Hello Thursday, or as I like to say Friday Eve!

Oh man, this week has gotten away from me!  I had such great intentions this week, but most of the plans never came to fruition.  I am still not feeling 100% better and I started walking in the mornings before work again, which means around 8 pm, I am so  ready for bed. I am not sure how my fiance' tolerates me so well, but he does and I feel very blessed!

My super handsome, incredibly wonderful Fiance'

So a few things.... I am doing so-so on spending. I managed to get a few Christmas and birthday gifts bought so I have spent but its allowed spending. The bad part is I put the cost on my credit card, so I have to remember to pay it off as soon as I get my bill. I sometimes don't do real well with that.

I feel as if my October is already jammed pack full of events and appointments and it's not even here yet. I really should get going on my Fall Bucket List or Fall will be over before I even get started.

I am going to start making a Christmas Project List soon also. I want to make a few gifts for some friends and family. Watch for that list to come out soon.

I think with the Christmas Project List, I will give you all a list of materials and supplies and a brief "how to" instruction, so if any of you want to make it you can.

I am also going to be telling you about some really awesome products I found in one of my closets today, so check back tomorrow to see what I have to say!  

Its beginning to feel like Fall!

The weather in Ohio is starting to feel like Fall. I broke down and put out some Fall scented candles and wax melts and put out fall scented soap.

Its baby steps into Fall at our house. 

 I am still not 100% ready for fall to be here, but I am going to go with the flow and quit fighting it. 

I had a wonderful weekend planned and to be honest, it kind of went south. I woke up on Saturday with a Urinary Tract Infection and ended up spending a few hours in the Urgent Care, most of my plans for Saturday got cancelled as I just didn't feel well. I took a nap and woke up feeling  a little better until I ended up breaking my tooth. I am not even sure how that happened, I felt something weird in my mouth and sure enough, a broken tooth.  

It was on a tooth that had been filled several times so I am sure it was inevitable. 

I woke up this  morning having a minor panic attack over money and my debt. I promised myself and God, this was the last straw. I spent the last few hours figuring out  my budget and I AM GOING to stick to it. 

Right??

Enough of the bad news, part of my weekend plans were to spend Sunday afternoon with  my mom at Whitehouse Fruit Farms, they do an amazing Fall Festival and I want some produce, as I am going back on my serious diet tomorrow. I am thinking about getting some Mums today as well.

I will post later today and show you my finds. 

Have a great Sunny Sunday !!  (hopefully its sunny where you are) 

Its Fall Time

Good day my friends! Today is officially the first day of fall and what that means is a fresh start!

Like the seasons, change is good!  

 Well for me that is what it means... I love the beginning of things.. days, weeks, months and even seasons. It is the perfect time to get on track with items that have seemed to have gotten derailed, which pretty much is everything in my life lately :) and so with that being said, I am going to start today off right and get back on track. I feel as if I have been all over the place with my blog, the main concept of the blog was to document how I was going to use the items I had buried deep in my closet and stop buying stuff. I never really got off the ground with that, I kept making excuses or buying and saying I would start tomorrow, as you all know, tomorrow never comes, but since today is the beginning of Autumn, I guess its a better time than ever to get started!

Autumn Is Here!  

I also talked about the happiness project, the weight loss goal and many other things in this blog and I don't want to let those things die but they are going to be part of the SPEND LESS, and LIVE OFF THE CLOSET. I am going to make some rules today and they are going to be hard, fast rules for me moving forward. I Am really hoping to do well and being writing about my success next year at this time. :) Here are my rules starting today . 1.) Use as much stuff as possible that I already have. I may run out of the shampoo I like, but before buying more, I am going to use what is hiding in the closet. 2.) I will not buy just to buy, I will not try to find happiness at the bottom of a shopping bag. I will ONLY buy when I need something. 3.) I will allow myself a small "allowance" each week. 4.) I will still have fun, I will not make myself miserable because I am trying to save money. 5.) I am allowed to buy gifts, I WILL Keep it to reasonable amounts. SO there it is my friends, the rules of this fun project. Long term goal is to be 100% debt free, to de-clutter and to start living a less materialistic lifestyle and to save save save! I want to retire by age 60 and I want a beach house .. that may not happen, but I will get on track and I will do my best to live a healthy lifestyle !

Happy New Week!

Today was the first day of the new week, and I was really bummed that I had to go to work today. I really have a case of the Fall Fever, the weather is beautiful and the sun is shining and I just want to be outside, however today was a great day. Work went well and I felt like I got a lot accomplished. 
I am really working hard also getting some jewelry made for the craft show.   I also want to share some photos of the craft items I made. 

All the items used to make this Military Heart Wreath were either items I had or scraps of material from the local craft store.

I also made a really cool fall wreath, It is probably my favorite wreath that I have ever made.

I bought the leaf for $5.00 and had all the flowers and ribbon, so it was a super cheap project. 

I also wanted to let you all know how my happiness projects been coming, I haven't been doing all that great so I am going to not add additional items this week. 

My next post will be really attacking the closet,  and using some stuff I have, and I am pondering the idea of selling some of the stuff I have in order to clear space and make some money to help pay  off my one credit card.

Keep checking back, my next post will be later this week! 

Hey what is this, living off the closet thingy again...

Just want to clear a few things up for all you who are just hearing about and reading my blog... The title of my blog, Living Off the Closet, is a reference to me using all the stuff I have accumulated and stored in my many closets in my home, in an effort to stop buying more stuff, I am sure a lot of you have heard of "Living off the Land", well I don't have a farm and livestock to sustain off of, but I have tons of stuff stored away in my closets that could keep me fed, clothed and entertained for a long long time. The title is not in reference to coming out of the closet or living IN the closet. This is more of a saving money and shopping less kinda thingy. I try to touch on craft ideas, fashion and trends as well as weight loss and physical fitness along with the money saving.  My goal when starting this blog was to go 1 whole year with out spending money on unnecessary items, but found that was impossible, so as I go, I tweak my expectations. Currently I am trying to spend less, a LOT less and use what I already have much, much more. 
So that is just a little refresher my friends, in case some of you weren't 100% sure what this blog was about... 

