Do what works for YOU!

During the first Saturday of the year, my friends wanted to catch up for a bit.  The holidays were officially over, and getting together seemed like the ideal thing to do.  The past 2 weeks were all about family.  I agreed to meet up because I always felt that your friends are your second family, (and sometimes they just "get" you).  Of course it fell apart quickly, and not everyone made it out as they promised to.  We originally met up at Old Town at Benchmark, a upscale sports bar.  College football was on tv and the crowd seemed pretty excited.  It's not my thing, but sometimes you have to go with the flow if you want to get out of the house. 
Once we realized our group was going to stay small, we made the most of it and caught up with one another.  At one point we decided to break up and head our own way.  I figured since I made the trip out in the first place, I would quickly checkout Y bar.   It's a pretty known fact that the weekend after the holidays it's dead EVERYWHERE from retail shops to the nightlife industry.  I saw some friends and then we all decided to head next door to Shay.  I was beat, but did make a promise to myself not to step out again unless we're celebrating something.  Going out for the sake of drinking and spending money is not on my list of things to do for 2016.
The following day was Sunday and the friends that did not make it out before wanted to hang out now.  I made my way over to Wicker Park for some Sunday Funday action, but again, the scene was dead.  I felt we kept "looking" for some action.  This did not appeal to me at all since I was on the verge of paying off my huge debt.  I realized I had to make a decision on what I was trying to accomplish for myself.  Unfortunately, I've reached the point where I'm bored of the scene and rather be at home drinking a glass of wine and reading my Italian work book.  It's all fun and games but when you have different financial goals than everyone else, you have to figure out what works for you.  Yes we did "catch up" but it seemed that we could have saved this for another time.  I knew right away that I wanted to do things differently this year. 
At the end of the day, you need to take care of yourself FIRST.  It may not be easy.  You can catch up with friends over the phone.  It's cheaper.  Me and my co-worker friends decided to follow up a savings plan to help us reach our goals for 2016.  I'm excited I have a little team going with this.  I think it will push us to strive as a group.

Unfortunately, not too many people out and about.  Check out the background!  lol