What makes you a grown-up?

In 1960, 70% of 25-year-old women had reached the "traditional" adult status. This includes leaving home, finishing school, getting married, having a baby and being financially independent. Whoa! So far, the only thing I have accomplished is finishing school. I'm not alone, though. Now-a-days only 25% of 25-year-old women have officially made it to adulthood. 


It's not that we're lazy. I have no problem working hard and earning my own money. In fact, those who know me know that I did live out my life-long dream of moving off to New York and was financially independent for 2 years after college. Since then, I have been enjoying my free stay back home with my mom and my job as a Merchandiser, which by the way is what I went to college for. 


All and all, I think I have things pretty well figured out. I'm on the right track career-wise with my upcoming move up to Assistant Manager and I have an amazing boyfriend who adores me. However, when it comes to spending the money I work so hard for, I would much rather do so on clothes, shoes, handbags, cosmetics, eating, drinking, etc. NOT on those boring adult things like rent, utilities and insurance. This, I believe will be my biggest challenge with this move towards adulthood.


I am looking forward to the independence and being with my boyfriend. But the adjustment to only being able to spend less than 30% of my paycheck on the stuff I want to spend it on may take a while to get used to. It takes a lot of discipline (which I have little of) so I'm hoping that documenting everything here will help keep me accountable. Since I'm already going through a huge lifestyle change, I've also decided to try to adopt some healthier habits like working out, eating better (and more economically) and drinking more water. Why not go all the way, right? 


I have 31 days left of this phase in my life that I get to have my cake and eat it too! Better make them count!