During the last thirty two days I have constantly been thinking about just doing this for other things that I need to fix. For instance, I pick and chew my nails. I think during January I am going to go the whole month without picking or chewing. 

Even writing this reflection I feel a somewhat bitter-sweetness to it. I am stoked that I don’t have to write the three hundred to five hundred words a night don’t get me wrong. However, I miss the constant feeling improving my life/ habits brings.

There is no doubt in my mind that this project has jump started better spending habits for me. During November I found myself searching through my closet in amazement as I glanced at the number of impulse purchases I had made. There were numerous items which I have worn only a handful of times. Had it not been for the miniscule amount of restraint I put on my self I can almost guarantee that I would have made another one of those dumb impulse purchases.

Even though I still bought things during November I did actually think about the items before I bought them. It has been months since I have wanted something but actually thought “Do I really need this?.” As an example, the day I bought the jacket, I contemplated also buying jeans. I tried them on and like them. When I got out of the dressing room a thought crossed through my mind. “Do I really need more jeans?” You know what my answer was? It was yes.

As I have mentioned I recently dropped a pant size. Therefore I have only one pair of pants that fit. Justification for new jeans? Normally yes, but no. Even though I needed new jeans I realized that pants that fit correctly are a luxury, not a necessity.

If they had been cheaper though I would probably be wearing them right now.

I ended this month with just over two hundred dollars in the positive. If you read my introductory page than you would know my goal was to save around that much. So even though I cheated multiple times I consider this a small victory. 

I prevailed because I curved my spending habits.

I prevailed because I saved money.

I prevailed because I think before I buy now.

During the month I also noticed how spoiled I am. My discount is amazing. After talking to other people who work in clothing I feel very fortunate. I started to notice that the people I hang out with and see everyday at school re-wear their shirts more often than I do.

My Mom was even some what invested in this project. It actually spawn the start of what could be a very smart choice. My Mom and I are now looking in to putting money away in a bond or CD in order to gain interest on it and make me money in the future. We also contemplated the stock market although decided against it because of its inconsistencies right now.

What I am hoping will happen, due to the life lab, is that the miniscule changes I am made in this prior month  will snowball into some bigger radical money management skill that I will obtain at a later age.

As for now though, all I can do is steer my self down that road.

So Thank you Mr. Greenslate for inspiring what could be a very useful tool in my future. This has been easily one of, if not my, favorite assignment I have ever had in an English class. Thank you for giving us an assignment that is not just reading a book. And thank you for just being an overall good teacher.

And with that I bid you adieu Word Press. Maybe I will start a new blog. As for now who knows.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely Tyler Colvin

Hahaha I found this in my TV production class

Okay so in a Skateboarding video each person gets a “part.” A part consists of an average of about four or five minutes of just that person doing tricks. The tricks are aranged in a specific order. The order can be syncing to the song in the back, worse to better tricks, and a couple other combos. The last trick in someones part is traditionally the biggest and best and most technical trick in his part. That trick has adopted the name Banger.

For instance if you have just watched Chris Cole’s part in Fallen’s Ride the Sky. Than his banger would be the nollie big heel down the four block in France.

Thus I named my final days blog “Banger!”

Today Is the last day of my project.

I still spent money today damn it. Haha.

I was super hungry at school and bought a spicy chicken sandwhich and a water.

Anyway, I am somewhat glad this is over. I do somewhat enjoy blogging but I wont miss it too much.

I didn’t really do much today though. Went to school and work like normal. Today is also the last day of my work streak.

I really wanted to go skateboard today too. I couldn’t sadly. It definatly sucked going back to school today though.

I had to wake up way too early to do litterally nothing in all three of my classes. I had Tv production first which I did nothing. I am behind and I still did nothing. I slept I guess. My government teacher was gone so we had a sub. We watched a movie. It sucked.

I instead watched Thrasher King of the Road 2007 on my iPod. Again nothing.

