I am ... cheap. I have always been cheap, because I've always HAD to be cheap. But I'm trying to get over it, now that things have changed.
The other weekend, instead of buying a burger from the dollar menu at the drive-thru for lunch, I ordered a regular-menu burger! and fries! and a soda! although I was still able to bundle them together for a value meal, so there.
And I went to the Thrifty Shopper and bought eighteen dollars worth of clothes, but then realized afterward that I actually had been overcharged because they used my birthday week discount instead of the color-tag discount that would have been cheaper, but instead of beating myself up over it for the next week, I had pretty much excused myself by the following day.
I opened up a brand-new can of reddi-whip the other night, instead of going without because I only want reddi-whip on my dessert once in a while, and god knows when the next time will be, and reddi-whip doesn't last forever once opened, so I pretty much just threw a two-dollar can of reddi-whip away for one use. But I DID use it on a fifty-cent Walmart snack pie that expired a month ago, because I couldn't bear to toss a still-good fifty-cent pie.
I bought a new living room recliner! on Thanksgiving day, because that's when Big Lots was having their big sale. AND I splurged and had it delivered to the house. AND THEN I actually paid my garbage service an extra fee to have my old recliner hauled away, instead of trying to manhandle it into the car and haul it to the dump myself. Although I DID leave it out to the curb for a week, just to see if there were any takers, before calling the garbage service. :)
This year, instead of buying a 5 to 6 foot Christmas tree ($30.00), I bought a 6 to 7 foot tree ($40.00). And that extra ten bucks is WORTH it.
I ... I am just not good at spending money. I think I spent so many years scrimping and saving that it's now ingrained in me. But there's nothing wrong with being thrifty, is there? I mean, it's not like I'm reusing aluminum foil or something. (No judgment here if you reuse aluminum foil, haha.) I tell myself that I'm saving up for that house in Florida. That I might be able to actually BUY, now! Holy cow. :)
So tell me: Are you good at spending money? Is there, like, a secret to it? Is it a skill? Enquiring minds want to know. :)
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5 comments:
I find that it’s best to economize in one - use things: fruit pies, whi-ped ceam, but if it’s something you will see or use every day for an extended petition of time, go crazy. You will think “what a nice Christmas tree” every day for two months. Just today I thought “what a nice knife set” about the expensive knives I bought ten years ago.
I suspect it's a bit too late for you to turn into someone who will pick the $26,000 mattress set (a real thing, omg) or turn in your existing car for a Porsche or Jaguar :)
But hopefully you will get more comfortable at introducing some small luxuries into your life - like buying the can of reddiwhip for one dessert LOL
I do an artificial tree for Christmas - I have had my $8 (post xmas sale) Walmart 6 foot tree for the past 10 years and it was getting a bit scraggly. This year I found a deal on a new tree - and splurged for the 7 foot tree - for $35.
The problem was that I forgot that as trees get TALLER, they get WIDER - oh my LORD the tree took up SO MUCH SPACE in my living room this year. It was amazing!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with pinching a penny. The issue comes when you sacrifice your own happiness to do it or when you spend more time in saving that penny than you would have spent if you had spent it.. like spending to have someone haul away the old chair.
There's nothing wrong with being thrifty. It allows you to focus your resources where they matter the most to you. Small comforts are great - as my mother always used to say, "You have to have some reason to get up and go to work." However, having a secure nest egg, otherwise known as f.u. money makes everything easier :-).
If you're not familiar with j l collins, yo might want to check out his website jlcollinsnh.com about money and the use thereof. His stock series is incredible!
Kris
queen, I TOO have a knife set that I love (it was a gift, haha).
spiff, in the past I may have had scraggly trees that were so wide they blocked half the room. :)
Tails, I'm still glad I didn't have to haul that chair to the dump, TBH.
and KJL, I'll check out Mr. Collins - thanks!
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