Do you ever spend money and then almost immediately feel guilty or irritated that you spent it?
That happens to me too, and I hate it!
Just a couple of weeks ago we received a lump sum of several hundred dollars from a job I completed two months prior. Because our finances have been especially tight lately it was REALLY tempting to use all of that money to purchase items we have needed for a while like:
- a weed eater that’s about to breathe it’s dying breath and frustrates my husband every time he tries to use it;
- new walking shoes for me because shoes should have some kind of tread, right?
- a roof repair that we need to make pronto so that our porch doesn’t flood when it rains.
I would also love to go out to dinner and go on a weekend getaway to spend several hours around a pool.
Did I mention that I’d like to go away for the weekend with my husband?
In the past we would have gone on a spending spree rejoicing all the while that we finally had some extra money, and then 24-48 hours later we would have dejectedly looked at each other and bemoaned the fact that we are stupid with money.
There’s nothing “wrong” with spending the money for those needs and wants, but there’s a better way to deal with this larger sum of money when we have debt and an anemic emergency fund.
Now we use the age-old method of dealing with financial windfalls (like tax refunds and bonuses at work):
Give some. Spend some. Save Some.
This simple system enables us to spend the money more wisely so we rarely experience that sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs because we made yet another bad financial decision.
With this particular sum of money we gave some away, set some aside for the weed eater (the shoes can wait another few weeks) and put the remaining money in our emergency fund because we’re trying to build it back up after household repairs drained it again.
And guess what? It turns out we needed that money in our emergency fund because this past Friday we discovered that our mechanic has not been inspecting our brakes when he changes the oil as we assumed and we had to pay for a $515 brake job. Agghh!
As discouraging as that situation was, let me tell you how amazing it was to be able to pay that bill with cash rather than asking ourselves, “Where did that money go from two weeks ago?” and charging the car repair to a credit card.
Creating a no-regrets plan ahead of time and allocating the money to specific areas of the budget meant that we could have peace about our finances even though everything is not perfect.
Seeing the results of a good money decision also helped me to cook dinner last night instead of ordering take out pizza as I had planned, but I did splurge on an $18 souvenir on the trip with my daughter last week. I’m a work in progress.
What tricks have you learned to avoid spending money? Share in the comments. 🙂
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I can’t offer a good trick for not spending money, but I will learn from yours. Actually, I think I learned this lesson when we found ourselves making a balance transfer a second time, because we were not able to pay off a large bill during the timeframe of the first balance transfer.
I had thought the balance transfer would be a tremendous lesson to both of us that we did not want to do this again. However, even though we never failed to make the minimum payment, on too many occasions we talked ourselves out of the payment we knew we had to make in order to close the deal. Then the day came when the interest free time was up, and the balance was not paid in full.
When we made that second transfer, they gave us checks, too, as they always do, encouraging yet more wild spending. We used only one of the checks to get $1000 which we used to set up a savings account. You may ask, why did we not have one? The answer is, stupidity. 🙂
We knew that some money would come in about the time of the end of the balance transfer interest free period, so we felt confident that we could be disciplined this time and pay the balance by a) choosing a more workable payment that still exceeded the minimum, and b) closing that balance with the anticipated money at the end. Our $1000 savings could have waited until that other money came in, but for some reason, we really wanted to get started on that track, We had no cushion, and we really wanted one. Amazing to say, we never touched that savings account the whole time we were paying off the second balance transfer.
One day it all came together. We paid off the last of the balance transfer, and we celebrated the possession of a savings account that would be our promise to ourselves — no more credit card balances, and no more balance transfers.
During the two years since that moment, our savings account has been hit twice, but our commitment to it has been solid, and we replaced every penny. The really exciting moment was when I was able to put additional money in that account. We had not made a commitment to increase it, but as soon as a little extra money came to hand, that is what I did. Now that account is growing, and we did learn what you have learned: if you get some money, save some of it.
It is truly wonderful to know that if a real need comes along (like replacing the seven batteries that power our boat that is our home) or a real emergency (like an injury that requires treatment, medicine, and medical supplies) we don’t need to create another credit card balance. Or transfer one.
My trick is nothing new or unique. It is just common sense plus hard-headed determination to live by the principle of non-indebtedness.
The real foundation of it all is a recognition that God never fails. If God has provided something, it is always enough, and more than enough, when viewed through his eyes. I pray always to use his provision the way he wants it used, and when I put his viewpoint ahead of my wants and whims, I always have enough to save some and give some, as you do. The lovely experience that accompanies this mindset is that I never feel tromped on or deprived. I don’t find myself envying somebody with something I don’t have. Somehow the confidence that God will always provide what I need when I need it has overpowered my need to have something I did not want until I saw someone else with it.
You are an inspiration to me, and to many others, no doubt. Thank you for all that you do.
Good for you for learning from your mistake and I really love your perspective. It’s so true that God never fails to provide for us.
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment Katherine!