Do you make new year's resolutions? If so, do you stick to them? I've always found resolutions to be a little punishing, albeit beneficial—lose 10 pounds, stop smoking, cut carbs, exercise more—so I frame mine as goals and make sure they are things that will bring me joy. In the past, I've set a goal of two cultural events per month (which I've kept up with, and then some), supporting journalism by paying for subscriptions (still doing that), and lowering my carbon footprint (going strong with composting, menstrual cups, offsetting all my flights, meatless Monday, and bar soap only). Last year, in a fit of mid-pandemic helplessness, I set way too many goals for myself, most of which were neither pleasurable nor attainable, and—shocker—I did not accomplish most of them, which left me feeling somewhat useless and unhappy. So this year, I've pared it down to three big goals, which in the spirit of vulnerability (and accountability), I'm going to share here. One is to strengthen my friendships; the pandemic did a number on my social life, and I'm still recovering from that. The second—which is a little more relevant here—is to improve my relationship with money, because I'm realizing that I could be in a better financial position than I am. As part of that, I made a budget for the first time in my life (I'm using
You Need A Budget) and whew, has that been a humbling and eye-opening experience. Which brings me to my third and hopefully most relevant goal: to invest wisely in beautiful things. Real talk: I have frequently bought things just to feature here on the blog, and those are not items that have truly brought me joy; instead, I end up reselling or donating them, which is better than throwing them away, but still, I'd rather have one nice sweater that I love and will wear for years versus 10 crappy sweaters that pill and I can only wear a few times before I'm utterly disgusted by them. So with that in mind, I've set a few parameters for myself for what I purchase (and wear) in 2023—let's be honest, this blog is called Cheryl Shops, and while I have no intention of stopping, I can at least be more conscious about what I buy. So here are my shopping guidelines for 2023.
