I didn't spend a dime today which is incredible!! I usually spend around 5$ per day. Today... NOT A PENNY! =D

Thanks for the comments on my last post. It was not directly at me but to all my family. I cannot tell anymore details. I was hurt and frustrated so I need to vent. I am alright now... I am feeling a lot more calmer.

Yesterday, I learned a dark secret that just frustrated me so much. I can't tell you guys because it's quite serious but it's about money. I can't believe some people are willing to do anything to live a luxurious life... To build their status... To... *angry* And it's happening to people close to me. Does money make people do that to other people? How can they be so selfish?

I need to buy the book "A passage to India" by E.M.Foster near the end of the semester. I am planning to go search for the book near my library. I can rent the book up to four weeks and I can return it when the semester over. That way, I can save 20$ on a book I will never read again when I'm done with my English class.

Next semester, I am going to sell my French books to commerce students. By that time, they will need these books and usually, French books rarely change editions.

I ordered a gift card from the airmile website with my airmiles that I've accumulated over two years. I ordered a 50$ card from Indigo/chapters. I can order my Tamia, Corneille and Keyshia Cole CD for almost free. Probably only spend 5$ including shipping. I will think about it.

By the way, I got a haircut last week and it costed me 50$ including tips. YIKES!! He asked me if I want to style it and I said yes. I thought it will cost under 40$ but it costs more than I expected. Next time, I am just getting a haircut which will cost me 25$. However, I don't think I really want to trust my hairdresser. He intimated me somehow and I suspect he is taking advantage of my shyness to get more money. Though, he cuts my hair very nicely and I am overally satisfied. Next time, I am standing up for myself. I am his friken customer for god sake and I am paying for a service! Anyways, I will try to look for other hairdresser as good as him. The one I have now is a professional and he knows what looks good on me.

I put a profile picture up in an anime style. This is close to how I look like in real life and the clothes that the anime wears is similair to what I wore yesterday. Kiwii made the character for me. I am Chinese by the way, that is why the anime has slanted eyes. duh! =P

I check the clothes I have in my closet to see if I need anything in particular. So far so good, I can survive winter.

Later next month,I will try to look for three mix and matchable sweaters in either red,purple,white or black. No more blue since I have a lot of those already. I also need boots for the winter which Kiwii will take care of it hopefully by buying me a good and warm quality one. I will like to add pearls earrings and necklace to my jewelry collection but that is only a want, not a need. My ultimate luxury which I hope to be able to buy in December or January is a cashmere sweater... @.@ One that I can wear often and can match easily with my other clothes. That will be one of my ultimate luxury which is super expensive. =P Again, this is a want. Haha.. xD

I...





































donate 20$ to the Aid foundation today. Yes everybody... A whole 20$ bill into the donation box. The guy was shocked... Why I donate? Two reasons. 1. my aunt told me to give what you can. I remember my aunt giving 20$ to the foundation and she doesn't make much. 2. I told myself, if I am willing to spend 20$ on random stuff like food without thinking twice. Then I am willing to give 20$ without thinking twice but... For a good cause.

There you go... I never donate more than 3$ in my life. I made history. *write in Christina biography*

Here I go again... I cancelled the item because I realized... NO MONEY SAVE FOR IT!!!

I prefer to save for my Japan trip than those for the moments.

I randomly stumble into this artist on youtube while listening to my favourite singer Tamia. All I can say is WOW!! She blew me away with her singing.

Her name is Keyshia Cole and she's an awesome singer. I love the aura she projects in her singing. She's also very gorgeous espcially when she has red and blond hair and she sounds like Mary J. Blige.

I was undecided about buying Tamia and Corneille CD albums. Come to think of it, I haven't bought an album for three years already. Last album I bought; Corneille-Parce qu'on vient de loin in 9th grade. After hearing her... I must get her album!! I look up at her latest album at Amazon.ca and it was 14.99$! I looked up at Corneille and Tamia, the price was a little disappointing considering they are old albums... Corneille was 19.99$ and Tamia was 17.99$. Though, the prices were a little better than here and I got eligible for free shipping. My total is 59.79$.

