Guest Post: How Blogging Put Me In The Poor House

Hi there Carrots ?N Cake readers! My name is Melissa and I write the blog MelissaNibbles. I?m very honored to be guest-posting for Tina today. My blog, MelissaNibbles, is a lazy girl?s guide to health and fitness. I give my readers realistic workout tips and recipes that they can fit into their busy schedules or lazy lifestyles.

Today I?m going to tell you about how blogging put me in the poor house. A cautionary tale to new bloggers and something other bloggers might relate to.

When I began blogging, I was overwhelmed with all the food, gadgets, running clothes, fitness dvds, etc…that I never even knew existed. It was awesome! Who knew there was such a thing as a tofu press?! I never knew you could wear a Garmin on your wrist that tells you how far you’ve run! And running skirts?! Adorable! The whole time I’d just been doing my thing, running, eating, and dressing like normal. I felt like I had been doing it wrong the whole time! Was I supposed to be wearing a Garmin? I eat all natural peanut butter, but what is almond butter? Is that better for me? Gah!!!

The peanut butter, oh the peanut butter. That’s where it all began. My go to PB had been Smart Balance. It’s natural, has omega 3′s, and is $2 a jar. Well, after seeing peanut butters like White Chocolate Wonderful, Dark Chocolate Dreams, etc… I felt like I was missing out. I hauled ass to the grocery store and stocked up. At $5 a jar! I spent $20 on peanut butter. That’s a tank of gas! I told myself it was okay because it was probably healthier for me (uh…no). I received free samples from other companies after that to try their products, but free samples don’t last forever and I was hooked. It wasn’t long before I was ordering peanut butter, almond butter, pasta, and fancy oatmeal online. You can’t put a price on your health people! Plus, free shipping!

Then came my fancy, new fitness wardrobe. I saw bloggers sporting running skirts and fabulous sports bras and t-shirts from Lululemon. What the f*ck is a Lululemon?! I’d never heard of the place. I was running in Hanes t-shirts and Target sports bras. I clearly needed to get myself together and look fabulous. I had no idea where the heck Lululemon was, but they had a website…oh boy do they have a website. I ordered sports bras, t-shirts, running skirts, and a $30 headband off their website. More than once!!

Gadgets. Oh, the gadgets. Bloggers have the most insane gadgets for their food prep and fitness. $200 blenders, Magic Bullets, peanut butter makers, drying racks for drying their food (WTF?!), the list goes on and on. The fitness stuff is even more out of control. Compression socks, foam rollers, Garmins, Nike footpads, $50 yoga mats with $100 carrying bags… I wanted a handheld blender so bad to mix my shakes like pudding. The one I kept seeing everywhere was $250. No way in hell I was paying $250, but I found one for $100 (WTF?! is wrong with me!!). I wanted a Garmin so I could see how far I was running. Those things run anywhere from $200-$600! I researched buying one, I thought of ways I could afford it. I rationalized the expense…I need to know how far I’m running!! Why? I never needed to know with a digital read out before? Mapmyrun.com was working just fine, but I NEEDED THE GARMIN EVERYONE ELSE HAS ONE!!!!! GIMME!!! My boyfriend thought about buying me one for my 30th birthday and that kind of woke me up a little. Did I really want his gift on my 30th birthday to be a freakin’ piece of exercise equipment? How thoughtful and loving. I told him, “Hell no! Trinkets and baubles please!!”

So that was a wake-up call of sorts. The big wake-up call came when my credit card statement came in the mail. Now, I have to tell you I am VERY responsible (normally) when it comes to money. I only have two credit cards. One has a high limit and a zero balance. It’s only for emergencies and is locked in a small safe that I keep things like my birth certificate and the one piece of expensive jewelry I own in. I don’t use this card and never used it to purchase anything I’m talking about here. It might be expired actually…The other card is an American Express with a $500 limit. I requested that limit so I won’t be tempted to go spending crazy (yeah, that worked) and it’s an American Express so I have to pay the balance every month. So the AMEX statement came and it was OVER the limit. So not only had I spent $500 on a bunch of sh*t I saw on blogs, but I had an over the limit fee. GREAT. I was so pissed at myself. I think I punched myself in the face actually. I couldn’t believe how irresponsible I had been and how I let something like blogging affect me like that. I couldn’t afford the bill so I did what I had to. I returned everything I could. I couldn’t return the food I ate, but I had some I hadn’t even taken out of the box yet that I was able to return. I waved goodbye to the handheld blender (a few months later I ended up getting a free one from a vendor so that worked out. I still haven’t used it though), packed up all the Lululemon clothes that I bought (most of them still had the tags), boxed those up and sent them back too. In the end, I had to pay about $200 on my credit card statement that month. It was better than $500 and the reality slap was well needed.

So if you’re a blogger or a new blogger. Take it from me that you don’t need fancy foods, gadgets or clothes to lead a healthy lifestyle. None of these things made my nutrition any better, made me run faster, or made me feel better about myself. It was just a big waste of money and made me feel insecure about myself. I got caught up in wanting to be like everyone else and thinking what I was doing wasn’t good enough. I learned to have confidence in my abilities and not to try to “keep up with the bloggers.” I think it’s great that people are able to afford these things and if you can afford it, hey go for it! If you can’t, don’t feel like you’re any less healthy or any less of a blogger.