All I've been doing lately is SPending $
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| Mon, 03-16-2009 - 7:44pm |
I think there is a vicious cycle that happens in my life. We either have or we have not! So there tends to be this mindset that when we are in the 'have' stage, I spend spend spend while we have it and when we are in the 'have not' stage, I scrimp and save and act like a martyr! Currently we are in the 'Have' stage as we just got our tax return and I've already paid most of my bills this month and I have so much money left over. What I should be doing with this money is saving it for next months mortgage just in case there is a shortfall or the settlement with our last credit card is more than I expect. Instead what I'm doing is thinking about all the sacrificing we've done over the past year and buying all the items I feel we're lacking. I've spent $200 dollars on clothing in the past 2 weeks. I don't really feel too guilty about this because if anyone in this world needs clothes it's me and my husband and everything I've purchased has been at least 75% off (much of it has been 91% off!!). But we've been eating out more this week because we have this mentality that we should treat ourselves while we have the money. And now I'm starting to get worried and I'm trying to reign in the spending. Whoa there! Today I finally broke down and did a big wal-mart and grocery trip. I haven't done real groceries in at least 3 weeks, possibly more than that. Our kitchen is really sad. It's been so long that we needed everything from toilet paper to milk and eggs. I just dropped $175 dollars and this in my head is my official LAST shopping spree. We're stocked up...we have some new clothes...we've treated ourselves a little and THERE, That's the END! No more SPENDING our tax return!
This makes me so afraid that when we actually do have no debt and no worries that I will go straight back to buying everything! Everything I have bought these last few weeks I have needed. They have truly been needs and not wants. I only owned 2 pairs of pants that fit and now I own 5. I had 1 pair of shoes and now I have 3! My husband had no t-shirts and now he has 3 new ones. We were truly lacking clothing, but what am I going to do when I have bought everything I could possibly need and I still have more money in the bank? I will have to work on this All or Nothing mentality I've developed while dealing with debt. There needs to be a happy medium!

Oh Abbie - Good vent, you have been saving and scrimping for so long you may very well have things you went without for a time.
Ya, sometimes when you go with out.....BANG. You need everything. Sound like you did ok on the clothing prices. I was looking at my cupboards yesterday. It is stupid how much food we have. We just need some fresh things. I bet we could get to the end of March with just buying a few fresh things here and there. I know what you mean though. If my cupboards start to get bare I start to feel guilty. If you run out of snack things just bake something and you will have plenty. GL
If you run out of snack things just bake something and you will have plenty.
That is what we do GL, even the kids will bake if there is a mix there, and DH will even back bread or make pizza dough, so we never even order pizza out.
Except for eating out, it sounds like the things you have spent money on are all necessities which you have had to put aside due to the debt.
Don't beat yourself up.
Sit down and think about the next 12 months.
Jennifer
The only thing I would regret is the eating out.