#Wins
When I looked at where my largest shifts came from there were two big areas: Big box stores & online.
I rely on big box stores because they are essentially one stop shop. You can get clothes, gifts, groceries, etc all in one spot so they are so easy. I found myself buying most of the things I needed at one of these stores, but often buying more than I actually need. Who hasn't gone into Target for one thing and come out $100 later??
My other area was online shopping. Because I am so "busy" I used online shopping as a way to save time and money. With daily flash sales, free shipping, etc it had been a great way to buy anything from clothes to art supplies. The issue for me is that between "deals I couldn't pass up" and having to get enough in my cart to get the "free shipping if you spend X$" I wasn't really saving money. OR I was buying the easiest or cheapest thing vs. what I really wanted.
I had never realized how much mindless shopping I did. I don't just mean spending money unnecessarily as we do watch what we spend and work towards a budget, but not really thinking about whether it is something we really need, where did it come from, is it really what we want? When you have to seek something out, get in your car and go into a store, you thinking through these things. It made me much more purposeful about every purchase and therefore my husband and I were discussing how we spent less than usual this month, but were happier with the things we bought.
For example: Instead of buying random things throughout the month that are a "deal" on Zulily for my daughter I bought her a Christmas Necklace from Monkeys N Munchkins, a special skirt from Pout In Pink and books from A Book Above. These are all things that she loves and are very special. They were all bought for a specific purpose and not because it was a great deal. Also, our pets' are also happy recipients as we are switching over to sourcing their food from Ruff Life and were already fans of using Floofins & Co.
I had a realization about half way through that I am so horribly over scheduled that I don't feel like I even have time to think. That is why I find myself shopping for convenience over "value". I simply didn't feel like I had the time. And you know, sometimes I don't (see shopping #fails below), but mostly I was able to make time and overall found it to be a better experience. That purposeful thought around where I spend money will continue beyond the 30 days.
So, it wasn't all great which brings me to my #fails.
I didn't really have too many fails, but I did have one night when it just all got really really frustrating. This was about a week ago and I had left work in flurry to make it to a doctors' appointment that I had to make it to before 6pm. It is very hard if you work downtown to get to anything in Elmhurst before 6pm. For those that don't commute, here is the deal. The first Metra train to leave downtown after 5pm is the 5:13pm. For me that is a stretch as I have to leave by 455pm to make it the station in time. That train when on time reaches Elmhurst by 539pm. By the time you are off and to your car it is likely past 545 which will give less than 15 minutes to reach your designated appt. It is doable, but not easy.
So that night I was on the 513 and the train stopped...just long enough to make it that I could not make my appt. I had to call and cancel which made me angry to begin with because I had literally run out of work to make it. It was the only night that week that I didn't have a late meeting or dinner that would require me to stay downtown for part of the evening. I decided to make the best of it as I had two errands I really needed to make to get to stores in the City Center. I needed a baby gift for a very good friend I was seeing a few days later and I needed to pick up an item I had special ordered from a local store. I thought I had redeemed my frustrating evening as these were two things I could get done even if I had missed my appt. I walked from the train to the stores it was freezing cold outside. It didn't take me long to realize that the first store was NOT open! It was only a little after 6pm, but they only had later hours once a week. I got smart and quickly checked the hours of the other store on my phone before venturing any further and found that they were closed too. I just about burst into tears, but I figured they would freeze on my face and just make it worse.
It was not my best day to shop local. I did learn that weekday evenings are not possible unless I am just needing groceries or something at a national chain (Kohls, Kmart, etc) or I get to know which evenings stores have late hours.
Despite that evening, my overall experience with this challenge has been very positive. We were tracking throughout the month to see the shifts we made. (We didn't count utilities, car/house payments, etc in our calculations.)
When we finished, we estimate that in the past 30 days we were able to spend nearly 85% of our dollars in Elmhurst.
It wasn't even that hard once we just changed our mindset. In addition, during this challenge, I have learned a lot about my community and have met some great store owners.
I don't plan on stopping, but instead will continue to seek out and support those businesses that truly make our community unique. I look forward to the holiday season and continuing the support, not just on days like Small Business Saturday, but all season long.
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