Groupon, Gifts + Good Intentions

Groupon is not a friend of mine. Oh yes.. I went there. The G word is known to be heard in my home, my work life and even as an app on a mobile. (we need to bring back the word 'mobile' instead of cell phone - whatcha think?) Every morning it's fun to see 'new' messages in my gmail, but no more! Bye bye Groupon and Living Social. They were threatening to damage my September Spending Freeze. We are suckers for the 'gotta buy it now!! it's a discount!' overnight stays in Seattle, at the beach or trying out new places around Portland. However, if you weren't planning on spending the money at a certain place - why spend it at all? Allow me to hop on my soapbox for a moment. Companies like these among others make their money off of consumers getting into that "gotta have it! gotta have it now!" feeling. Sometimes the aftermath of this is thinking 'okay but I got it at a deal', but sometimes those deals were not things you thought of purchasing in the first place or worse - never get used. Eeeee. 

You know what is fun during a spending freeze though.. gift cards, gift certificates or registering for wedding gifts as seen below. 

Almost 2 months ago, we celebrated our 1 year of marriage. Travis surprised me with a gift certificate for a fabulous spa spot on the west side. I was finally able to use it yesterday with an amazing pedicure (love the parafin wax and cozy slippers they put your feet in) and a terrific massage. Fabulous! Gifts like those are great for people because if you are someone who does not want to spend a lot of money on a 'luxury' expense, someone gifting that is super thoughtful. Hear that guys? You're welcome lady friends. :)

Brief update on my spending lately with the Sept. Freeze: I haven't bought any clothes (good), sticking to my one Starbucks a week (except for buying a fun drink for nephew and niece.. so I'd say that is going 'fair'), but we ate out on our vacation. And I did for lunch most of last week too (yikes!). But it was vacation.. and Dairy Queen is something we do not frequent at all nor did we have time to go grocery shopping last week. I freely admit after I went to go grab a sandwich one of my co-workers promptly held me accountable.. "isn't it only Day 2?" Yes, and it was a moment of weakness and poor planning. I have found that I need to prepare a bit more for my days.. you don't even want to know how long I hit snooze before waking up to get ready for work! :)  Well that is all for the moment.. but I have lots of blog post ideas brewing in my curly-haired head.

I feel like this post was all kinds of all over the place. 

Many more posts will follow this suit I'm sure. :)