way to not spend any cash. I also spend the day doing some errands like visiting the clinic to do the annual check up, book a dental appointment and visit the bank (not to withdraw money obviously!).  

Spending the holidays in Whistler is the best way to not bring out that credit card, especially when my mom is on the trip with me and pays for all my shopping. No jugding - I won't be mama's girl for much longer so I gotta take advantage while I still can.

I hate cooking but baking with my girlfriends is always fun. We made brownies and macarons - but the macarons turned out bad because we over beat the eggs and it separated :( Oh well we still had the brownies.

Now that I have the time, I've finally sat down to do research on my exchange prospective. There are so many choices, so many courses that I have to look into but it's good to do some important work. It's also cool seeing my plans for next year unfold. I then went out and utilized my gift card to a restaurant - so I didn't have to spend anything!

Do a home renovation/decor project! Well the big ones cost a lot of money but today I helped my mom put up some curtains so I get some privacy in my den. I feel productive and didn't cost anything at all - for me at least. My mom had to pay for the curtains hehe.

IKEA just reopened after a long strike so I decided to give it a visit. IKEA is my inspiration for home decoration and I treat trips there as a day dreaming experience. I must say the stuffed toys are pretty tempting but sticking with my spending ban I didn't buy anything. It was a rainy too so it felt nice being cozy inside a store full of nice furniture.

Cleaning out my closet! Well, bookshelf. I love books so I keep buying them, and now I have nowhere to keep them. So I'm cleaning out this bookshelf and transferring the textbooks (the books that I hate) to storage to make room for new books and books I haven't finished reading. Yes there's a lot! It's a perfect way to stay away from spending and it's fun going through old memories.

After 2 months of using shopping to let off steam, I have come to 63 cents in my bank account. I will be working soon so I'll get more money, but until then I need to teach myself how to get back into that frugal mood so I won't throw away all my money again. This holiday season I'm going to find ways to enjoy life without spending a dime. My goal is to spend 12 days out of 18 days not spending money, and today is the first! What better way to not spend money than to go to work. Yes Day #1 has been spent working a shift at Safewalk with the lovely people who kept me company and away from spending. Not even for a midnight snack.