Ok, I have some serious shopping issues. If I have money, it burns a hole in my wallet until I go to the mall and spend it. Seriously, I have plenty of clothes (both for myself and for Peyton, and sometimes Chris too), but whenever I get my montly paycheck, I cash it and then it calls to me, "Spend me, spend me!" It's seriously sad. I usually spend my money on clothes, but I also spend it on books, jewelry and occassionally shoes. I should come with some sort of warning label: Don't leave me alone in a Target too long, or else you will find all of your credit cards maxed out.
Does anyone have any ideas or helpful hints to keep my from blowing all my money? Any other worthy items I should consider purchasing instead?
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10 comments:
Here's what I do: (because I feel your pain!)
1. I tape a post it to my credit card that says, "DONT BE DUMB. ONLY USE THIS FOR GAS."
This way, I'm too embarassed to pull it out at the mall!
2. LEAVE my cards, cash, whatever...at home. In a box. That way, I have to make a concious decision to take it out of the box and spend it.
3. Don't cash your money. Just deposit it in the bank. :)
I used to be bad, too. Ben finally put me on a budget HA! But what I started to do was realize if I lingered long enough at a store, I'd slowly but surely put more and more things back, after realizing I don't really need them. I also do a quick add up in my head, to see how much I've spent, and then I try to think of other things I could do with that money. It helped me .... but shoes are my addiction ... I still find a reason to buy shoes!!!
One thing that has helped me is to allocate myself a little bit of "fun" money from each paycheck. I put what I need for bills in my checking account, take out my "fun" money in cash and deposit the rest into savings. If you can, figure out the amounts needed for each account each month. Then, have your paycheck direct deposited into your savings and checking accounts based on these amounts. That way your "savings" money is already IN your savings and you don't have to go and move it from your checking. It's easier for me if I don't have to think about it. It's also really motivating to get the statement for my savings account every month and see my savings adding up!
I allocate a certain amount of my money to blow, too - on whatever I want. But the other thing I'd recommend is, use cash. Don't use credit or debit cards for a while (leave them at home) and when you are going shopping, only take the amount of cash you're willing to spend.
Good luck!
I think you did pretty good today at VG. You didn't spend anything! Congrats!!
I do the exact thing genelle does. Well, my hubby puts it in savings and I get my grocery money in cash and my own personal spending money in cash. Once it's gone...it's gone. I'm not much of a credit card user either. I was always the saver and my brother was just like you...money burned holes in his pockets.
Cute blog....
I would deposit that dude...and only take out a certain amount that you and hubs agree is "blow me" money.
When you have gone through that.....don't get dressed with makeup on again until you can shop with your next cash in hand money!
Just sayin!
A great way to balance this is to purchase gift cards for yourself. Set a limit to your favorite stores each month and once the gift card is spent - consider it done! lol.
Easier said than done, I'm sure.
But I love this system.
Hope it helps!
I have the same problem. I love spending money. just for the sake of spending money. bad habit.
So what I did is to put most of my paycheck into a fixed deposit savings account, meaning I'm saving, earning interest on those money... but I can't take them out. hahaha!
I worked out how much I needed per month for everything, than some extra for some shopping (don't wanna be tooo crazy there), than the rest went into the account. It's been working great.
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