Then in sixth. I did nothing again. There was a project but I neglected it.

Good Shit.

See you in my reflection.

End Day: +$200.70

New Organic Section At Sun Diego

Today was my last day of eight hour shifts and second to last day of my thirteen day work streak and blog.

I had a eight to four shift today. It pretty much sucked. I had to wake up at six thirty on my last day of thanksgiving break. Some how I managed to make my way out of bed to work on time.

When we open we have two choices of cleaning, mopping or vacuuming. I got mopping. I normally like it better than the vacuum however, the part of the sink that attaches to the hose we use to fill up the bucket is broken. So my only method of filling it up is using the other sink which not only doesn’t have the attachment but also has extremely low water pressure. So in order to fill it up I hold a cup under the sink until it is full then pour it in. So instead of it taking less than five minutes it takes just over fifteen.

This Sunday was absnormally slow in the store as well. I was extremely tired and was most definatly not in the mood to deal with what little customers actually existed.

We are judged by our hourly sales. There is a loop hole though. If we want our hours on the sheet to go down we can do activities like markdowns and RTV’s (Return to Vendor) in order to make our average higher.

As I said I was tired and wanted nothing to do with the customers so I started some markdowns. They sucked. It had already been half way down by multiple people so I didn’t even know what to look for.

Regardless though it took off an hour and half from my time.

To counter act the sleepyness I bought a Starbucks Double Shot though. So I spent a little.

After that I went home and chilled with Rylee. I played some CODMW2 which is always joyus, and then I went to sleep.

Boring day.

End Day: +$204.70

Finally got a picture of my bike

Just to clarify, the picture has nothing to do with the post. It is solely there because I have neglected to put a picture up of my bike yet.

So anyway to explain the title. Yesterday marked the three day period of eight hour shifts. Today, a twelve to eight shift.

The mid day shifts again have pros and cons. The pros are sales. There are just that many more hours on the floor to sell to customers. The cons are that all hours are on the floor. When you open or close there is at least an hour or two off the floor where you are away from the customers that allow you to somewhat chill. When you are on the floor you are in “go go go” mood twenty four seven.

It definitely makes the day go slower.

So today all I did was work. I worked, I met up with my new girlfriend after. That is it.

Today was seriously boring.

I did not buy anything although I am still anxiously awaiting my Obey accessories to come in the mail.

I really wanted to skate today. I couldn’t I pretty much worked from sunrise to sunset.

Christmas is coming up. I am excited. That is always a good time of  year. Every one is happy. So yeah.

I guess I am getting a new phone soon. If I get the Droid I will be stoked.

It is so sick.

It is supposed to be the iPhone killer. I like the iPhone so we will see.

Anyway. I still need bike stuff.

I broke my pressure valve the other day too.

Damn it.

Why isn’t there free stuff.

Like Costco. Costco rules. Go on any given day and get a bunch of samples.

Awesome place.

End Day: +$209.20

The Store

So today marked the busiest day of the year for shoppers. Black Friday (the friday after thanksgiving) is notorious for being the day where all the stores open up ridiculously early in order to give their early bird shoppers large discounts on the inventory.

Our store was chaos. The entire Carlsbad outlet mall annually opens at 12:01 a.m and closes at 10:00 that night. That leaves almost twenty two hours that we are open that day. Our store is not staffed to accommodate those hours. That being said we brought in about ten more people from the warehouse and other stores. Even still, we were understaffed. This forced all of us to work a minimum of eight hour shifts.

I lucked out.

There were a couple shifts available. A 11:30 on thursday night to 6:00 friday morning, a 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m, a 12:00 noon to 8:00 at night, and a 3:00 p.m. to close.

I obtained the three to close shift. There are pluses and minuses to this shift. On the plus side I was able to sleep in and have some of the morning free.

I took full advantage of my open morning by going on a nice fifteen mile ride. It felt nice to bike after indulging of the Thanksgiving food the previous two days.

