I’m on a No-Spend Challenge, but These Prime Day Picks Might Just Break Me

Ninety-nine percent of “In this economy?!?!” jokes are made by me. It started as a bit, but somewhere around the third time the price of eggs went up, the bit curdled into a cry for help, and now I’m on a strict no-spend challenge. Yes! No nonessential spending for the rest of the summer. No 11 p.m. cart-filling, no "it's basically self-care" pick-me-ups, no fourth black tank top purchased solely because the lighting was different in this photo, and absolutely no girl-mathing my way into purchases just to feel something. I told my friends. I told my fiancé. I told my dogs, who remained unbothered yet seemingly doubtful at the same time. I was going to become a Person Who Saves Money, and I was going to be insufferable about it!

But then Amazon Prime Day happened to me. I say to me because, well, it’s literally my job to track the best deals and tell you about them. Temptation is around every corner—you tell me how you would fare staring into the face of red-lined deals for eight hours a day. Not great! Anyway. The point is the universe waited until I hit peak virtue to roll out the best Prime Day deals of the year, and I am holding on by a single thread, and that thread, dear Reader, is fraying fast because the sale ends tomorrow.

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I’ll admit, a lot of these “deals” aren’t worth it. Half of them are prices that got quietly nudged up last week so they could be dramatically slashed this week, and I'm not about to blow my whole challenge on something that's on sale for a dinky little 7% off. What I can't argue my way out of are the few things I've been circling for months that actually hit their lowest price ever this week—like the Oura Ring 4 or the Solawave red-light mask I'm pretending I'm above. Legitimately great discounts that probably won’t happen again until Black Friday (if at all).

Here’s a peek into my shopping cart. Somebody stop me!!!