So, I've decided that I want to be fiscally responsible. Which, shouldn't have been so hard considering that I never did have to take out student loans and I started out pretty much with a $0 balance. But, the draw of new clothes, going out to bars, new furniture, airline tickets, and lobster for dinner quickly drew me into some poor decisions where money is concerned.
Step #1 - reducing high interest debt. I've gotten a new credit line that has an extended 0% APR on credit transfers, so I'm squashing all of my high interest credit cards and cutting them up as I go along. While I probably won't close out the accounts and may on occasion purchase a thing or two to keep my credit history going, I'm doing my darndest to cut spending on my credit card.
Step #2 - paying for things in cash. Apparently there's some psychological experience when you pay for things in cash that you don't get when you pay with your card. And I suspect it has something to do with actually seeing the money leave your wallet. I'm getting my roommate to help out here, our shared groceries are going to be cash only. And, I think if I play this right, they're also going to be incredibly inexpensive. Today in fact with the coupons I had, I managed to cut my grocery bill by $30. Our current pool of monthly grocery money is $200, which I think is pretty thrifty.
Step #3 - saving for retirement. Not something that I will have to think about for a while, so I might as well not think about it now! Before you start jumping in to tell me that I need to save now, of course I am. I'm just not thinking about my savings. I have my 401K contributions automatically increased annually shortly after the promotion/raise cycle and I will start back in with my IRA once my credit cards are paid off.
Step #4 - learning to say "no". Now, this is the hardest thing about being thrifty and sticking to my budget. I simply cannot go out for every drink, dinner, movie and event that I'm invited to. So, I'm slowly learning to prioritize which things I really want to spend money on (including driving to visit friends).
Of course if you thought you were going to get a whole post out of me without a brief rant, you were mistaken. A woman I work with was complaining today about how she spent about $100 at dinner last night because people were ordering stuff and they split the bill evenly. I commented that I wouldn't simply split the bill for the convenience of others. If I had a budget and I only ate what I ordered I wouldn't feel bad for not paying a portion of other people's dinner. She proceeded to tell me "not to be mean or anything, but I hate people like that". Insert eye roll here.
Why is it that someone should feel bad for wanting to split the bill. I'm certainly not going to nit pick about what percentage of a table hors d'oeuvre you ate vs. the percentage that I ate, but I'm not paying for your top shelf liquor and oysters when I ordered a salad and water! Maybe when I'm making 3 times as much as I'm making now, but right now, I simply will not feel bad for living within my means (or at least trying to).