On the other side, closing in not a time. Closing depends on two things, how fast the manager counts the money and closes the registers, and how long it takes the closing employees to clean the store. This Friday and Saturday the store closes an hour later as well. Between the seven closers and manager it took us almost three and a half hours. By some sort of magic the store slowed down about 8:00 leaving us closers a small window to jump start on our cleaning. So my shift ended up being a 2:30 (I came early) to 11:45 p.m. I got by solely on a cup of coffee in the morning, a venti iced white chocolate mocha at Starbucks, and a Red Bull.

It was tough but I got through.

Anyway on the monetary side I bought that coffee mid day. Good bye $4.50

End Day: +$209.20

Carmel Valley Bowl - aka gnarliest bowl on Earth

If you have been following along with my blog than you should know that yesterday, not today, was the day my family celebrated Thanksgiving.

That being said, instead of spending time with my family I decided to go to Carmel Valley Skate Park, again.

Most normal people today were eating turkey and probably drinking. I decided to take complete and full advantage of my only day off in twelve days. Thanks to the holiday the park was absolutely empty after about twelve o’ clock. I got there at about eleven thirty and to my surprise I saw a couple of the “groms” from the shop I work at. I was there to meet up with one of them specifically. He got there at about twelve and it was nothing but good times.

There is something truly amazing about a nice blissful skate session with one of your homies.

It was awesome because my warm up went really quickly. If you know anything about skateboarding, you know that each session involves a warm-up period. For most people, you don’t just jump on and instantly do a trick that isn’t “easy.” That is why The Berrics initiated this thing called “First try Fridays.” That is where Steve Berra calls up a pro and has them come and do a trick first try, no warm up.

Anyway I am getting off topic.

Spending wise, I did good!

I even avoided my normal, which is going to Quiznos for a four dollar toasty torpedo. Beef, Bacon, and Chedar with Honey mustard. It is amazing.

Anyway I didn’t spend anything. I decided to eat the left overs at home. Which ended up being a bad idea because my Dad took most of it.

Amazing day.

I will do it again soon.

End Day: +$209.20

Thanksgiving Dinner

Okay so here is the deal. My family celbrates thanksgiving a day early.

At this point in time I imagine you are asking yourself why? Well let me allow myself to explain. So like four years ago I was really good friends with this kid. Because of that my parents became mutual friends with his parents. So one year they decided to have thanksgiving dinner at that friends house. My parents decided that on top of going to my friends house they also wanted to have our own personal thanksgiving. However, because we were going to my buddy’s house on actual Thanksgiving day it forced our Thanksgiving to occur on the day before.

The same thing happened the next year. Ever since that it became a sort of tradition to just have it the day before.

Thank being said it is the day before Thanksgiving. Which can only mean it is our Thanksgiving.

It was delicious if you are wondering.

So anyway, I crippled today.

Again.

My main intention for this project was directed at clothing more than just money in general.

Until today I have been succesful in not buying any articles of clothing. However, that jacket I spoke of yesterday is now resting atop my shoulders.

In my defense until today I was not currently in possesion of anything warm enough on thses mornings. The only thing I had was a thin sweatshirt which was definatly not enough. It would be one thing if I bought another shirt to add to the dozens I own. But I did not have a jacket. I think that should count for something.

Regardless though I spent money.

On the possitives, I lasted twenty five damn days without buying clothes. That is with out a doubt the longest I have gone since I got that job.

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving

End Day: +$209.20

Transworld's Skatepark

So I slept in my own bed last night which was a nice change. I woke up with the intention to go ride my bike as it has been a while. I woke up earlier in order to prepare. I took a pill to control my acne which unfortunatly has numerous limitations. I can only take it after not eating for two hours. I can’t eat for an half an hour after. I must drink it with a full glass of water. I can’t lay down for an hour. It it rediculous.

