Tomorrow I have choir pictures and I realized I didn’t have any dressy clothes owned in my closet other than outfits I’ve already worn for choir events. So, I decided to go shopping by myself to find a pretty dress. I’ve never been one to go shopping for myself. I typically wear my Target clothes and just add accessories or different shoes to switch it up. But I knew that that wasn’t going to cut it for pictures.

At first, I went in with the mentality of: I just need a $10 dress and I’ll just wear some shoes I already own. I thought it was going to be fun to go shopping with just me and spend some good quality time with myself trying to find an outfit I felt completely confident in. I started at FOREVER 21 in the clearance section and began realizing I just wasn’t satisfied. I was walking towards Charlotte Russe and I saw two stores that caught my eye as far as style. The outfits were very flattering and cool and looked like outfits that would embrace my fun, upbeat personality. I went into the first store and immediately started checking prices. As soon as I saw that each dress was $50 I wanted to leave as soon as possible. One of the workers there even saw that I was looking around at prices and started picking out outfits that she thought would look good on me. Of course, I couldn’t say no to trying them on even if it was way out of my budget.

I tried on two dresses and I really liked one of them but I simply denied buying it because of the prices. Again I continued on my way and another store caught my eye. So I go inside with the intention of not buying anything from this store. Immediately I walk in and I see this beautiful yellow dress and I had to try it on. I put it on and it was so flattering and so gorgeous. I felt so confident in myself and felt refreshed to have something new on my shoulders. I walk outside of the dressing room and ask the workers what they thought and they loved it as well. Granted they might have been trying to get me to buy it, but I didn’t care. I loved it and I felt so beautiful. The workers started adding shoes and jewelry to me and I felt like a princess. I felt like nothing could stop me.

Until I looked at the price for the dress and shoes.

My heart started to pitter-patter and I felt like I would be crushed if I didn’t get to take these beautiful items home to wear for my choir pictures the next day. So I decided to buy it. THAT WAS SCARY. The whole time I was freaking out about money and how that buying these items was taking the money I worked for from my double shift as a waitress. I went outside after my purchase and started walking back to my car. I felt so guilty; like I’ve just done something absolutely terrible. But then I realized: What was my intention before I started shopping? My only goal wasn’t to just get a dress for choir pictures but to also spend quality time with myself and have a good time shopping. I succeeded both of those things. I got a very flattering dress and shoes I’d definitely would wear again AND I had fun feeling confident.

So my question here is: Why do we make money?

What’s the point in working to save up all of this money?

Well, personally for me in my past, my family was always big on saving money in case something were to happen to anyone or anything in our possession. We would save every receipt and never go out to buy items for personal happiness. But I realized that a life like that is a hard one. Why is it okay for me to feel stressed about work but to make money and not okay to spend money to buy things that I’ve worked hard to get and deserve? We all deserve things that make us happy whether that be clothes or just simply a large Dunkin coffee drink every once in a while. The amount of money we make or the number we see in our bank account does not define us or who we are as a person.

The point of this blog post is not to say, “Go spend all of your hard-earned money on clothes and coffee,” but it is to say that work is stressful, life is stressful, and sometimes we need a small gift of encouragement to ourselves. We need that reminder that we are worth feeling good about ourselves and worth the happiness of some items. Saving and budgeting are highly recommended during this process but letting the purchase of an item for yourself make you feel guilty and beat down is never okay. Especially if it’s only occasionally. Life is too short to spend time worrying about actions with good intentions. Life will go on and you will make that money back. Purchasing a dress for a choir picture isn’t going to be the reason you won’t get into college.

I really just want people to be okay with the fact that we work so hard in life to make money to be able to go out and do the things we want to do. Let yourself let loose and do something kind for yourself. You deserve it. 

Have an amazing night!  -And-  The sunset was so pretty today.

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