February Prompt:
One month into 2011, what question(s) are you living? Are there any prompts/questions that arose during #reverb10 that are still resonating in your life? Are you living new questions?
Wow. Dropped into my inbox at precisely the time I was giving myself mental slaps about falling behind (ok, failing, totally) in my attempts to corral my spending and improve my financial picture! I hadn't anticipated hearing another thing from the Reverb10 folks! But this certainly appeared at just the right time.
Finance was my personal tripping point, discovered in the midst of rethinking who I was, and how I'd come to be in this world. The Single Mom who struggled to survive without the child support due (and when any of it managed "magically" to arrive, spending it quickly for the things we were doing without - a twin bed set for DD when she outgrew the crib...clothing for her, shoes...and always treats that we couldn't normally afford, because "we deserved it," for doing without all the rest of the time).
It's a rotten, hard mindset to break.
I'd set for myself a goal of reusing what's in the cupboard in January and not buying the $300 at the grocery store I'd averaged every month of 2010. For one person that seems too much.
Well, apparently even when I'm cleaning out the cupboards, nicely, I can't stop myself from picking up those "specials" when they appear at the store! I've admitted that I include the cat's food & litter in my grocery budget line: one store had such a good deal on the canned food that I bought $10 worth on January 31.
(of course, I realize that means that they're set for February, which should mean I don't have to buy much for them, except the dry and the litter, right?)
And the freezer gets packed back as fast as I clean it out.
We won't talk about the savings account just now - I'll just say that it's being robbed as fast as the funds go in for routine maintenance stuff...Once again, there's very little at the end of the month, and someone keeps moving the ends...I think it's time to reconsider how I go about addressing this issue and must force myself to become much more aware. Tracking works in Weight Watchers, so I'll try it for Finance in February!
;)
3 comments:
This is such a hard subject. I try so hard to have a budget and keep funding money into savings so that one day the emergencies will be funded. But...life keeps handing me curve balls...new water heater...dental surgery...a growing child.
Maybe one never breaks even...and all you can do is try and not sweat it. If you need it...then you need it.
*hugs*
:)
You're on the right track, for sure. Just like weight management, money management takes some experimenting to figure out what approach works for you. And old habits are sure hard to break.
One thing I did back when we were really strapped for cash was to stop reading all of the ads that came in the Sunday paper. Amazing how much I didn't need if I didn't know about it. And I still try to remind myself to treat stores like museums, places to admire the artifacts, not buy them.
Of course, this approach does not work at all for me when the store is a yarn shop.
I know you're going to succeed at this!
I love twinsetellen's caveat to stores - yarn!
Ah, money. It's never just about the money either, it's about love and safety and warmth and fear.
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