Take a Breath

I am doing everything in my power to have a few spending free days this week. I am being mindful of how much money I need to go to yoga class, and the horse races this weekend and groceries. Right now I feel like there is a few things a need and a million things I want. Each is gently tugging at my wallet but if you add this all up I feel like it is going to burst out of distress.

I am trying soooooo hard to look into the future, understand how this will benefit me. What is making this worse, is my feelings about myself are being projected on my friends. I am doing what I can to deal with these emotions and prevent them from causing me to emotionally spend or emotionally eat. I know this journey is not just about spending less and saving more, it is about effectively and efficiently being myself (as bizarre as that sounds).

I know I can do this! These humps happen, and I know when I persevere through this, I will be the better for it.

I have to say, I did well for the month of October, I will keep up my good work through November. Thank you for reading!

Things are going good.

I got a lovely phone call sunday morning, from my mother, to talk about how my budget is going. It was not the usually angry phone call, more out of concern than anything. This time, I was happy to report that things have been going well.

My cell phone is getting a bit out of control lately. I am on prepaid, and for the past 4 months, spending $30/mon has worked out in my favour. Last month, after the road trip, I ran out of credit on the 23rd, so I topped it up to $30, this month I ran out of credit on the 13th, it came a lot quicker, so this time I topped it up to $50. I am hoping the $50 will get me into the end of November, and my cell phone spending will get back on track. Since most of my friends leave during the end of November to go travelling, that should be a pretty cheap cell phone month.

Some good news, my goals this month to spend no money on alcohol and cabs. I did not make it, but I did make it 2 weeks. I drank only one night, Saturday night, and overall this weekend was pretty cheap. Also, I got the bank card for the bank account that I opened up at a different bank. I am putting my spending and grocery money in there and keeping it separate from everything else. Because this country allows you to electronically transfer between different banks, I have just set up electronically a transfer, so I do not have to worry about it. Now the money I send back home is completely separate from my spending money, yeah!!!!!! This should releive the stress of worrying if the cheque I sent home will clear. I also opened up an ING direct account for my travel money and I am putting the extra $28 a paycheque that I did not budget for, into a separate account so I can save that for my emergency fund. For the first time in a long time, I am feeling on top of my financials.

And, I got my GST cheque last week and I put that straight on to my cards! I feel like things are going good!

Choices

Let’s start with my blog title. Thank you Shakespeare for the play on words. At least it isn’t “Oh Money, Money. Wherefore art thou Money?” ;). My title comes down to the fact that having debt is a choice, even though at times it might not seem like a choice. Every time I buy a book, go the ballet, buy a new piece of clothing, go out to eat, I am making a choice. It might seem magical how those shoes and that purse just appeared in my wardrobe. The trips may be fun, the accessories beautiful, but at the end of the day, these are all choices I am making. Another way to look at it, I am choosing to value my present more than my future. For my now is coming at the expense of my future and its taken me a few years to realize that my future is worth much more than that.
Saying this a just a spending issue is like an alcoholic saying its just a drinking issue. I am ready, willing, and eager to look at all areas of my life and making changes for the better.

My writing this blog and being part of the MP Dunaley’s Women In Red Racers will do one thing that I have yet to do in regards to my spending and saving: make me accountable.

Please share your stories, struggles, and advice. Together we can live a debt-free and wealthy life.

Baby Steps

I guess the first step is admitting that I have a spending/saving problem. I have read the books, know the theory, I mean I want to be an accountant but at the tender age of 23 I have surmounted an unexcusable amount of debt: $11,288.33.

Yeah I am in school, but that is amount is solely on credit cards. Essentially, I am borrowing from my future to live in my present. That is not a creditor I am willing to continue engaging with.

This is my journey. I hope my steps may help others along the way.

Thanks to my mum, I found this message board, the Women in Red, on MSN money.

Thank you mum and MP Dunleavey. May this be the introduciton to my success story.