Ok, so I’ve been on this new kick of trying to live within my means. What does this actually mean? Well the way I think of it, it means that I am trying to live in a way that doesn’t force me to shuffle money around like transferring money from my savings to my checking to cover those shoes I absolutely needed! It means trying to look into the future and not just the present. Usually I just buy what I want (never anything too extravagent), because I deserve it! But we’ve had layoffs at my work and at other places within the same industry as mine and I fear for my job. And I know that if I get pulled into HR the reasons like, “I have a mortgage” or “I have to pay for school” won’t matter to their bottom line. So I’m on my own and ideally I should be able to survive without an income for a couple of months and I am far from that goal. And this whole scenario is part of becoming a “grown-up.” I need to be able to manage my finances, budget, and save. But it is a hard lesson to learn because I’ve been able to live like this so far, so why not continue? I think because now I have a lot more to lose. I think that is what it takes for a wake up call, when I think that I could lose my house because I wanted a new cell phone (Blackberry Storm!), and those new shoes, and that nice new jacket, and on and on. All those little “necessities” add up and there has got to be some point where I stop and reconsider what is truly important.
This doesn’t mean that I give up all my shopping or stop my cable, I think it just means being more aware of my purchases and how I want to live in the future. I think buying a house makes you really reevaluate everything! To me, it was a bigger decision than getting married. So where do I go from here? Fight the urge to spend frivolously (which I absolutely adore) and be aware of what I have and what I need, because to me the future and the family I want should mean more to me than that nice new gadget or sweet new dress that is on sale.
I think what this recent economic crisis has shown me and a lot of other Americans is that we can’t always buy now and pay later because later comes sooner than expected. I don’t want to be that American family with the 2 cars in the driveway and the repo man at the back door. I want to be proud of what I have because it is what I earned and not be so caught up in keeping up with the Jones’ because statistically, the Jones’ are probably up to their ears in debt. Its been a complete reevaluating of what makes me happy and what I value. And while it would be nice to have a lot of nice new things, I think I’d rather sleep well at night.
Has the world’s economic state of affairs made anyone else reevaluate? Am I being overly sensitive/cautious?
cindy
Genevieve
theshrew
Erin
qcpguestblogger
erin f.
9 comments
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November 24, 2008 at 9:13 am
theshrew
Nope, definitely not just you! I find myself evaluating now whenever I make an “excuse.” Such as: this past weekend my husband and I went out to dinner with a friend. We had both had long and crappy days, and so we ordered a bottle of wine. Then we had dessert after the meal. And coffee with it, which is unusual for us. Grand total, ~$150. My “excuse” was so good, it didn’t just involve the crappy day, I even added that we hadn’t really ever gone out for our birthdays the previous week, so that counted as our birthday dinner.
Typically that would have been the end of it…instead, with the economic climate, job uncertainty, food/gas/heat prices, etc., I told myself that we couldn’t spend anything more this week. That was our treat for the week. My husband wanted to pick me up at work yesterday and go get bubble tea…maybe $10…I said no. Is this the way to financial security? Probably not. But we already have savings, and our house is relatively secure right now, so my main concern is not going into credit card debt or having to dig into the savings. Living within our means will help us do that.
November 24, 2008 at 9:15 am
theshrew
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention my big philosophical rant right now, which is that the world really needs to start living within its means! We keep talking about growth, but on a finite planet it is NOT a viable goal to have never-ending growth! Not of jobs, because we can’t keep growing the population to fill them. Not of purchases, because we can’t sustain the resource consumption to feed that. I already mentioned this in my post about the big 3 automakers, and I continue to think about it a lot with all the economic turnaround talk being bandied about. I’d like to see Obama mention something in regards to his 2.5 million jobs, that we also need to curtail population growth!
November 25, 2008 at 8:05 am
cindy
i dont think it’s hit me fully yet.
we talked about this earlier i believe, feeling immune or at least have less to worry for those of us who don’t have mortgages, arent in credit card debt, and are relatively free of any huge financial burdens (think: children).
but i admit that as this year has wore on and as we look forward into 2009, i am getting increasingly nervous and curtailing not only my spending, but my consumption.
i think you hit a good point, erin. it’s time for the american family, the american individual, the american motto to change. this is no longer the land of plenty, there never has been and never will be gold roadways, and pride shouldnt be the feeling attached to being the biggest consumers in the world. that realization is hitting a lot of people, i think.
