How Much Have I Spent This Year?

A couple of weeks ago Samantha Ravandahl posted a video about how much she had bought so far this year. Truthfully, I haven't watched her video, but I did witness the discussion it sparked on the Makeup Rehab subreddit.

At first, I was excited to participate in mentioning how little I've purchased this year. Looking back now though, I feel silly for wanting to seek validation from random people on the internet. I know that my spending habits have significantly changed for the better over the past few years. Isn't that personal knowledge enough?

I never ended up responding to that Reddit discussion. Not only did I realize that I didn't need that anonymous validation, but I also realized that I didn't know how much I had spent. And I see that as huge progress.

The first two years I started paying attention to my spending I tracked every purchase and had a spreadsheet cataloguing things like purchase date, first date of use, discount. I had gone from buying frivolously to tracking obsessively. And neither of those behaviors was healthy.

If I think now about my purchases from this year so far, I know I'm going to forget something. And that's okay. I know I've bought less than a dozen items, even with counting my four Sydney Grace shadows separately. But here's the thing, I can't remember everything I've bought and when, not because I've bought so much, but because I'm not obsessing over makeup anymore. If that's not progress, I don't know what is.