A few days ago I heard this piece on NPR that struck a chord. Entitled, "I Love to Shop, But Do I Have a Shopping Problem?," this piece mainly caught my attention because of the advice a psychologist gave regarding compulsive buying.
Before making a purchase, she suggested asking yourself the following questions:
"Why am I here?
How do I feel?
Do I need this?
What if I wait?
How will I pay for it?
And where will I put it?"
She said that if you can answer those questions, preferably in writing, it's probably not a compulsive purchase.
The question that hits home the most with me is, "And where will I put it?" Our tiny apartment is bursting at the seams. I found myself consciously making Christmas gift decisions this year based on if we have a place to set it once it's been opened and "oohed and ahhed" at.
I hope to keep this questions in mind the next time I feel the need to fill the void with a purchase.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Simply Making Holidays Do: Christmas 2013
This Christmas has been different in a lot of ways for me. This is the first Christmas that my parents are officially divorced, so there is the awkward process of figuring out what's comfortable for everyone. It's not fun, but what can you do? This is also the first Christmas that I told myself that it's okay to refrain from "doing it up big," to create a more simple Christmas for me and my small family.
We decided to forgo getting a Christmas tree this year. Shelling out at least $20 for a real tree (albeit a beautiful smelling one) that I always regret having to throw away in January just didn't sound fun this year or at all cost-efficient. And while I do miss the pine smell throughout our tiny place, I am happy with what I did instead.
Because I do love the tradition of pulling out and hanging all of those childhood ornaments, I hung a garland that I already owned and strung the ornaments up. Getting to see those ornaments on a daily basis this month made me smile and I still get that warm feeling that I normally would get when seeing them on a Christmas tree.
I also decided not to send Christmas cards this year and to give a call to those I normally would've sent a card off to. It's only a few dollars I'll be saving, but I'm also secretly happy to not have to brave the post office at this time of year anyway.
In my small family, there are only a few close people that I actually exchange gifts with. Although I'd whip out my credit card and charge some wonderful gifts for them all in a second, I promised myself this year to keep it simple. For the ladies in my family, I found a tutorial online and made some homemade soy candles for them. I already had the mason jars so all I had to purchase was the soy wax and the wicks. I made a total of 6 candles and each ended up costing me about $1.25 to make. I added a homemade tag and some ribbon that I already owned to give them some charm. I'm happy with how they turned out and now I know that the next time I'd love to run to some fancy home goods store and buy a bunch of candles that I can make my own for a fraction of the cost.
We decided to forgo getting a Christmas tree this year. Shelling out at least $20 for a real tree (albeit a beautiful smelling one) that I always regret having to throw away in January just didn't sound fun this year or at all cost-efficient. And while I do miss the pine smell throughout our tiny place, I am happy with what I did instead.
Because I do love the tradition of pulling out and hanging all of those childhood ornaments, I hung a garland that I already owned and strung the ornaments up. Getting to see those ornaments on a daily basis this month made me smile and I still get that warm feeling that I normally would get when seeing them on a Christmas tree.
I also decided not to send Christmas cards this year and to give a call to those I normally would've sent a card off to. It's only a few dollars I'll be saving, but I'm also secretly happy to not have to brave the post office at this time of year anyway.
In my small family, there are only a few close people that I actually exchange gifts with. Although I'd whip out my credit card and charge some wonderful gifts for them all in a second, I promised myself this year to keep it simple. For the ladies in my family, I found a tutorial online and made some homemade soy candles for them. I already had the mason jars so all I had to purchase was the soy wax and the wicks. I made a total of 6 candles and each ended up costing me about $1.25 to make. I added a homemade tag and some ribbon that I already owned to give them some charm. I'm happy with how they turned out and now I know that the next time I'd love to run to some fancy home goods store and buy a bunch of candles that I can make my own for a fraction of the cost.
Food costs continue to be an issue for me. Even though I can tell myself I don't need new shoes or some pretty do-dad, abstaining from splurging on comfort foods is proving to be really difficult. And the holidays make it tough. Who am I to deny myself my favorite foods at Christmas-time? It's the most wonderful time of the year, right? We have a lot of holiday dinners and get togethers in the next week and I'm trying my best to cool it on the food spending in the meantime. It's gonna be hard, but it's worth it.
