After my last rant about impatience and lack of control over the money in my life, I've been doing a little introspective analysis. I do believe that I lack control over more then just the purse strings, but I also am beginning to see just how much stress is generated by that gaping hole in my wallet and how that influences my stress level and therefore all my other decisions.
So in an effort to regain some composure I've been trying to come up with a few simple and effective rules to enhance my will power, save money and reduce my nail biting levels of stress.
After a week of perusing the internet and contemplating, I've come up with these ideas:
Make my debt visual, put it out in a bar graph or in monetary denominations so it scares me into not spending more on things like a fancy wine opener.
Start using the 20/30 rule. in other words, when in a store (most likely a grocer) and I've picked up a super fancy block of 4 year old Parmesan, give myself at least 20 seconds to think over if I really need that 10$ block of cheese and maybe I can make do with the cheepo pre-grated type. And for those larger purchases? That’s the 30, take about 30 days to think it over and then at the end of that 30 if it really REALLY makes sense and is affordable then reconsider. That is if I haven’t forgot all about it by then.
Always ALWAYS make and take a grocery list.
Get rechargeable batteries and keep replacing old light bulbs with energy efficient ones.
Coupons, coupons and more COUPONS!
Eat out no more then once every two weeks.
Completely stop using those evil credit cards.
These two are the really tough ones...
Less wine, though I am hard pressed to see any benefits in this one.
Stop smoking. Yes I know all about smoking but you try to get rid of an invisible monkey that’s only made stronger by resistance!
I've noticed that there are a lot of books and such out there on the subject but I think that most of us are smart enough to know what needs to be done, it's just will power folks, so why have to work the cost of a book into my new budget. Besides this is just the start, I'm sure I'll come up with more crap'ola to add to the plan over time, maybe even some things to make it more... Diabolical. I've always wanted a diabolical plan.
The hard part is putting a well developed and intelligent (or so I think) plan into action. I am beginning to see the worth of perspective, though it's still hard to change it to see not going to my favorite pub (The Royal Mile is awesome!) as saving cash for things I need (like not having debt) as opposed to just missing out on the best Ruben in town. But I also think it is time I paid off that dinner out I put on credit 5 years ago before I add another.
On that order I need to prioritize the holes my wallet pukes into.
Mortgage
Food
Monthly Bills
Credit
Savings
and then and ONLY after this savings step can I even consider something that is "fun" like dinner out.
As boring as all that is it feels good to read over it and try (try being the operative word there) to be excited at the challenge and prospect of being debit free! well not all the way, I don't see the mortgage going anywhere fast.
More boring crap to come.
cheers
I guess...
2 comments:
Good luck with your plan. I recently quit smoking (even added a calendar to my blog to track the progress and for the added motivation of avoiding public failure.) One thing that helped me greatly when I needed to rejigger my financial priorities was to start using cash for almost everything except bills. After allocating my paycheck for the sundries, I would go to the bank and remove the balance in cash. That way I knew each time I used a credit card for anything or went back to the ATM I was engaged in deficit spending. The demarcation made money less fungible for me, and provided an extra will power check. Again, good luck.
Not a bad idea, not that any idea that uses the word "fungible" could be, it's too fun to say. The only thing is I hate carrying cash (I lose it to often) but the idea of enforcing that deficit spending notion I do believe would help.
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