November 28, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Ryan Angell
Cindy if you stop spending outside your means aren’t you contributing to the recession ?
Our system is credit based and relies on a shifting a mountain of debt around between banks and financial institutions with the promise this debt will eventually be paid off during some nebulous time of future prosperity. Consumers and small business debt are the lifeblood of the system, our spending and consumption beyond our means makes the system go and without it the whole thing falls apart.
Now in my opinion such a system has to fail eventually. its based on nothing tangible and its only a matter of time before it collapses or changes into something different. so far we’ve been able to find band aids to stop the bleeding ie iraq war, bailouts but these band aids are all based on incurring more debt and are temporary fixes at best. Its not so much as issue of if our economy collpases but when and the real question is are you prepared for that ? am i ? is anyone ?
Could you survive in a goods and services bases economy with little to no credit ? To take it one step farther: could you grow your own food, make your own clothes or build your own house ? Could you defend your family and your possessions from people who want to take them by force ?
in my opinion this last ten years we’ve danced around this collapse through the pure force of will of people not wanting to give up excess. if anything trickle down economics has worked in this sense…the rich not wanting to give up what they have has trickled down to us which in turn has trickled down to the poor.
this line of thinking is in part what i blame my lack of job, house and family and general apathy on…its hard to want to invest heavily in a system/society i do not believe will be there in any recognizable form in the near future. Of course i could also just be irresponsible and lazy and looking for excuses but the part of me that thinks this is smaller then it was five years ago.
November 30, 2008 at 11:12 am
Erin
But it is partly because of the way the recession is being handled that I personally have become so fearful. There have been layoffs at my work and have known of many others in my field. If that happens to me, I’d rather have saved a few bob and be able to pay my bills rather than trying to eat the new pair of shoes I wanted.
November 30, 2008 at 9:39 pm
erin f.
I find myself making justifications for everything – right now around the holidays spending money on gifts for others is nice, but I find I have been “gifting” myself too! I’ve only had a salaried job for a little over a year, and I’ve found it much more difficult to save than I thought it would be. I’m not in a personal position to buy a house yet, so I feel like I don’t need to worry about being in a financial position to do so – but then, if I don’t start “worrying about it” now (i.e. saving for it), then I won’t be able to afford a house, or a new car, etc. when I’m in a position to want or need these things. We’ve started keeping a pretty good spreadsheet in our household so we at least know how much we are spending on things per month (eating out, bills, groceries, etc.), which has helped to try and make a conscious effort to make monthly cut-backs. Does anyone else have budgeting systems that seem to be working?
December 1, 2008 at 1:37 pm
cindy
erin- i see you sneaking in britis-hisms in there! bob indeed!
erin f. – there’s this blog… it’s called the simple dollar, about one man’s quest to become financially secure after experiencing a financial meltdown (sometimes i think he takes it a little TOO seriously, but that’s my opinion) a quick google search will get you there. he recommends a few budgeting systems. no budgeting system has ever worked for me HOWEVER, i tried maintaining the one suggested by him called pear budget the longest. of course i chose the free version because im cheap like that.
ryan – fortunately for me and unfortunately for the american economy, i have never been nor will i ever be in credit card debt or any sort of debt whatsoever (here’s to hoping). i have stellar credit and people will still offer me loans during the bad times because of that. but i dont want ‘em! i want to be debt free! so i dont really feel like i’m part of the system. but i know that’s arguable. i contribute in some way, just not in any particularly big or dramatic way. i think humans are very resilient and adaptable people. we can bitch and moan all we want, but we’ll get through it. yes, yes we will. and yes, yes we can i suppose.
December 2, 2008 at 9:33 am
bill
I think it is important to shed our learned materialism and gluttony. Let me know how you did it.
December 15, 2008 at 8:50 pm
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