About a year ago I got a decent salary bump because I took
on a whole lot of extra responsibility during something of a crisis time at my
work. The jury is still out on whether or not I made the right choice. Anyone
who is familiar with this blog or my FB or my ever-thinning hair has heard me
complain about the stress of my job, however it was a Faustian bargain and one
that I entered into freely. Well – believe it or not – I did one smart thing
when all of that happened: I opened a savings account.
Yes, yes, I should have done that years ago. I know. Let’s
get past it.
Also, around that same time, I had developed a pretty aggressive
budget for myself. Not just a “budget” in the theoretical sense. I actually
built my own Excel spreadsheet where I have been tracking EVERY SINGLE purchase
I have made for almost the last two years. It is an exquisite spreadsheet, BTW.
I am very proud of it and if any of you out there are Excel-o-philes you should
let me know and I will send you a copy!
Basically I started making a little extra money at the exact
moment when I was able to take real grown-up control of it. For me this was a
pretty big deal. I have been chronically bad with money over the years and it
feels better now to have it under control.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not rolling in dough or
anything, far from it. But once I started saving and budgeting I started to get
more and more wrapped up in how much MORE I could save and budget! Put it down
to the addictive traits of my personality.
Lately this has all manifest itself in my nightly reading of
blogs and articles about how to cut spending and manage money (ironic since I
push around other people’s money all day, but I contend that personal and
business finance are completely different worlds). The problem is that I
already do, like, 90% of the stuff that they say to do! I don’t have any credit
cards. I buy almost all my clothes at thrift stores. I am cutting down on “empty
expenses” (a term I keep seeing, derived from “empty calories” and meaning
money you spend that doesn’t really get you anything; think Starbucks,
cigarettes, crack cocaine [regular cocaine is a whole different story, obviously,
because it is so good for you!]), I plan what I am going to buy before I go to
the grocery store (mostly), I research big purchases before I make them (no one
alive can obsess and anguish over the buying of a backpack more thoroughly than
I can), and I have cut down my purchasing of lottery tickets to only 600 a
week!
The point is I am running out of new ways to cut down on
spending! There are two or three things left that I still need to do; I still have
cable TV (which I split with roommates) and need to get rid of that. I need to
learn to make a proper salad rather than buying these pre-made bag-o-salad
bags. I need to cancel my membership to that website based in the Philippines
that allows me to bet on box turtle races.
I need to find ways to enjoy my life a little more without
spending any extra money. This is why I go to the library so much; did you know
that you can check a bunch of books out of a library FOR FREE and then just
never return them! It is amazing and completely true! You should try it.
Thus far I have not taken up trolling Freecycle for fun new
junk, but that is mainly because I am lazy, but I’m sure that I will get there.
I have also stopped myself from constantly buying notebooks. I used to buy
every notebook that I saw. I have found that one or two good Moleskins will
last a good long time.
Currently I am trying to do this thing where I eat all the random
food I own. Remember those cans of creamed corn in the back of the kitchen
cabinet? I am trying to eat the stuff like that. I want to get to the point
where I don’t have any of that stuff around. I want to be able to open the
cabinet one day and be all like, “Huh, I don’t currently own any food.”
(HASTAG: firstworldproblems) That way I can start over from scratch and will –
from then on – only buy the stuff that I actually need.
I’m discovering that there is something freeing about
needing less and using less. This isn’t to say that I’m going crazy about it.
If we go out to dinner I’m not going to be all like, “Just some water and
saltines for me, thanks” because I have come to realize that when I do go out
to dinner or spring for some French fries or a good cup of hot chocolate (damn
you Starbucks!) that those things seem to taste better. In my brain I think
that they LITERALLY taste better, but perhaps I mean that those things are more
satisfying. Because they are. Because they’re rarer and they’re more special.
Specialer!
The moral in all this is that I’m not happier because I have
some money in a savings account, I’m happier because I have taken better
control of my life in this small way. I am happier because it is something I
have done. It is feeling a of accomplishment. And I don’t know about you, but
those are few and far between in the grown-up world.
Now having said all of that, I am going to Google this $130
backpack I’m planning on buying. One day.
P.S.
Here is an interesting article about three people who live
on less than $20k a year.
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