Trying to Save, But Spending

Because I didn't know I was buying an apartment until a few weeks ago, I made some previous financial commitments that are coming due now. First, I booked a trip to Central America. I wasn't sure about this because I just went on a trip in November, but I thought what the heck. So that''s about $2K that I'm paying between January and March. In November I told my brother and his wife that their wedding gift would be tickets to Italy for their honeymoon. I bought those this month. Airfare sucks right now and they are going in the high season -- September. So there goes another almost $3K. I can afford all of this but it is very stressful to spend all this $ now when I am going to have to write an enormous check within the next few months. I already wrote a check last week for 10% of the purchase price.

I've been trying to be good in other ways, including making much more of my food, and now I've stopped drinking for a while, so that will cut down on a lot of my restaurant bill. Not that I drink that much, but it's so expensive at a restaurant.

I am also staring down a lot of costs associated with the apartment on top of the actual cost to buy and close on the place. Movers, a new TV, some new furniture, and then the service costs like someone to install blinds and possibly paint. Hence why I am sitting home on a Saturday night after having just cooked soup and baked cookies with not a drop of wine in sight!