I saw that video the other day on one of the blogs that I peruse. I don't necessarily agree with everything that it has to say, but it's a pretty interesting take on just learning to live a little more frugally and less hyper-consumerish. The part on perceived obsolesence is really interesting. I'm trying to think of what things that I've purchased recently that fall into this category - I guess my laptop. I don't really do it with clothes. Something that I've been thinking about recently is what the correlation might be between the amount of television a person watches and amount of spending that occurs. The underlying relationship I'm interested in is the amount of exposure to advertisements and how that correlates into increasing spending behaviors. Luckily for me, I pretty much only watch sports so the things I'm prompted to buy are expensive cars and medicine for ED. Being that I don't have the budget for a car, and that I'm not even really in a position to know if I have ED, it allows me to escape much of the consumer itch.
With all of my reading of finance blogs and money news from different sources, I've really been trying to reign in my spending and know exactly where my money is going. Those blogs that I've linked to the left have been really helpful, with all kinds of useful tips. I signed up with Charles Schwab for my checking account, but still have my Wells Fargo and have been using one for my bills and expenses, and the other for the allowance that I get for food and fun during the week. I've tried to eat out less, but I'm having the worst time trying to make that happen. I think I've spent the last 10 years of my life eating out about 75% of the time. I know. It's absurd. One other thing that I've been doing is writing down everything that I spend on a notecard. It's tedious, but I think after a couple of months I'll have a really good sense of how much money I waste and how I can better allocate my resources.
This last week has been a challenge though. I went to a concert last week, going to see Groovaloos tomorrow night, and then the Angels this Friday. It's all within the budget, but combined with last week's expenses, I've had to try to make it the whole week on about $25. So last night I went to Albertsons, maximized on all that I could on whatever was cheapest and I think I'll be able to do it.
I get a certain amount of excitement over being able to exert some type of self-control. Okay, it's probably a lot of excitement. For example, I've been most succcessful with eating and exercise the last couple of years. Can you believe that I got up to 197 lbs. at one point about 3 years ago? When I reached that point I just said enough was enough, got a gym pass, changed my eating habits, and 3 years later I've been 20 lbs less with little fluctuation. And I think I have a reasonable eating pattern where I can eat and exercise on a realistic type of schedule, something that I can actually sustain. I only exercise about 4-5 hours a week, eat smaller portions, and I don't think I've had to sacrifice much at all. I'm pretty proud of that.
I bring all of that up because the same sort of thrill that I get from being disciplined about my health habits are similar to the ones that I've been experiencing with figuring out how to best manage my finances. It's been hard the last month or so when I've started, but it's been kind of exciting this week to really commit to not going outside of my alotted budget. I was about to just say screw it and dip into next week's amount, but I knew that if at any point I could just say no to myself, then that would be the same time when I can make real change happen.
While I'm not that excited to eat PB&J or mac & cheese for a couple of meals this week, I am really glad to know that at some point in the near future I'm going to figure all of this out and I'll learn how I can create a surplus and maybe one day, wealth. By the end of the summer I'm hoping that I'll have enough set aside to where I can actually do some investing.
So...if you know of any resources that might be helpful in learning about asset allocation, stocks, etc, please let me know.
Something that the guy from I Will Teach You To Be Rich says on his blog a lot is that there is a difference between being sexy and being rich. It's definitely not sexy to write that I spent $4.84 for a chicken bowl on my little notecard, but I'd much rather be at a point where I actually have money available to travel and make grown-up purchases. I guess I just think that I'd like my money to go more towards experiences and less towards things. I think it'd be cool to set a goal to be a millionaire by 40. Or even just to go on a sweet trip next summer. Anybody with me? I'm thinking either a South America tour or go over to Europe and catch a soccer game, among other things. Just throwing that out there. Feel free to throw it on back.
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