I am so excited!! Can't wait to receive them.

Here are the links to some of her songs:

Lately, my boyfriend and I are really busy with school and work that we barely have the time to see each other.

Seeing him today for the first time in three weeks made us happy. Though the time spend together was short (2 hours), we manage to talk... Well I'm the one who does the talking most of the time. *sigh* So much to say so little time!

When we were waiting for my bus to come, we started talking about Americans culture, European culture and Asian culture. This time, I'm not doing the talking! He is... And when he starts talking, I feel in awe because it's so interesting. After our conversation, I felt so deeply in love with my boyfriend... I mean... I've been having some bad times lately and I can't seem to find the motivation to study because I was quite depressed. He made me want to learn new things... Learn about other cultures. To keep on going. I admit I was stuck into the superficiel side for a moment and I got depressed. GuiGui woke me up unintentionally by talking at what he is best at; asian cultures. xD

This is the man I was chasing for... A simple guy who is so knowledgable... who also loves challenge. I don't know how many times I said it to people around me but... You can't find a guy like this easily! He's mine!

Last Friday, a friend came to my school to give me the scarf that I bought at her workplace. She works in one of my favourite clothing store and she gets half price at the regular price. So it cost 10$ including tax instead of 20$! I'm so happy!

I love scarves especially white ones, they are easy to match and can really make an outfit stand out. I'm planning to wear it with my green fall coat. Last autumn, I wore a red scarf that a friend gave me for Christmas and it looks awesome with my coat. Unfortunatly, the scarf is unwearable... It's broken everywhere because I wore it to death! My white scarf will be my next victim! ;-)

With my coat:



A closer look:

Got my paycheck last Thursday.

Old amount: 8534$
+ 315$
---------
8849$
I have 1151$ to go! =D

I went trail hiking with my physical education class today at 9:30am to 1:30pm. I wish I had brought my camera with me! The view up there was amazing! Plus the weather was wonderful!! My legs are soared from all the walking but I feel satisfied. Not to mention that it was free!! I didn't even pay a penny to walk around that place.

In October, I'm thinking of going back there with my boyfriend. I hope the weather will be as wonderful as today and I'll remember to bring my camera for all you guys to see.

Lately, I've been stressing a lot between school and work. I have really bad stress problem and I often get into depression because of that.

Yesterday, I realized that the reason why I'm stressing too much is because I keep thinking about the money earn for my trip. School sort of come second all of a sudden and travel is my #1 priority. No wonder I overspend sometimes. I turn my life into something unrealistic and I am behind my social life. I don't want my life to be all about school and work. So I have to make an important sacrifice...

What is my sacrifice? Traveling. I'm only going to save for Japan now. Since I am only a thousand and five hundred short. The rest, I will put a percentage in my future and enjoy the rest of the money. As for China, I will think about it when I finish college in December.

Why I made this sacrifice? To have peace of mind... School and friends are important to me and I want to make them my priority.

Other sacrifice? Less luxury for me = less money making. By the end of September, I will only work on Saturday morning for the rest of the semester. I will have Fridays (most of the time) and Sundays free.

Why again? Less stress and concentrate more in school.

I want to think realistic... and in order to be realistic, I have to give up things that I love which is to travel each year. My big trip will be China and Japan. For the rest, I will think about it after college.

Lately, it has been really hot. I try to dress according to the weather, sometimes it's hard. Since it's getting hot lately.

My #1 motto in dressing is to dress classy without baring too much. Especially at school where sometimes, a babydoll shirt and a pair of booty short are too much for school. While I don't mind girls wearing those kind of things. I care how I dress and how people perceive me.