From my little corner of the world, I hope you have a wonderful and warm Christmas.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Monthly Check in: December 2013
Holiday time is in full swing and it's been almost a month since my experiment began. From lazy weekends, to traveling, to illness, there's been a few "a-ha" moments and a few "oh-no" moments along the way.
Best Practices
Best Practices
- Unsubscribing from the hoard of email listings that I had inexplicably chained myself to has been, so far, the most helpful practice in learning to "simply make do." I had a weakness for these emails, like the gorgeous email lookbooks from ShopRuche.com or the Jamba Juice Insider emails letting me know that I could get a smoothie for half off for FOUR HOURS only. As exciting as it was to get these emails, they stressed the hell of out me. Flash sales screamed in my face that "Hey! If you don't take advantage of this sale NOW you'll never have the chance again!" These emails made me constantly think about what I could "reasonably afford" to splurge on (and reasonably afford always meant charging it). They added fuel to the fire and even when I did allow myself to charge a much coveted item, the next email only began the process again. Some company's emails have been difficult to unsubscribe from, but I think my persistence has paid off and I only get the random email every once in awhile now. Now instead of jumping at the chance to open the email and see what the deal is, I'm jumping to unsubscribe and enjoy that feeling of letting go.
- I have not used my credit card since November. I plan to make a few Christmas purchases with my card, but I have budgeted to pay for them in January. I still haven't been able to completely cut the cord and leave the credit card at home, but once the holidays are over, I plan to find a safe place at home to leave it.
- Though I've had a lot going on this last month with work and at home, I've really tried to give myself time to relax and accept that laying around and doing nothing is all right and, after all, entirely human. Instead of having a Saturday where I set a long list of goals (which I never finished and inevitably ended up feeling horrible about), I give myself one goal and enjoy the satisfaction of not only getting it done--but enjoying the process. Today I am doing laundry. That's it. Some other things might come up, but I'm not drowning in a list of to-dos.
- I finally got rid of a large bag of clothes that I haven't worn in months. The extra room, no matter how small, has been lovely and makes me only want to purge and simplify my home more.
- Food. Food purchases will be the death of me. On those nights when we're too tired or the kitchen is just too cluttered to cook--and this time of year there are lots of them--it's too easy for me to break down and get some fast, easy food. I'm hoping in the new year to freeze some prepared meals to cut down on the urge to go through the drive through. The boyfriend needs to stop tempting me, as well.
- Holding myself to my budget and not dipping into my savings has long been a very difficult task for me. The holiday season has made it that much more difficult. I promise myself that in the month of January, I will not touch my savings. I need to start the year off right in order to see how good it feels to truly grow my savings and invest in my future.
- My name is Megan and I spend money for the sole excuse that I think it will make me "feel better." I had a bad cold last week and a sore throat that would not quit. I found myself going to the grocery store twice to buy food or items that I felt would comfort me in my pathetic time of sickness. And really, what I truly needed was to put my wallet away and go home, cuddle up, and watch a movie. What resulted was that I had to dip into my savings to cover purchases that I had already budgeted for, but thanks to my spending I no longer had the cash to cover. Illness is tough when it comes to "simply making do," because all I wanted to do was simply feel better and I didn't care how much I spent to get it.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Being Creative with the Needs: Money, Money Down the Drain
Every week, I haul a load of groceries home which includes a few gallon-sized water jugs. The tap water in our town is extremely suspect. And believe me when I say that I'm not one of those picky, tap water hating people, it's just that our town has a lot of issues right now and the aging water treatment plant is not at the top of the city's priorities list right now.
It occurred to me today, as I did my weekly grocery shopping, that buying my water this way is probably not very cost effective. We had a mounted water filtration system on our faucet years ago, but it broke and I never could scrape up enough money to go out and buy a new one. Plus, I was being lazy.
