FEELING FANCY February

Still in my feelings. Still so sad.

I’ve been trying to dress the opposite of how I feel, which has resulted in my motto:

“Sad inside, Slay outside.”

The idea is, the more sad I feel, the more obnoxious I dress up. Dressing up brings me a bit of joy, and why not do boring chores while feeling FANCY?

And as a result, I have been making significant progress on the impulse shopping front. For the first weekend in 2024 I made no impulse purchases. Did that last? No. Did I do better? YES. And that my friends, is progress.

Stop Drop Roll is WORKING. I mostly find myself using my phone to play. I roll virtually and have all my options saved in my Notes. However the other day my phone was in another room, so I used Jackson’s crayons to write numbers 1-6 on a tissue box and rolled that.

My roll: 6, 6, 3, 1, 4, 4 (Style an outfit (I chose my BABE accessories to style), while listening to Throwback 90s/2000s playlist and snacking on something sweet).

My roll: 3 (3), 4, 6, 1, 1, 3 (Create (a photo shoot) in the sunroom as a character (I chose Carrie Bradshaw) wearing monochrome, listening to Mellow Jams and snacking on something salty.

I had so much fun with the photo shoot I did one for Valentine’s Day and had a Poshmark sale :)

It sounds kind of silly, but rolling dice is ACTUALLY working. Rolling means:

I am consciously catching myself in a habit I do NOT want to continue.
It means I am CHOOSING an alternate activity that is better aligned with my goals.
It allows me to focus on something else, whether fun or not, and then make that activity a little more fun (while not spending money).

It seems having a new game creation obsession has shifted my focus again. In addition to STOP.DROP.ROLL. I have started playing a version of one of my childhood games: M.A.S.H. I call it MONEY M.A.S.H. because it is saving me money (lol).

This is similar to Stop. Drop. Roll….but has more lists involved. Shocker.

Remember playing M.A.S.H.?

M.A.S.H.? More like MONSTER MASH! Lololol. I wore head to toe metallic to Monster Jam.

Well it’s helping me stop impulse shopping, so here’s how I’ve modified it:

What you need:

A way to make lists (I like pen and paper, but I only had my phone with me when I came up with it, so into the Notes app it went)
A way to roll a die (again I like the idea of having a physical object, but a virtual die roller worked for me)

Now LIST (I used 6 items per list bc 6 sided dice are most common). This is my list of activities:

Activity:
Clean
Declutter & organize
Create
Relax
Move
Shop closet & Style outfit (#1)
1. Boss Business Babe (#2)
2. Reach out to loved one (#3)

I encourage you to CUSTOMIZE. Fill in with activities YOU love. But also feel free to use mine, I have a paper version in my planner here:

Overwhelming? Maybe to some, but I need specifics, so this has helped.

I also created a pretty digital version here: and a blank one:

I printed the digital version and put it in a sheet protector. Now I can use a dry erase marker to circle my rolls and then reuse 🙂

Some of my favorite rolls: If a number has more than one option I roll twice. The second roll is in ( )

Roll #6 (Roll #1): Shop my closet and style an outfit: Sad inside, slay outside :)
Roll #4 (Roll #5): Relax aka just add water: shower/bath, tea or coffee, DIY spa activity
Roll #6 (Roll #2): Boss Babe: work on blog, work on social media, work on projects

There is something about dressing in bright colors and dressing up for no reason that is really doing wonders for my grief right now. Alyse would be so proud.

I have taken additional measures to keep the February Freeze going:

Not going to the store with Mila at nap time is WORKING (staying away from temptation). I replaced our nap drives with tv watching for mom.Or just straight napping.
Talking more about purchases BEFORE making them. Although Matt is very supportive and trusting, I needed to be held more accountable. Just telling him about what I buy or plan to buy helps me determine if it’s actually a need or not.