So I waited a half hour then I went down and ate a good breakfast of a plain bagel with reduced fat garlic cream cheese spread, two scrabled eggs, a yogurt, and a glass of milk. After that I was waiting about another hour to let the food settle so I wouldn’t get a stomach cramp on my ride.

During the last fifteen minutes of that hour I recived a call from my boss over at Transworld asking if I could come by and work for a bit.

I guess the skatepark was just used for a photo shoot and therefore was extremely dirty and needed some dramatic cleaning. When in doubt, make the intern do it.

It is all good though. If I skate it, which I do, than it is only fair that I lend a hand in the cleaning. So I swept it for about fourty five minutes. After that I did a couple more orders in the warehouse. Then the good part came. I skated for like an hour in the newly clean park.

After that I went home for about an hour. That is where shit started to go wrong. I used my free time to browse some online stores. To make an abnormally long story short, I ended up buying two rings and a necklace. Luckily I found it on a website that offered it for a lower price than the brands website. After shipping it came out to $66.28

Anyway after I bought my stuff I went to work at Sun Diego. Yeah double shifts rule.

Sarcasm.

Anyway, I also saw a jacket we just got in…

It is really nice.

My co-workers said I should buy it.

End Day: +$283.32

Shipping DVDs at Transworld

So today was pretty easy. I slept over at Trevor’s house last night. I woke up and woke his ass up. He insisted on sitting in bed. After that I gave up trying to wake him up.  I went into his kitchen at macked a huge bowl of Captian Crunch Berries. Those things are amazingly delicious if you didn’t know.

After that I went into his living room to watch some T.V. Trevor then proceded to yell from his bed that the girlies were coming back over.

I watched some more T.V. then the girls came. Trevor and his girl kicked it as did me and mine. So I just sat there numbing my mind on the Televison until I checked my email.

I had a message from my Transworld boss. He needed me to come in at two o’ clock today. So I milked the last hour of sitting and doing nothing before I went back to my house to get ready.

I left to my house, hopped in the shower, ate, and left. Luckily my work at Transworld was pretty easy. For the majority cosisted of packaging up the orders that the company made online. (So if you bought anything from Transworld between 11/21 and 11/23, I was the guy who packed it for you.) So I just packed some stuff up and left.

Directly after work I left to pick Trevor back up and leave to Carmel Valley Skatepark again.

I had argubly one of the best skate sessions I have ever had. For what ever reason there were a bunch of my friends there too. I made a new friend too. He is super good. He also helped me out with my three sixty flips up the euro gap there.

I did how ever but a $4.50 coffee at Starbucks before as I needed to caffine.

End Day: +$349.60

Yet another inside joke

Today was pretty mellow. Woke up and went to work.

I had a bomb breakfast burrito too. For those of you who have never endulged on the simple delightfulness of a breakfast burrito, let me enlighten you. A breakfast burrtio is a toritlla stuffed with scrambled eggs, bacon, and grilled potatos, and some cheese. Those are the essential contents however people can choose to change it up a little bit by adding things such as salsa fresca, guacamole, sour cream, hot sause, sausage, onion, and tomatos.

Regardless they are one of the best things to eat in the morning too. There are plenty of delicious treats that can be served for breakfast. However most of them will make you feel fat and bloated for the next couple hours. That is the great thing about a breakfast burrito. You can have a decently sized one and then go out and live the day like normal.

So to get away from the food the rest of my day was good. I went to work and I sold a pretty good amount of product. At my job we are all judged on our hourly sales average. The better that number, the better your hours are.

So after that I met back up with my best friend, his girlfriend, and my date. It was nice. A good mellow day. Nothing too exciting happened. We just kinda sat there and watched some movies. We did end up going across the block to this sick little park that I had never been to. It was nice we all kind of just chilled there. I enjoyed it.

Spending wise, nada. I was stoked. Because I am dating this girl I am somewhat obliageted to pay for myself and her on our activities. So the fact that we just sat and did stuff for free was good.

End Day: +$354.10