This is sort of a post about money

Ahh August. We are just over one week in, and I feel like I already need to make some changes to the way this month is going. You see, my sweet friend Elza has just made the life-changing decision to go and bring help and healing on The Mercy Ship - a ship that sails doctors, nurses and thousands more around Africa. Incredible, right? When Wade and I broached the subject of donating to her (she has to raise over $10 000 to cover her flights, insurance and stay on the ship), we both agreed that in order to donate as much as we would like, we would have to sacrifice a little bit.

Now, when I say sacrifice, I don't mean eating rice and tinned food every night, walking to work and the like. Although I definitely could do that. No, I just mean cutting down on the little luxuries that I afford myself every month. Just by eliminating some things from my routine, we should be able to save enough to donate. This will mean not going across the road and treating myself to sushi during my midweek shifts, and instead bringing lunch to work. This will mean not buying cute tops as soon as I convince myself that I need them, and instead creating a wishlist here on my blog. This will mean making my own damn espresso at home with my amazing espresso maker that my friends gave me for my birthday, putting it one of the three thermoses I have and taking it with me to work or uni instead of buying a cup when I get there. This will mean no impulse purchases of books (when I have some I still haven't read sitting on my kindle!), music (after Shazamming that awesome track that was playing on the radio), or - my weakness - nail polish.

I'm going to be honest here and say that being frugal - isn't that an ugly word? - isn't my strong suit. At all. And if I'm trying to save for myself, it is almost destined to fail every time. But when I'm saving for a friend - well, that's a different story. I'll probably be documenting long, mournful posts this month about how much I'm missing my sushi, or crafting clothing wishlists on Polyvore, or trying to talk myself out of buying yet another shade of blue nail polish. Ugh, I just read that last sentence, and I kind of hate myself. I feel like I should hashtag it #firstworldproblems. But I really need to practice reigning in my spending and I'm feeling that August is a good time to start! Who's with me?

- H