If I’m totally honest this has not been the best year for our finances. My leaving paid work should have been a catalyst to us reducing our spending; however in many ways it hasn’t; far too much new stuff is still making its way into our home.
My financial purpose since becoming debt free was to be off the consumer treadmill. To live frugally with intention and to be a good steward of our money in order to achieve, among other things, our dream of moving to Portugal. I think half of me is still running around that wheel!
So, what do I do? Do I have a complete ban on new purchases in 2011? Is this the choice I need to make to get the 50% of me that makes bad choices in line with the fifty that makes good ones?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I think a complete ban on buying things is unrealistic for most people – even banning just new things and allowing yourself second-hand stuff. Things break, emergencies crop up. Some people are good at saying “ok, I had to buy that because of x but now back to my strict ban” but for other people, one slip up means game over and their heart isn’t in it after that.
I’m going to give myself a clothing buying (or rather not buying) goal for 2011 but it’s going to recognise that sometimes I’m going to have to buy some things (eg my existing wardrobe is very casual – if I had to be smarter or more formal for an event, I’d need something new-to-me. And I teach an evening a week so I have to make sure I have presentable clothes without swears on them for that). I’m going to allow myself up to 12 new things and 12 second-hand things over the year. I’ve probably only bought about that many items this year so it shouldn’t be hard to stick to it – but it’ll be a conscious effort and I think I’ll find it more sustainable than saying “no new clothes at all”.
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Laura Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 8:11 am
Louisa: Thanks for your thoughts it’s interesting how all our minds work. I did a clothing ban for 12 months and found it ok, trying to do it with books, dvd’s and house stuff would be more difficult. I like your 12 + 12 idea and this could work with other stuff.
As I replied to Judy, I’m thinking of a 3 month total spending ban and also removing my details from Amazon – pinching that idea from you!
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Curious as to what your “weak spot” is with regards spending? I thought you’d been doing pretty well, so where do you think you’ve fallen down? Was it the extra travel?
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Laura Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Tony: House stuff, books, DVD’s are my weakness’ and although it’s all done without debt I still feel like have a ‘want it, get it’ attitude to a certain extent!! I’m still too much of a consumer for my liking and this has an effect on our long term saving, as well as the planet!
Travel was planned spending however this has had an effect on our savings…as well as nearly £5k on house repairs!
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I’m with Louisa, I think a total ban would be VERY difficult (although I’m currently doing a total ban on chocolate because once I start it’s too hard to stop!) but if you allow yourself a certain amount of spending that is in the budget, then surely that would be okay too?
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Laura Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Judy: I’m contemplating a total ban for 3 months to see how I go. My mind seems to work better with a ‘cold turkey’ approach. I have one piece of chocolate and I want the whole bar, whereas if I don’t have any chocolate at all then I can easily go without.
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I found it was easier to spend money when I wasn’t working because a delay wasn’t built in from when you get the initial brain-fart. When you’re working, you’re busy all day then you are on your way home, don’t want to stop and pick something up that you’ve thought of having during the day because you’re kind of tired and just want to get home…
I don’t know what your volume is like on the books and dvd’s, but what has worked for me is keeping a list of books etc. that I want to get. Leave it on the list for a month and see if it’s still a “must buy”. The book won’t change if you don’t get it immediately – it’s the same as movies – does people’s appreciation of it change at all whether people see it in the theater right away or wait for it to come to their library or out on netflix? But it sounds like your library system isn’t that great. I don’t know, my oldest son thinks I’m an idiot for even having netflix, he watches everything for free. And he was a MAJOR dvd buyer before.
This year I gave myself a book allowance by converting my credit card rewards points over to a gift card for our country’s version of Amazon. This time it was $150 – about $50 spent on books for the kids for Christmas and $100 for me that I’ll spend through the year. So far, I’m quite value-conscious on my $100, it better be something good. I check the library first to see if they have it – in my decluttering, I’ve found that there’s almost NO books that are that valuable that I really want to keep. It was beyond annoying to see how many hundreds of dollars of books I decluttered that at one point I just “had to have”.
I also got an e-reader on CC points earlier this year – had wanted a kindle last year but I got the kobo because I can download library books in an e-pub format onto it. It’s been awesome for resisting buying because I “shop” the library online. And Gutenberg.
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Laura Reply:
December 17th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Jacq: Funnily not working has stopped me from random shopping during the day; because I wasn’t office bound and covered a large area in my car I could stop to shop at any stage of the day if I wanted too….and did, because I disliked my job so much. Now I mainly shop Amazon.
My main issue: years of overspending, now equals guilt if I so much as spend £10! I need to cut myself a little slack
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I’m all for getting off the consumer treadmill & to live frugally with intention..but you have to realize that banning anything makes it that much more of a pull. It’s a continual process and you have to constantly be creative to avoid paying ”paper money” to obtain goods.
Forget everything and just remember the law of attraction and “Ask, and it is given,” – there is no more powerful statement that is at the basis of what makes things happen.
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It can be SO HARD sometimes isn’t it?! I was also thinking of a clothing ban for the year, but really like the 12 & 12 suggestion!! I’m excited to see what goals you set!
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Laura Reply:
December 17th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Carla: the 12 & 12 does sound like a good idea, although I hardly ever think about buying clothes it’s other things I have trouble limiting!
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Are you a member of the library? My local library has an extensive collection of books and CD’s film/music and you can order/reserve stuff online, far cheaper than paying full price in the shop?
Perhaps you are spreading yourself a bit too thin? Perhaps you could just focus on the Portugal move, I see that you have big savings goals for NY and travel too, perhaps a lot of pressure financially? Before we escaped our jobs and the city the pressure was enourmous about what we did next, but I realised that just making the move in itself was a huge goal. Just a thought.
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Laura Reply:
December 17th, 2010 at 12:15 am
Dreamer: You may be right; perhaps I’m setting myself up to fail.
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If you can just visualize the end result instead of getting caught up in the process, details…you will find yourself already living in Portugal before you know it!
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Can you take some of the methods you used in your weight loss? Did cutting everything help? It might. But it also might not have long term effects – it just depends on your personality.
I’ve found that when something is “wrong” I want to do it more. Once I gave up the guilt from spending on splurges, I found I didn’t really care if I had Starbucks every week or not. But I wanted it all the time when I felt like I shouldn’t have it.
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Laura Reply:
December 24th, 2010 at 6:59 am
Lindy: My will power is either really, really good or really really bad..there doesn’t seem to be a happy medium. In 2011 I’m going to make sure I use a 30 day rule before buying anything; I’m sure that will stop me wanting anything. I’m also going to a full out no spend January!!!
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