(no subject)

[jianantonic]

McKenzie and I had a little talk about money this afternoon. I wrote before (in a locked entry) that our finances are fine, but we'd like to be saving more, and also neither of us can realistically expect to ever make significantly more in our jobs. The cold, hard truth is that the most realistic way for us to make an impact right now is for me to stop fucking shopping. Sigh. I love shopping. I love buying new shit. I know I have too much shit and the hippie in me hates this about myself, but god dammit, it's so fun.

I'd stop short of calling myself a shopaholic, because I don't spend beyond my means, and I don't buy anything just for the sake of buying something -- but I definitely buy WAY more than I need. Usually clothes. I have enough clothes. I know this. I just love adding to the collection. Not having or planning for kids makes it easier to spend selfishly, that's for sure. But it's still not ideal. So...how to cut back...

In weight loss, the best way to change your habits is to write down everything you eat. So maybe I'll go back to writing down everything I buy for starters. I have done this in the past, when finances were tighter and it was more of a necessity. I'm kicking an idea around in my head of trying to go for a whole month without buying anything at all beyond essentials. Groceries that I use in the short term, transportation costs, utilities and other bills...and no more. No etsy, no modcloth, no Saturday Market...a month. Can I do this for a month? Maybe start off with a week? Heh. I really do want to try this. The question is, when do I start? Certainly not next week, because Falcon Ridge. Shopping the vendors at Falcon Ridge is always a highlight for me. And then after that, we have our cruise...and they'll have a casino, and I'll want to play craps. Maybe that won't cost money...but it likely will. And then after that, I'm going to Hong Kong in a month...and possibly Turkey...see, this discipline shit is HARD.

I will start by writing everything down. I'm sure there's a simple app I can use. That way I can do something productive toward this goal even with Falcon Ridge and a bunch of other travel thrown into the mix. Then, as I take my baby steps, I'll see how close I can get to zero non-essential spending, and how long I can sustain it. My hope is that just being slightly more conscientious will make a difference, but it may well be that cold turkey is the best way to go...I'm just not quite there yet. So. Let the great experiment begin!

Comments

[teefers.livejournal.com]

blarg, I feel you so hard on the shopping thing. I've managed to slow my role with the clothes-buying, and I've even given away a significant amount of clothing to friends with smaller wardrobes... but then I go and buy another pinball table. hahah, fail. it's not beyond my means but did I really NEED it? probably not... but is it fun? fuck yes.

[flamingophoenix.livejournal.com]

When my mom worked as a budget counselor, she advised people to write everything down. An app is a great idea. (Her low-tech solution was to have people keep a piece of paper wrapped around their credit card and/or cash, depending on which they used, and to also have a pen handy.)

The month challenge is a great idea! You could even do a modified "no buy" thing, where for stuff like FRFF you set a budget, and only allow yourself to buy within the budget - if you hit your limit, too bad, you can't buy X item, kind of thing.

But yeah, even starting by writing everything down is a great start! Good luck!

Other examples/suggestions here (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/02/29/challenge-who-is-up-for-a-maximum-mustache-march/).

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

It's funny you mentioned wanting to keep a food diary because I need to do that. It really helps to see in print what you have eaten.

[thejagster10.livejournal.com]

I use a program called Mint to obsessively track everything that I spend (I'm working on paying off a gazillion dollars in student loans), and I've found that it really helps - you can set budgets for different categories. I found that I was spending more than I thought on lunch out with my work people, so it gave me a cutoff point in the month to just say that I didn't have extra lunch money left for the month, and really prioritize which lunches I wanted to go to enough to spend a bigger part of my out-to-lunch budget on. ($10 left and a week left in the month - mildly entertaining lunch with work people, or going out for happy hour on Friday?!)

It also has an app for my phone, which makes it really easy to both characterize transactions (you have to do a lot manually at first, but then it gets pretty good at being more automatic), and seeing the little bar graph of how my budgets were doing. I could also check my phone from my desk to see how much of my monthly budget for that category I had already used. I also really like it because I can see my assorted debt/bank accounts/credit cards, etc all in one place, because I know it weirds some people out to have everything linked, but it really worked for me! Also, I get an enjoyable amount of pleasure tracking my financial "goals" that I have set in the system and watching my progress.

For me, I don't think a cold turkey approach would work - it would be like trying to avoid sweets for a week, and then I'd just eat a whole pan of brownies at the end!

[sillygoosegirl.livejournal.com]

I use Mint also. Though it goes into my accounts for me and downloads transactions, so in some ways it is not as effective as writing stuff down... at least not in the sense that the writing down exercise causes less spending. However, it does give you the chance to review what you've spent and think about it. And you can record your cash transactions in the app. You can also compare how much you record in cash transaction with how much you are withdrawing in cash... So it's harder to "cheat."