Week 2 of the Project

I did really good incorporating 3 items into my life last week in order to make things just a little happier.

1. Use what I have, in order to shop less and spend less.

2. Be Kind and Nice to everyone I come into contact with. 

3. Never tell a lie.

It wasn't super easy, but the pay off was huge! I had a feeling of relief and a feeling of calm. Which is the long term goal here....

Work has been crazy, life has been crazy so I have decided to take baby steps and just add one more thing to my happiness project..

- Try to not be so sensitive. (This is going to be a hard one, because I am an Highly Sensitive Person... )  If you want to find out if you are a Highly Sensitive Person, take the test and find out.

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person

I am so easily upset by the things said to me, I think about them all day, which is bad, because if I am thinking about the "jokes" then I am not thinking about being nice or the things that make me smile... 

Not good!  I decided I am going to really work on this and really try super duper hard to not let those things bother me.... Wish me luck!   

Ill report back to you all and let you know how successful I am with this one. 

I refuse to give in......

So its a few days after Labor day and summer is, I guess, officially  over, but I refuse to accept that. Summer is my second favorite season and its still really hot in North East Ohio. It is 93 degrees in Akron today. The sun is shining the birds are chirping and I just refuse to break out the fall decorations and scented pumpkin candles yet. I have nothing against fall, except that its followed by WINTER and I do have something against winter.  Winter is so cold, icy and just not easy to handle. Maybe if life was a movie and we could walk around all looking cute in our scarf and gloves, strolling thru the perfect little town, but we all live in real life, bundled up to avoid hypothermia and  looking like the Michelin man, driving to work and fretting for our lives on the ice and snow covered roads.   Boo Winter!!!. I can't even type any more about it, that is how much I dislike it. 

So as I refuse to give into the fact it is actually fall yet, I did start thinking that when I do accept it, how am I going to enjoy it with out spending like crazy and getting back into bad habits.. (by the way, I had a mediocre weekend with the spending, better than bad, right?) I found a fun little thing on Facebook and it got me thinking (OK it got me excited, ughh) about fall. It was a list of things to do to truly embrace the season... I am going to share it with you...

I really honestly am going to try to do all of the items on this list, and maybe I will  learn to like fall more. I am going to do these while still saving and not shopping a lot or spending a lot. It will be a true test. I have made the decision that no fall activities will start before Sept 19th, and then only if the temperatures are below 75 degrees. So keep reading to find out how I did. 

I did it!

Well I did it! Its only been one week, but hey we have to start somewhere,  right? 

So what was it that I did, you ask? Well I went one whole week with out being shopping! I went to a mall, a really nice, big mall with wonderful shops and I didn't buy anything!! Nothing at all. I also went into one of my favorite stores and passed on all kinds of goodies. I travel for work occasionally and the place where I usually end up at is Columbus, Ohio. There is a fabulous shopping mall there called Polaris and I had an hour to kill so I decided I would go to the mall so I could get some walking in (at least that is what I told myself). I thought I could make the most of my down time and I would get off my butt and do something with out getting all sweaty. Walking outside in the lovely 95 degree weather Ohio is having right now is just not an option, so mall walking is my only logically option.  When I walked in the mall, I  knew my plan to better myself by walking was a joke, there was no way I was going to be able to pass up all the wonderfulness in this beautiful building.. Each store was calling my name, signs in the window advertising the wonderful deals, how could I pass up all these little personal taunts! I really was having a hard time focusing, from one store front to another... I loved it  all. The colors, the styles, the potential for of it. Unfortunately for me when I see a size negative 4 mannequin looking all grandiose in front of a store front wearing all the latest trendy clothes and jewelry, I imagine all my flaws melting away, all I have to do is buy the 200.00 outfit and then I am suddenly a super model, well that is until I get the clothes home and I realize that I am still an average size 12 and the super trendy top makes me look like a pregnant "trying to hard" 40 year old. Ugh... I am one of them!

I surprised myself on Monday. I walked thru that mall, my pace quick enough, that I felt as though I was almost getting a work out in, not so fast that I looked like I was running from something or someone, I saw all the clothes from the corner of my eyes, but I was motivated. I was doing something really good for my body and my wallet. I told myself " I don't need more clothes" I didn't hear them screaming at me to buy them and look like a model. I heard my brain saying to  me, SAVE YOUR MONEY - Lose some more weight, and then maybe buy them clothes.?"  So maybe that is all it took, one successful mall trip to get on the right path... I don't know but I  do know that the same day as I was making the 2 hr trip back home, I had to use the restroom so bad, and as I was driving I was looking for a fast food restaurant  to stop to use and I couldn't find any, but I did find a store... TJ Maxx, it is by far one of my favorite retail places and maybe that is what made me stop there, maybe subconsciously I felt like because I did so well at the mall that I deserved to treat myself to a little something. I owned that shopping trip also. I walked in there, found the restroom, used it and then browsed the clearance rack, I walked by the  new fall items that were out and I walked right back out to my car.  Who Am I?? I don't know where the motivation is coming from, but I do know I like it. I like how I feel when I can control what I buy, I like knowing  I didn't "blow" $100.00 in one day!    I am hoping  this is the beginning of the new me.
I will report back to you next week and let you know if this is the new me, if I have finally found a way not to spend, if I have rounded a corner, found my groove..... Trust me, I am as curious as you are!