As I ponder this purchase, let's consider the golden question: Is this a 'Want' or a 'Need?' Water is a obviously a need. My options are to suck it up and drink tap water, buy those gigantic refillable jugs of water from a water station, get my water from the grocery store, or get a faucet system. The first option is out. The second option is out, too--we have no room to store one of those large jugs in our tiny apartment. I'm currently going with the third option and flirting with the idea of the fourth. Let's go to the numbers...
On average, each gallon of water is $1.00. Some weeks it varies and can hit all the way down to $0.89, but most of the year it's pretty consistently at $1.00.
On average, I buy 3 gallons of water per week.
That's an average of $3 spent per week on water. In a month (say 4 weeks to make it easy), I spend $12 on water. In a year, I spend around $156 on water.
I hit the recycling center around once a month and get some cash back for all of these gallon jugs of water. In my state, each jug gets me $0.05 back. If I recycle all 12 jugs each month, I get back $0.60. Don't spend that all at once.
So, on average, in considering my recycling, I spend $11.40 on water every month and around $148.20 per year.
The PUR 3-Stage Vertical Faucet Mount + 4 Replacement Filters Pack that I am considering is $48.99 (the cheapest place that I've found this pack is on Amazon. Coupled with my Amazon Prime membership, shipping is free). Each filter pack has a life that lasts about 2-3 months and gets you around 100 gallons--all together the four packs should get you through one year or around 400 gallons.
400 FREAKING GALLONS. That makes me angry that I've been toting around those heavy gallons of water every week.
Right now I am paying $1.00/gallon, whereas with the mount I would be paying $0.12/gallon. $400 for 400 gallons or $48.99? Or, how about more realistically (as who knows if I'd actually get a whole 100 gallon life-span out of each filter), $148.20 per year or $48.99 on water?
If I buy the mount, in four months I will have already made up the cost of the purchase in savings thanks to no longer having to buy those plastic jugs.
It's decided! I will take a look at my budget for December and see if I can sneak it in this month. If not, come January I will be the proud owner of a money-saving new faucet mounted water filtration system. What a luxurious life I lead. With almost $12 per month more in my bank account, I'd say that's pretty luxurious.
It occurred to me today, as I did my weekly grocery shopping, that buying my water this way is probably not very cost effective. We had a mounted water filtration system on our faucet years ago, but it broke and I never could scrape up enough money to go out and buy a new one. Plus, I was being lazy.
As I ponder this purchase, let's consider the golden question: Is this a 'Want' or a 'Need?' Water is a obviously a need. My options are to suck it up and drink tap water, buy those gigantic refillable jugs of water from a water station, get my water from the grocery store, or get a faucet system. The first option is out. The second option is out, too--we have no room to store one of those large jugs in our tiny apartment. I'm currently going with the third option and flirting with the idea of the fourth. Let's go to the numbers...
On average, each gallon of water is $1.00. Some weeks it varies and can hit all the way down to $0.89, but most of the year it's pretty consistently at $1.00.
On average, I buy 3 gallons of water per week.
That's an average of $3 spent per week on water. In a month (say 4 weeks to make it easy), I spend $12 on water. In a year, I spend around $156 on water.
I hit the recycling center around once a month and get some cash back for all of these gallon jugs of water. In my state, each jug gets me $0.05 back. If I recycle all 12 jugs each month, I get back $0.60. Don't spend that all at once.
So, on average, in considering my recycling, I spend $11.40 on water every month and around $148.20 per year.
 |
| Hey, filtered water is a necessity in this town. |
400 FREAKING GALLONS. That makes me angry that I've been toting around those heavy gallons of water every week.
Right now I am paying $1.00/gallon, whereas with the mount I would be paying $0.12/gallon. $400 for 400 gallons or $48.99? Or, how about more realistically (as who knows if I'd actually get a whole 100 gallon life-span out of each filter), $148.20 per year or $48.99 on water?
If I buy the mount, in four months I will have already made up the cost of the purchase in savings thanks to no longer having to buy those plastic jugs.
It's decided! I will take a look at my budget for December and see if I can sneak it in this month. If not, come January I will be the proud owner of a money-saving new faucet mounted water filtration system. What a luxurious life I lead. With almost $12 per month more in my bank account, I'd say that's pretty luxurious.
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