Since none of us get out of this world alive,and even though we may own our own homes, we're really only passing through, just "checking in " for an extended stay. I just wanted to chronicle my own adventures in penny pinching while on this earthly plane.This is hopefully a stop along the internet superhighway to reconsider spending habits.
There has been a movement out there of people rejecting spending for spending's sake, voluntary simplicity and down home thrift, parsimony and tight waddery as valid objectives in life. To find something else to do besides shop, get, consume.
Interviews with people on TV about their pledge to not buy anything "new" for a year and an MSN article on stopping your own financial suicide by cutting off the waste and mindless shopping stuck in my mind. I had been a regular subscriber to The Tightwad Gazette and am an admirer of the newletter's [and subsequent books] author Amy Dacyczyn [like "decision"]. That was a good foundation and a proper primer in thrift. She is correct: thrift is a viable alternative lifestyle. I have always been thrifty and thoughtful with a dollar, but imagine my shock at getting bank statements every month and discovering I was spending 3-500 more than I was taking in. Easy trap when I had bonuses, a car accident pay off, a surprise gift from Mom & Dad and an occasional dip into my savings to cover up my imprudent spending.
Well look at it: I have all the conveniences of the rich:Pay check automatically deposited, bills automatically paid, other bills paid on line,
it's just like money is always there.It just appears. The bank statements say something else, something very scary. This ship is on a collison course.
So I read the editorial on MSN re:spending on just what was necessary and the reader's responses to it. Why it resonated more than any other thing I had read on saving money is a mystery. Perhaps the ease with which it can be done: just shut off the flow !!!!
It's been two weeks, but consider:
I already bake my own bread [ in a machine, that still counts] my own soap, hang the laundry on the line, drive an economical car, don't eat out, drink or smoke [any longer]. Thrift stores are already my friends. I should buy stock in the 99c Store or the Dollar Tree, so where and how to save is already a part of what, I guess you could call a "lifestyle".
Certainly booze and cigs cost, eating out not worth the cost and effort, $11.75 movie tickets are just ridiculous. Driving a gas hog is a waste of money [and finding parking for a big rig as well as threading it through Hell Ay traffic is just impossible], Macy's and Sears and the rest all make me crazy trying to shop in them, malls are suffocating and thrift stores have a calming effect. The 99c Store is like the old Woolworth's and Newberry's used to be, the old 5 & 10c stores of old.My kind of shopping. That's instinctual. I want to be professional grade cheap.
Get it straight: not everyone wants to live the way I do and I am not suggesting that one should. These are my thoughts on thrift and remember the whole experiment may fall apart as quickly as it came together.
The objective then:
Staunch the flow of money coming out of my wallet.
Recognize the difference between want and need
Use up what I already have before buying more
Figure out something else to do besides shop for stuff.
Not buying is a new concept, since I am obsessive compulsive about having enough in stock: If I have 3 cans of tuna, I need to "pick up" 2 more, just to be safe. Laundry soap ? I have enough to do 500 loads before having to buy another box or jug.Toilet paper & paper towels, the same.Canned goods, shampoo, name it, I have to have several bottles or cans. This borders on old fashioned hoarding and that's not healthy. And it takes up room. My house is only 947 square feet, just using up what I have got laying around for "just in case" will open up more square footage!!
The past two weeks have been like kicking cigarettes: No stops at 7-11 for coffee and other "things", no trips to the donut shop during the day, buying water from the cooler up front at work. That was easy.
It's ignoring the sneaky impulses and the automatic responses that's hard:
Hearing a song on the radio and wanting to down load it [for 99c and it won't stop till I have an entire cd of 15 or so cuts], reading the sales flyers for Big Lots and such and making a note that I should get this, that, or a few of those. So much input to buy, fetch and gather it's almost an automatic reaction, like reaching for a cigarette. Spooky. The Orchard Hardware commercial where "We pay the tax this weekend" got an immediate response: I've got to go there and pick something up. Not that I needed anything, just there was no tax on it and I might see something. Then I remembered I was not buying anything but necessities, period.
Those people who pledged to not buy anything discovered books they had not read, movies they hadn't seen, time they might have spent "shopping" and different things to do with that time. They got richer in more ways than one !!!
Same with picking up bird seed at Target : Do not look at anything else. 99c Store: avoid the cleaning supplies and detergent aisle except to get the dishwashing machine soap. It's like a mine field out there but I did it !!!! I even stopped buying ice, for example.
It has taken a conscious effort to simply stop filling the cart or basket, it has become so engrained in the psyche [or the psycho, ME].
This all started on March 13th. Instead of getting up at 5 a.m. and getting over to Albertson's and the few items I needed, I slept in. We'll make do, use what we have. The freezer is full of frozen vegetable, hamburger and fish, why buy more ?
Rather than spending 50-70 I spent perhaps 10 for milk, bagels, and other foodstuffs. Made tuna salad for sandwiches for lunch this week, rather than buying a 5.00 package of ham and another 2.00 of cheese [I've done it before but got lazy].And if it comes down to it, peanut butter and jelly may be on the menu.
Just downsized 3 of my bottles of laundry detergent into one : bottles of Rinso & Awesome into a big "Sun" brand jug.Shelf space !!!!!
What's A Necessity ?
Savings
Mortgage
Food
Medical
Car Payment
Insurance
Household bills: gas, water, sewage, trash pick up, phone
Pay off of accumulated debt.
These are the primary obligations I have.
The wisdom of simply standing still, simply not doing something is harder to accomplish than it seems. "Just cut off the flow" is easier said than done, so, for reinforcement, I have decided to do a weblog and try to make penny pinching the automatic reaction to stimuli rather than spending.
A penny saved is a penny earned and 100 of them still make a dollar, last time I checked.
It would be nice if people read this and offered their own advice.
You might enjoy your vivit to The Cheap Motel [yes, the towels are chained to the wall and so are the pictures......]
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