Work work work work work

Can you guess what's on my mind lately? Yep. Work. And money. And how there never seems to be enough of it in my bank account. So, I've decided that once this 30x30 challenge is over (today is day 28!), I'm imposing a new challenge upon myself. It's a financial diet, if you will. I can't reasonably cut out all spending, and to be honest, I wouldn't want to. I take the term "retail therapy" very seriously. It's sad, but shopping genuinely makes me feel better when I'm in a bad mood. Which, given my history through high school and college, explains why I'm so broke now.

But I'm trying to remedy that, particularly because next tax season is probably going to kill me. Or come close. It's my first year filing taxes as a non-student, and I'm earning some decent money freelancing on the side, which I don't get taxes taken out of them. So I'm going to owe good ol' Uncle Sam a pretty penny come April. So I'm trying to plan ahead! Yay, me!

So what does that mean? It means I'm looking for a part-time job (which will bump my employment up to 1 full time job, 1 freelance job, 1 part time job and 1 blog that's kind of like a job, only I don't get paid--yikes). Free time? Who needs it? Well, I do, but if I have less of it, maybe I'll shop less.

And when I do shop, it will be exclusively at thrift stores. If I want to splurge, I may buy something handmade on Etsy. But no full-price anything. Until...well, until I can't do it anymore. I'm aiming for a minimum of one month, but if this goes well, I'm going to try to stretch it out for the rest of the year. *gulp*

Okay, enough whining about money woes. Here are some fun photos! (Wow. That even rhymes. Ew.)

items: 4, 5, 9, 27
bracelet: street vendor @ Short North Gallery Hop
necklace: Claire's, about 5 or 6 years ago

Is this a pretty close copy of this outfit? Maybe. But it's the end of the challenge and to be honest, I'm running out of ideas. I can't wait to get my whole closet back! It will feel like I just went on the biggest shopping spree ever!

There I go again, talking about shopping. Ugh.

So, today's post has some homework. And you thought you were off the hook, with it being summer. Well, the school of VM never takes breaks! Muah ha ha ha!

Seriously, it's fun stuff.
- Enter my giveaway, if you haven't already. Ends Friday!
- If you have an account on 20 Something Bloggers (20SB), you should vote for me for the August featured blogger here. First person to vote for me gets a vote FROM me for their blog in return ;)
- If you have tips for saving money or whatnot, share! I need all the help I can get, haha.

Also...I don't say this enough, but I love you all. Really. Each and every one of you who reads this: you are awesome. And thank you. *muah*

A giant thank you!

I realized that I've never really said this before, so I'm saying it now. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who reads/subscribes to/follows this blog. To the nearly 45 of you that follow me via RSS feeds, Google Friend Connect and Bloglovin', THANK YOU! To those who follow me on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook, THANK YOU! And to those who just pop in from time to time, another big THANK YOU!

And, just so you all know, you can follow me through any of the aforementioned platforms via the buttons on the right ;) Okay, okay. I'm done with that. On to the clothes!

items: 3, 5, 27
belt: thrifted
necklace: Figleaf

This is actually the very first time I've ever worn a dress as a skirt. (It's this dress, if you were wondering.) And since this shirt is so see-through, I actually had to tuck the top part of the dress down into the skirt itself. So it's a little poofy, but I think the belt helps keep it in check. Personally, I love this style...it's like I just gained another eight or so skirts, without spending a cent! That's always a bonus, amiright?

Also, is Blogger being weird for anyone else lately? Deleting codes that are supposed to be in every post, not letting you center photos in WYSIWYG mode, etc?