Zero to frugal:
Diary of an overspender pt. 3
Diary of an Overspender – Part 3.
Fleeting success. Or the success that comes with first having failed.
I dutifully took myself to St Vincents de Paul in Paddington over the weekend. Saturday to be precise…Part treasure hunting, part time-killing to stop myself spending money elsewhere.
It worked to some extent; having only managed to spend $22 on a pair of remarkably clean ralph lauren pants, thus keeping myself under the $25 limit, I was feeling pretty good about myself.
But then my day was over.
I had spent my money, and acquired my thing.
Pulled up the ol’ Xinja app, $27 remaining from my initial $100… not bad if I do say so myself.
Now home to relish in my cheap purchase and spend the rest of the day…reading or something?
I literally had no idea because I spend most weekends spending money.
Food, drinks, stuff… whatever, I just knew the alternative meant ‘not’ doing those things…and I liked those things so…what do you want from me here?
Long story short my friends texted me for an old pals’ birthday at 8pm, and before you knew it I was $150 down at the casino, with a pina colada in one hand and two spicy pickles in the other. The pickles were free, so I took two to recoup a fraction of the $150 I had just lost on blackjack challenge.
(What’s blackjack challenge? Oh it’s the same as regular blackjack, but the casino take your money more often, it’s great!)
I’m not going to lie, I felt pretty garbage on Sunday having blown every budget I’d aimed to make. I enjoyed the bro-time but not the blo-time.
Checked Xinja…Still $27. (Of course, because you didn’t use your Xinja card did you, monkey max?)
I hate to admit that the first thought I had when I realised I hadn’t spent any of my Xinja cash was “Great, Uber-eats maccas here I come, you beautiful greasy baby”.
“I’ll just get the pancakes…. and a hashbrown…and ‘one’ bacon and egg mcmuffin. Oh and one happy meal, with the nuggets”
$14.75 later, I was a slightly fuller, less sad boi.
Pulled up Xinja… $13.25 remaining. $13.25 which is supposed to last me till this coming Friday.
Lunch… Everyday. What am I going to buy with $2 a day? Fried rice?
No, fried rice would be too fancy, I’m staring down the barrel of 90c noodle packets.
(I have nobody to blame but my upbringing, so that is what I shall blame)
Tune in this weekend to see if I can stop myself buying my eighth pair of $300 headphones, am I right?
So far I’ve had more fails than wins, but I think I’ve put my finger on just what it is that’s helping (and figured out exactly what isn’t):
(p.s these are all from our forum, check it out if you’re struggling!)
- Outline your needs v wants. Identify the wants that you can live without, and agree that some of them are needs, even if it’s a family size crate of Milo every month. Family size is subjective, remember that.
- Set a savings goal and map out a plan to get there. Not just like “oh I want to save a grand”, but literally write down what money you are going to sacrifice from your monthly expenses, and then consciously agree not to spend it each month. For the first 3 weeks I was just putting everything on my credit card. (you can see why I need this)
- Talk to your grandparents. Or talk to mine if you want. They used to clean their houses and feed their children with 2 lemons and a can of beans, and still have leftover ham for supper. Where did they get the ham? How did they clean a house with 2 lemons? These are questions you should ask them, because they used to make do with much less and are now all sitting on piles of cash and property so… ask them how.
- Dip a toe outside your comfort zone… then a foot… then a leg. The best part about change is it forces you to reevaluate your routines. Some of them are straight garbage and you know it. Sometimes I eat a whole packet of gummy bears and a wheel of brie before I go to bed because I have terrible food control, I recently went away on holiday and did not have access to my usual supply of brie and gummy bears. All it took was a week, and now I don’t have the same cravings.
The same can be said for our savings, all it takes is cumulative small changes to achieve your goals, just remember to not take yourself to seriously (we’re all doing our best here) and to have fun with it. You’ll probably fail a bunch before you get it together, but you’ll feel better knowing you’re working towards something 😉
Just. Like. me.
The content above does not represent any form of advice and Xinja has obviously not considered your individual circumstances in preparing this. It is simply a few thoughts on money to get the conversation started.