No Buy 2020: May Review

Something went wrong. Something went terribly wrong in May. Was it related to being done with school and finally having free time? Must have been. Because I spent 89% of my monthly average from 2019. Not exactly a big accomplishment this month.

Here's where I think I went awry:

I barely spent anything on groceries in April, but I definitely made up for that in May. Pantry needed to be restocked, apparently.
Home maintenance. I purchased a ceiling fan and an above-range microwave that both needed to be replaced, so that was $300 right there. Luckily, my dad was able to come out and give me some assistance with installing both. Okay, he installed them. I just provided moral support.
Eating out is a thing again. My friends and I have, a few times now, gotten drinks on a patio or food to-go since we're (safely) meeting up again. I also cheated once and got to-go food just for me, so I need to be careful not to make excuses moving forward. Slippery slope!
Amazon got me. Granted, I bought things I needed (color catchers for the laundry, new Brita filters, etc), but it was a little spendy. Oh, and mother's day gifts. Can't forget that.
I bought myself an end-of-first-year-of-PA-school present and I didn't exactly hold back. I got myself a Chemex coffee carafe, a nice gooseneck electric kettle, food scale and coffee grinder.
To stay active, hang out with friends, and keep somewhat socially distant from others, my friends and I have taken up hiking. So, I purchased a park pass. We're getting great use out of it already though!

These blog posts are probably pretty boring for people to read, but I think it's a great way for me to review my spending and see where I need to be more cautious. Groceries, eating out, and gift for myself combined with some necessities quickly brought me back up to my usual spending habits. It's a good reminder that if I'm not careful, I can easily spend more than I intend.

Comments

Three months: My life as a new PA-C

As I'm sure many new PA's can attest to, the end of PA school is a bit of a blur. One minute you're finishing up classes and studying for the PANCE and the next you're ... here? Three months into practice and wondering how it happened. Graduation was on May 13, 2022, and that was a really wonderful day. My parents came to support me, I enjoyed beers on the terrace with my friends, and I felt wonderful standing on the other side of three years of grad school. After a quick day of relaxation, I hit the ground running with my studying. I stuck with my plan for the most part, and felt equal parts "I can't possibly study any more!" and "But I'm not ready!" when exam day arrived. I happened to be at the very same testing center as a fellow student, so when we finished our exams, we headed over to the local mexican restaurant to enjoy tacos and well-deserved margaritas. Hilariously, our brains were so absolutely melted from testing that we could

Rotation #3: Internal Medicine (and pondering my future)

When I decided to go back to school to be a physician assistant, internal medicine is what I had in my mind. As a clinical dietitian, I had the chance to collaborate with APPs and loved the idea of being able to provide that kind of care to patients. One of the APPs who I had the chance to work with often while I was a dietitian became my preceptor for this rotation! It was very cool to be standing in the exact spot I had imagined back then. Back then, though, I did not appreciate just how challenging this job would be! I worked with a small private practice group that has privileges at various area hospitals, and my preceptor and I were based at one large metro-area hospital. The service was crazy busy the entire time I was there, and that was both good and bad. I got to see a ton of different diagnoses, a wide variety of patients, and was challenged to be relatively independent. But dang, it was hard to keep up most of the time. Honestly, I worked more and was more exhausted during

Rotation #2: General Surgery

Another one bites the dust! It's crazy to me that another rotation (and therefore all of my surgery experience) has come to an end. If I want to be one thing, it's totally honest. This rotation was challenging . I had a ton of fun during orthopedics -- I felt like a lot of providers and residents wanted to show off how great their subspecialties were. And they succeeded! But I didn't get pimped very much and I wasn't seeing patients independently. That all changed in a big way when I went to general surgery. Did I learn a lot because of this? Absolutely. Did I feel like an absolute pile of garbage most days because I felt like I couldn't do or answer a damn thing right? Yes. Did I talk to my classmates and get some reassurance that many rotations feel like this? Also yes. Thanks for making me feel less alone, guys. The days were long and the list of things to study was even longer. But here we are, one rotation down. We've survived, so far at least! One big t

OJ the PA

Search This Blog