So, my question every morning is... What can I wear today without being revealing? I try to dress different everyday. For example, Monday = t-shirt and skirt, Tuesday = tank top and 1/2 jeans, Wednesday = 1/2 shoulder t-shirt and shorts, Thursday = Dress and Friday = t-shirt and jeans. I also add jewelries to make the outfit stand out more. With my dozens of jewelries, it is easy to wear the same thing and put a different jewelries everytime. I like to wear the big colourful jewelries from time to time. So far, I haven't wore them but I am itching to wear them next week ^.^.

Anyhow, the problem is... I don't want to wear shorts and tank top to school (Will totally destroy my motto of classyness)and I don't want to wear the same type of clothing everyday. I like to be able to diversify my image. The reasons why I see this as a problem are: #1 I like to adopt different style to make an image of me as open person. #2: I want to wear many of my summer clothes before the season is over. (I feel like I waste $ even though, I could wear them next summer). #3: I love clothes. You guys should know that. xP

Ouf... Glad to let it out of my system.

Sorry I cut short my part 1. I didn't have the time to write more. Today, I don't need to work but I was on a depression so I need to find something to make me feel better.

What other things are important to me too?

Beauty: I don't wear makeup but I care a lot about my skin. That's why sometimes, I am ready to pay more to get a nice healthy skin. Having skin free helps a lot on our confidence. I am trying to find one that is inexpensive and that I am satisfy with. I am bless with healthy shiny hair and a healthy body figure from my parents. Just the skin area that both of them are bad at. I am trying to drink plenty of water and see the dermatologist next week to reduce my spending on beauty.

Socializing: I need to go out from time to time, if I don't. I will go crazy and probably suffer depression. Probably the reason why I spend so much. When I learn how to manage my time wisely, I would like to make time with my friends before exams period start. My type of activities are simple. I would like to go eat at a new restaurant (From another culture) , go bowling, go to the movie or anything simple. As long as I'm spending time with them, I'm happy.

Music: I listen to music almost everyday. It brings my mood up and I feel like dancing. Probably the reason why I'm always on the computer xD. It is known that listening to a type of music kinda define your personality.

Those are other things that matter for me for the time being. The rest, I don't remember lol... I'll probably post other blogs about it some other day if I remember.

Oh yeah, I have people who are important to me too but I guess it is like most people. I don't need to talk about it. xD

Hey!

Instead of talking the usual topic, I would like to talk about things that are important to me.

I guess one that's obvious is traveling. I love to visit many places, learn the culture and eat different food. If I had all the time in the world, I would spend a majority of my time just living in different countries for a few months. My parents would literally flip if I decide to take three years off just wandering around the world. I wouldn't mind if time was not an issue though.

What are my next travel destination to come next year? So many places I want to visit... Just so little time. I told a friend I will visit him in London next summer. He finished school at the end of June. As for accomodation, I don't know anyone who I can go, my friend is not from there. He is from Switzerland and he will go study in London in about two weeks for a year. I guess I will go there for two weeks, one week in London and one week somewhere in France. It is going to be costy. If I change my idea, it would be either Ecuador or Spain and Morocco. Still not decided yet.

Another thing that is important to me is photograph. I love taking pictures of different things. Whenever I see something beautiful, I just wish I had a camera with me. In my Morocco trip, I tried taking as many shot as possible. I want to take pictures that perfectly describe the moment.

This is my favourite picture of all my Morocco pictures... I have way too much pictures to post that I tried to reduce the numbers as much as possible. This is from the country side:



What's the story in the picture? =)

Part 2 : Coming soon.

Hey everybody,

for the past few blogs, I have been talking about money. Literally all my blogs are about this particular topic. I wish to diversify this blog as much as possible. Therefore, I will try to talk about things that are important to me on my next post. I just feel like I should past this out before telling you guys what other things are important to me.

Broken_Arrow asked me once why I like money so much. I don't know how to explain it as it is very hard to me to actually put it in a more concrete way.

