OJ the PA

While January seemed to just drag on and on, February has just flown by for me! I honestly can't understand how it's already March tomorrow ... and already time to recap another month of my No Buy. How did I do this month? Well, I did okay-ish. I spent 78% of my monthly average from 2019. Now, this doesn't sound like much of a win (a mere 22% less than usual? psh ). But, I bought plane tickets for my vacation in June, which totaled $278 dollars. So even with a couple hundred dollars in vacation spending, I'm still under my average. And I'm going to consider that a win. Has it gotten easier? Absolutely. During January , I felt like I was saying "no" to myself all the time. But now that this is more of a habit (and I know to keep my butt out of Target), it's actually not so bad. If I could be buying things, what would I purchase? I have a birthday in April and I would be lying if I wasn't starting to make a list of gifts to ask for! I want...

As a traditional distance education PA student at my university, we have to come back to campus twice each semester. I only live about an hour and a half drive from campus, so this isn't a big deal for me, but many people have to fly in from out of state to be here for these visits. Campus visits are our time to participate in hands-on activities like the campus students. Some of the labs we're completing include: Wound care Casting and splinting Sterile technique Lumbar puncture Suturing Chest tube placement Testing blood sugar Using different types of inhalers and peak flow meters IV/blood draws ...and much more! It's also during these visits that we work with standardized patients or visit the VA to work with real patients there. Additionally, we'll come back right before our clinical year for a course on surgery. I seriously can't wait until we get to that point! Each visit lasts anywhere from two to four days, and I'm lucky enough ...

If I'm being totally honest, I went into this No Buy thing with a healthy amount of skepticism. You see these folks post on Instagram about saving a bazillion dollars and to me it just seemed... unreal? Like, I kept telling myself that I generally only buy the things I need and therefore doing a No Buy probably isn't going to make that much of a difference. Like I mentioned in my first No Buy post , I got a lot of messages from people about how good it made them feel to be smarter about their spending. And since I've been stressin' about my finances, I decided I'd take any good vibes I could get ... even if I didn't see huge results in the end. You guys, my mind has been blown. A little more than halfway through the month, I logged into my credit card app and decided to check in on how my spending was going. "You've spent 28% of your monthly average." 28%?! You've got to be kidding me.  And now that the month is complete, I can proudly...