can't believe I'm writing about this

let's talk about FINANCE YEAH!

I'm in Family Finance this semester at BYU and honestly it's like I'm back in 3rd grade listening to my Dad read "The Richest Man in Babylon" during our Family Home evening lesson. One of our extra credit opportunities is to write a blog post about a financial topic so heeeeeere goes:

There are a million things I want to buy right now. Like it's bad.

I would say that I've always enjoyed shopping--well, after an hour I am so done-- but you could still say I'm a good shopper. I've never needed too much and always bought second hand things for my kitchen, clothes and tools. However, since getting married and moving in together with my husband I've experienced this crazy need to buy beautifully designed things for our home! I've never ever EVER cared this much about products and their quality, color and design. Like just look at my Pinterest boards why am I so suddenly obsessed with things to fill our home with?? I'm addicted to looking at beautiful, fun things. And like it's so tempting right now to buy nice things to cook with, wear, decorate and use in our home together because we both have jobs and have saved so much from the past year working full-time.

So what's wrong with me and why do I want to buy everything? I think I figured it out. Since getting married my expectations have changed. I think that I've felt pressure to create a nice home because now I'm a wife and can be classified as a homemaker. I also think that I want to fill our home with pretty things to impress our friends who come over for dinner dates and parties. Another bad habit that's formed is that I'm so used to using gift cards for everything because we were lucky and received great gifts from our wedding guests. I've done some major self evaluating and realized I need to re-set my financial habits that I've had my whole life. I've resolved to start practicing better money habits starting NOW; here are some of my goals:

• before purchasing something, wait 3 days and re-evaluate.
• before purchasing from a major store, check thrift and cheaper places--if product doesn't need to be of good quality..i.e. paper towels, tp, ziploc bags
• practice tithing first, then paying myself 10% in savings
• take a month off from online browsing/online shopping
• if there's something that I really really want--ask for it for my birthday in May
• instead of going out to dinner with friends, play games or something free instead
• use the gift cards we have left instead of paying with money
• count three things I'm grateful for every time I feel like complaining

Well there we go. Now that it's out on the internet I have to be accountable haha