Still riding the tail end of a short-winded Halloween season, I have been reflecting on the things that scare me. While many fears present immediate threats (spiders, public speaking, popping the lid on that forgotten lunch container) others are are like looming, anxiety-causing, grim reapers standing over us and following our every move. Closest to me, this fear is never achieving a financial security, understanding, or freedom. The development of this fear was slow at first: In college I always wrote it off by telling myself that once I got a "real" job I'd be able to straighten things out. Now that I have a "real" job, I have really real bills. Something that I didn't anticipate happening for at least a couple more months. Now that the bills are here my fear has escalated: I don't know how to ration my income, what to pay off first, or what to do with my feelings of neglect for renting not owning. I just want it to all stop and simplify itself. (How someone could spend five years pursuing a business degree and still have such a lack of personal finance skills is beyond me.)
In effort to simplify, understand and plan I am attempting the dreaded cash budget (bom, bom, booooom!) I have closed the credit cards, frozen the credit card, and reserved my checking account for monthly expenses only. With the exception of a small amount of spending money I have budgeted for, all purchases must be planned. I share this for one reason: I hate it. I don't want to do this. I want to go shopping, eat out, travel, buy! buy! buy!. I never want to pay the price for the impulses I've had in the past ("Patron for everyone!"<---regret.) Surely some of you also related when Isla Fisher couldn't resist that perfect green scarf in Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was going to get her the job! (And then, an interest increase.)
Happy? Looks like it...
It is my plan to achieve success by spending more time doing and thinking about the things in life that make me truly happy. I recently read that if money is going to be spent it should be on experiences rather than objects. Doing so fufills a higher need or purpose than, say, a shirt. (Easier said than done, my friends.) This ideology is one thing that did "click" while I was in school- most likely because of a pyramind that was drilled into my head from the first day of school through the last:
I encourage all of you that aren't yet familiar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to research the philosophy. It is applicable in everyone's lives someway or another and is a great method to understand how you could ever spend $20 on a pin cushion. If you don't feel like researching here's the jist: once you're focused on buying for needs at the top of the pyrimid you have achieved "having what you want, wanting what you have. " Unfortunately, the difficulty in achieving self actualization is that it only becomes a second nature as we make small decisions that affect progress up the lower levels. In my life that is the ultimate goal. We'll see how it fits into $80 a week... wish me luck!
Ouchies!!!
Have you ever been on a cash budget? How did you make it work?
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