I guess part of the money obsession is my family. When I was much younger, I was seven if I remember correctly. I used to earn my money at my dad's place and my dad taught me how to put money in the bank. I remembered I was so happy putting money in the bank and seeing it grow each day. My parents were so proud of me. My brother? Well he was a spender and still is. Whenever he gets pay by my parents, he spends it right away. He always try to make me spend my money, I guess is out of jealousy.

At the age of 13, I started spending my money like crazy and I like the feeling of it.My dad trusts me in putting my bank card in my possession at age 15. Guess I let him down when I spend 1000$ in two months. My dad took back the card by force and he got really manipulative. My mom made it worst, by humiliating me with people at her workplace. She starts talking bad about me and how much clothes I have. In reality, I don't have much clothes. I really don't know where I spend my money.

When I went to Vancouver to learn English for a month and a half at the age of 16, I asked my dad to raise my pay since I need money for my trip. My dad decides to raise me to 5$/hour and I work hard. In the end, I manage to spend a big part of it and I had 500$ left for my trip. My dad was so furious at me that he took my money and tell me to do without. I was so furious at him and tell him to take everything, I don't need anything. I guess we both act on feeling. This incident left me a scar. Although, my dad gave my money back and he gave put 500$ on my bank whenever I need it, I still remember this incident like it was yesterday.

The rest... You guys probably know on my ex-blog. I got obsess about saving money. I was not thinking about the future... I guess the reason why I want to save is because of my past. I have manipulative parents and I had to fought long and hard for them to leave me alone with money. Ever since I earn money of my own, my dad literaly is trying to manipulate my finance. When the incident happend where I gave all my money, my dad finally understood not to ask me for money or anything related to it because I will get really aggressive.

I don't know how to summarise this and hope that somebody will explain to me.

On my next post, I will talk what other things are important to me.

Okay guys, Joan made me realized that I talk a lot about money. On my next post, I will talk more about myself. Promise!

I will try not to label myself as a shopaholic and here are the reasons.

I love being stylish but I do not buy random pieces. When I find something I love, I try to think of different outfits I can match up with. If it does not match with anything and it's cheap (surprisely), I don't bother buying no matter what the price is. This how I differ from Kiwii. My cousine told me that it doesn't matter if she doesn't find anything to match with, she will eventually find something. I have some stuff that I barely wear like my bubble skirt. Sometimes, it's true that keeping it over time, I will find something perfect to match with it. But still... It's better not take a big risk at buying random stuff.

If I spend a lot for something, my rule is it's better be something that I wear for a long time and doesn't go out in style next season. My last big purchase before my nine west bag is a Ralph Lauren sunglass that I bought for less than 150$ in Morocco. My last purchase before that one is my dark wash jeans that cost me 100$ last winter. My biggest purchase ever was when I was 16 and I bought a 200$ pair of jeans. What happened to my 200$ pair of jeans? I still wear it =). It's a True Religion jeans and I love how it looks on me. Got it for three years and wear it so much that I lost track of count. It's still in superbe condition.

Now when I tell you all this in one paragraph, it may seem like... Wow... Christina spends alot! Well if you look at my usual purchases. You can see that I do not spend a lot. I don't brag around telling everybody that I spend this and that.

When I was a kid, I used to buy random stuff and wear the same outfit with the same pair of jeans over and over again till I get bored of it. Now, I try to put different outfits together (Especially with my summer clothes) by buying skirts,shorts and pants. To add another different touch to it, I add accessories. I used to throw/donate many clothes each four to five months. Last week, I cleaned my closet and I only threw/donate away three shirts/a pair of sandals/broken tote bag and...a very rusty necklace (That I hate)The last time I threw away many unwanted clothes was a year and a half ago. Big improvement from just a few months to a year and a half. Of course, I can't keep all the clothes I have for years to come. But I always try to make my purchase last in any ways that I can.