For the record, swearing off my credit cards has not helped me spend less money.
This month, I've faithfully used my debit card, knowing that every little penny I spend will come straight out of my checking account. For the first week, I didn't spend much. Mainly because I manipulated my bills to make it look like my checking only had $400. But when my checking balance is more like $4,000, the incentive to scrimp simply isn't there.
This morning I logged into my account online to find that I've spent almost $2,000 in the past couple weeks. Ouch! Half of that went to my student loan payment and having our bathroom retiled. But what about the other half? Some bills and lots of frittering. Sigh.
So far, what I've learned is that the best way to keep myself mindful with money is to check Quicken every. single. day. without fail.
I'm still going to finish out the month, so it'll be easier to analyze and compare to my spending in past months. But geez, I really look forward to using my Amazon and Discover cards again!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Back to veganism
I've started transitioning to veganism. It's been on my mind for a while, but it's a pretty huge plunge to take, you know? So I've been slow to actually do it.
Guess the time is right though. Instead of going cold-tofurkey like I did back in September for the vegan challenge, I'm taking it slow. My goal is to eat exactly what I want, whether that's a vegan salad or a cheeseburger.
Last week I started by putting soy milk in my coffee. Then I scrounged a vegan meal at our favorite BBQ place—simply because that was what sounded yummiest. Then I baked a fucking awesome vegan banana bread.
For the last couple days, I've eaten vegan all day and then had an omnivore dinner. That's working for me, although the meat feels awfully heavy in my stomach. After a week or so, I hope to be having some full vegan days. From there, I'll work on having more and more vegan days until I'm vegan all the time. But my end goal isn't just to stop eating animal products.
I've been paying attention to how I feel when I eat certain foods, and it's become pretty obvious that flour and sugar aren't my friends. Those are pretty broad categories, and they're in just about everything. It's probably not realistic to try to never eat them. But I can at least not let flour be a staple ingredient, and avoid sugary foods. (I'm not talking fruit here, obviously.)
That right there will be a huge deal. This week I've eaten an awful lot of hummus and pita. Not to mention the banana bread. Switching those out for vegetables, legumes, and whole grains is a really, really big change. It'll definitely take some getting used to.
More later.
Guess the time is right though. Instead of going cold-tofurkey like I did back in September for the vegan challenge, I'm taking it slow. My goal is to eat exactly what I want, whether that's a vegan salad or a cheeseburger.
Last week I started by putting soy milk in my coffee. Then I scrounged a vegan meal at our favorite BBQ place—simply because that was what sounded yummiest. Then I baked a fucking awesome vegan banana bread.
For the last couple days, I've eaten vegan all day and then had an omnivore dinner. That's working for me, although the meat feels awfully heavy in my stomach. After a week or so, I hope to be having some full vegan days. From there, I'll work on having more and more vegan days until I'm vegan all the time. But my end goal isn't just to stop eating animal products.
I've been paying attention to how I feel when I eat certain foods, and it's become pretty obvious that flour and sugar aren't my friends. Those are pretty broad categories, and they're in just about everything. It's probably not realistic to try to never eat them. But I can at least not let flour be a staple ingredient, and avoid sugary foods. (I'm not talking fruit here, obviously.)
That right there will be a huge deal. This week I've eaten an awful lot of hummus and pita. Not to mention the banana bread. Switching those out for vegetables, legumes, and whole grains is a really, really big change. It'll definitely take some getting used to.
More later.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Did you notice?
I'm out of credit card debt!
A couple weeks back, I paid off my last card. I didn't expect it to have much of an impact on me, but it did. I feel a lot lighter and freer.
For at least six months now, I've been faithfully paying off my credit card charges at the end of each month (with one exception: big home-improvement costs, because I'm not in charge of when those happen). I've proven to myself that I can use credit cards sensibly and realistically. As in, I don't pretend I'm spending someone else's money or act surprised when I see my balance.
There's just one thing still bugging my: the research showing that people tend to spend more on credit than they would have with cash.
For the record, the cash thing doesn't apply to me. Forking over green paper doesn't affect me at all. If anything, it feels less important because it doesn't have my name on it and there won't be any record of the purchase. I could spend it on big purple dildos if I wanted, and no one would ever know. (If you must know, I don't want.)
Looking at my account activity in Quicken every day keeps me mindful of what I'm spending, which in turn helps me avoid overspending. But the question remains: Am I still spending more on credit than I would if the money were coming straight from my checking account? Truth is, I make a lot of money. I know there will be plenty in the future. Does that, combined with credit cards, lead me to spend more than I would otherwise?
That's the question I want to answer this month. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to make my daily purchases using my checking account's debit card instead of my beloved Amazon card. At the end of the month, I'll use Quicken to compare June's discretionary spending to May's.
I'm mostly interested in a few specific categories: restaurants, entertainment, groceries, incidentals, clothes, online shopping, and that sort of thing. Home improvement costs won't count—although they will matter in the sense that they'll claim part of the money in my checking account, making less available to spend.
So that's my experiment for this month. If it turns out I spend a lot less using debit, I'll probably give up my credit cards altogether. I like the rewards, but they're pointless if I'm unwittingly buying extra in order to get them.
Here's a snapshot of the relevant categories for January through May 2008:
At the end of the month, I'll compare how much I spent using my debit card.
A couple weeks back, I paid off my last card. I didn't expect it to have much of an impact on me, but it did. I feel a lot lighter and freer.
For at least six months now, I've been faithfully paying off my credit card charges at the end of each month (with one exception: big home-improvement costs, because I'm not in charge of when those happen). I've proven to myself that I can use credit cards sensibly and realistically. As in, I don't pretend I'm spending someone else's money or act surprised when I see my balance.
There's just one thing still bugging my: the research showing that people tend to spend more on credit than they would have with cash.
For the record, the cash thing doesn't apply to me. Forking over green paper doesn't affect me at all. If anything, it feels less important because it doesn't have my name on it and there won't be any record of the purchase. I could spend it on big purple dildos if I wanted, and no one would ever know. (If you must know, I don't want.)
Looking at my account activity in Quicken every day keeps me mindful of what I'm spending, which in turn helps me avoid overspending. But the question remains: Am I still spending more on credit than I would if the money were coming straight from my checking account? Truth is, I make a lot of money. I know there will be plenty in the future. Does that, combined with credit cards, lead me to spend more than I would otherwise?
That's the question I want to answer this month. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to make my daily purchases using my checking account's debit card instead of my beloved Amazon card. At the end of the month, I'll use Quicken to compare June's discretionary spending to May's.
I'm mostly interested in a few specific categories: restaurants, entertainment, groceries, incidentals, clothes, online shopping, and that sort of thing. Home improvement costs won't count—although they will matter in the sense that they'll claim part of the money in my checking account, making less available to spend.
So that's my experiment for this month. If it turns out I spend a lot less using debit, I'll probably give up my credit cards altogether. I like the rewards, but they're pointless if I'm unwittingly buying extra in order to get them.
Here's a snapshot of the relevant categories for January through May 2008:
At the end of the month, I'll compare how much I spent using my debit card.
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