I have been reading the blog, The Girl Who by Monica for a while now. When she posted about her Little Black Dress Challenge, I became intrigued. She will be wearing one dress, an LBD (little black dress), everyday for 6 months. In the process she will be raising money to get herself out of debt and donate the other half to a local (to her) animal shelter. If I had the ability, I would sponsor her on this great endeavor. There is nothing harder than getting yourself out of debt and if you need to challenge yourself in order to do it, I'm all for it. Plus, helpless animals will get to benefit too.
So, how does this affect THIS blog? Well, I will be graduating law school in May with about $150,000 worth of debt. Yes, that's a HUGE amount, but I see it as an investment. It is an investment for my future and I will happily pay for it. In addition, I'm theoretically planning a wedding. The problem with that, however, is the serious lack of funding. Weddings are expensive endeavors. Inspired by Monica, I will be doing my own money saving challenge, but rather than wearing the same little black dress for 6 months, I will shop my closet for all of next semester. That means no buying clothes for myself. In order to make this livable, I will have an exception for interview/job search related expenses as well as major special occasion related expenses. I'm not 100% of any other conditions since I came up with this idea yesterday. For example, I don't know if I'll include accessories on the list of no shopping at this point. I also don't know if I'll have sponsors or what I'll do if I don't make it the whole semester or if I should incorporate a charity. But whatever I decide to include or not include, the point is that I want to save money, avoid accumulating more debt, be environmentally conscious and be creative.
Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions or ideas on how to make this work? Anybody want to join in or sponsor me on this craziness?
So, how does this affect THIS blog? Well, I will be graduating law school in May with about $150,000 worth of debt. Yes, that's a HUGE amount, but I see it as an investment. It is an investment for my future and I will happily pay for it. In addition, I'm theoretically planning a wedding. The problem with that, however, is the serious lack of funding. Weddings are expensive endeavors. Inspired by Monica, I will be doing my own money saving challenge, but rather than wearing the same little black dress for 6 months, I will shop my closet for all of next semester. That means no buying clothes for myself. In order to make this livable, I will have an exception for interview/job search related expenses as well as major special occasion related expenses. I'm not 100% of any other conditions since I came up with this idea yesterday. For example, I don't know if I'll include accessories on the list of no shopping at this point. I also don't know if I'll have sponsors or what I'll do if I don't make it the whole semester or if I should incorporate a charity. But whatever I decide to include or not include, the point is that I want to save money, avoid accumulating more debt, be environmentally conscious and be creative.
7 comments:
I am not such a fan of this project of hers. Shopping bans are one thing, but asking other people to pay off your debt (when only half is going to charity) strikes me as morally questionable at best. I say institute a shopping ban for six months with the interview exceptions that you stipulated and call it even. If you want to be really frugal you can also ban eating out, grabbing coffee out, etc.
Also weddings come in all shapes and sizes with a range of different price tags. A wedding can cost next to nothing if you keep it small and DIY.
I think that the reason she included the sponsorship part was to create a cash incentive so that if she failed all the $$ went to the charity. Even assuming I do my closet shopping challenge, I would feel really uncomfortable having people just give me money to encourage my saving money. If anything I would encourage people to pay off their own debt and save money for themselves, which in a way is sort of what she has inspired me to do.
As for the wedding, I would LOVE to keep it absolutely tiny and very DIY, but family is making it very difficult. I would be thrilled to have less than 50 people and keep things super chill, but it in trying to keep people happy, it just doesn't seem like its going to happen.
Families make it tricky. The trick is to make them pay if that's what they need to be happy. :)
I am considering joining you for two months of the shopping ban: January and February. My only exceptions would be if I do get an on campus interview (since they generally last for two days, I might buy another suit) and socks and underwear.
Yea---as for the wedding, I was told that they didn't want me to have a "cheap" wedding, but in the same breath I was told that they couldn't help pay for it. :/ Kinda sucks.
Chica, that would be awesome if you joined me! And I completely understand the need for exceptions about interviews and undies/socks. These things are necessary. In fact, the only reason I left super special occasion on my list of exceptions is in case we elope (ha!) or I need a dress for graduation (way more likely).
Then, you say, "I'm sorry I just finished law school with a lot of debt and I'm not in a financial position to have a large, expensive wedding right now. I'm sure you can understand that we don't want to start off our marriage by taking on a lot of debt for a single day."
January and February = NO SHOPPING. I'll write a post sometime in the next few days about it. :)
Woohoo!
and obviously you have a stronger spine than I do :-p
It's easier said than done, that's for sure!
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