An Effort to Give Up My Vice (s)

Lately, the financial crisis has taken over my world - school, home, and online life. Every day I hear or read something new at school. I am exposed to new ways to understanding this crisis and making sense out of it.

Yesterday, in the Top Manager's Perspective course, Professor Beatty informed us that the consumer spending (as tracked by VISA and Mastercard) had fallen by 35% as compared to the November statistics last year. Today, I read a couple of articles addressing the ways people can tackle these difficult times - people should be encouraged to spend less, save more, and fight the "holiday spending" season.

I have cut down my expenses drastically ever since I joined the student workforce. Travel is the only bit, where I have not and can not cut things down, because it is the essence of my being.

Today, in the morning, while sipping on a cup of coffee, I realized there are several other things that I have not cut down - things that require spending $ and contribute to my monthly expenses. Additionally, these vices make me unhealthy. For example; chocolate binges, coffee (literally every day), and warehouses sales. Therefore, I have decided to give up some of my vices for a few months and wean myself away from them.

1. December: Give up Chocolate and Sugar completely - doable unless lured.
   
2. January - February: Give up shopping completely - absolutely buy nothing for 2 months. I have done this successfully last year as well.
   
3. March: Give up morning Coffee - this might be the hardest to work on, since I have a slight bit of caffeine addiction. Ok, well a LOT of caffeine addiction.
   
4. December - April: Give up shoe-shopping - doable to some extent unless I drop by NYC's Nine-West store.
   

I hope to get far along and achieve all four targets.