making do

Yes, I am still unemployed, still job-searching, still staying up late and getting up late, visiting my family for however long I want. I’m still enjoying quite a bit of "me time." Sure, the money from unemployment isn’t great, but I’m blessed with a great friend/landlord, and I have tons of other friends who don’t mind buying me a drink or paying for my movie ticket when funds are low. They know that when I’m flush, I don’t mind buying for them, so it works out perfectly.

Besides, I wasn’t making much more at my last job, and I was also overworked and treated like offal.

As an aside – I do forget about awful job experiences of the past, EXCEPT when I go on job interviews. Since I can’t tell the truth about awful bosses (you don’t want to seem bitter), I need to go over the things that happened and figure out how to explain them without implicating my bosses or coworkers, but also without implicating myself. This dredges up all of the feelings that I otherwise don’t feel – being betrayed, being unfairly blamed for things, watching incompetent bosses save their asses by throwing mine into a fire, the anger that comes with all of this. Usually I am just happy to be free of such places. But when it comes to thinking through possible interview questions, the ghosts of jobs past haunt me again, for a little while. I mention this because I had a job interview yesterday (I hope I did well!).

Anyway, I’m not any sort of shopaholic, but having to tighten the belt really does make me look at how I spend. And in the last few months, I have been feeding my hunger for "new" things by making do with what I already have.

For instance, instead of buying a new journal when I filled up my last one, I decorated a blank book with fabric and ribbon, and drawings I did, all with materials that I already had.

Instead of buying an expensive, scented lotion, I mixed the unscented lotion left over from my tattoo with the very last drops of different perfume oils I purchased from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. The scent that I made was sort of a spicy, organic floral – definitely not something that you’d find at a perfume counter. And, when I do have money to spend, I would rather buy perfume oils from BPAL than buy expensive designer perfumes. The oils last longer, and BPAL has such a variety of scents that everyone can find something that fits them (I’ve found at least four scents that fit me).

My homemade perfumed lotion was eventually used up, just as I happened upon a solid perfume I’d bought from Lush. It was called "Champagne Snowshowers", I think, and it had hardened enough that it was difficult to use as a solid perfume. I still had unscented lotion around (far be it from me to be UNSCENTED), so I decided that I’d try to reuse this solid perfume as a lotion. I heated up the perfume with two teaspoons of olive oil, and then added it to the lotion, and it is glorious!

I’m also doing the stereotypical "recessionista" (how I hate that term) thing of going through my closet for new and interesting ways to wear the clothes I already own, since I can’t afford to shop for new items.

And all of this is working quite well – I’m thinking about new and creative ways to use all of the stuff that I’ve accumulated, and I don’t feel sad and dreary about things I can’t afford. It’s so satisfying to make do!