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I would say that I have some "normal" debt for someone my age - specifically a car payment and student loan. I have 903 days (or 2.5 years) left until my car is paid off, and about 7 years left on my student loan, though I hope to pay it off quicker after the wedding and my credit card debt is paid off.
Now my credit card debt is my "bad" debt, obviously, because that is gaining interest like a mofo. I owe about $4,000 - which was built up after I split up with G and I was paying all the rent on my own, during my unemployment as well as vacation. It also doesn't help that my MasterCard balance comes out of my chequings account automatically, because it wipes the balance on my chequing, so if I have to buy something (groceries, gas, etc) I have to use my MasterCard, which just adds on to my balance and more interest. Hooray. Not.
That's a brief overview of how I got myself into this mess - no one's fault but my own! So, what am I doing to change it? Let me tell you...
Cash spending
Being a millennial and all I kind of forgot that there's this thing called physical cash that you can take out and trade for goods and services. Crazy, right?! So I'm going to start taking out money the day I get paid - about $200 a pay check should be more than enough - to cover groceries and other essentials.
No new clothing/accessories
Yeah, this one sucks. But the reason I thrift is because I would rather pay less for beautiful clothes than pay full price. The last three items that I bought new* at full price for myself were:
- my athletic bathing suit (because being broke is also stressful, so I got an alumni gym membership so I can get some meditative swimming time in) September 27
- fabric for my next sewing project (this technically counts as clothing) September 23
- my wedding shoes (wedding expense, so I'm not sure that really counts, but I'll put it in anyway) August 29
I guess I am doing pretty good for October, although I did make a $6 purchase at Value Village 2 weeks ago, but that was because I had a $50 gift card and $56 worth of stuff. I wouldn't have gone VV shopping if I didn't have that gift card.
So the TGIF part of this post is inspired by Blonde on A Budget, a Canadian personal finance blogger from BC. I love her weekly wrap ups, and I thought there is no better time to start doing my own TGIF posts than the Friday of the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend! So here it goes:
Low of my week: Coming into work an hour early for a meeting that I didn't know was cancelled.
High of my week: Toss up between going to aquasize with Bailey and going to Camrose with Bee to sell some stuff to Imagine and stuff our faces at East-Side Mario's.
A blog post I loved: Jessica's blog post on why she wears 80s-does clothing.
Best money I spent: I guess I will have to say the $100 I took out for cash spending, because that's really the only thing I spent money on since last Friday!
Weekend Plans: spend two whole days with my fiancé in Calgary for Thanksgiving at my sister-and-brother-in-laws-to-be's house! Ian and I have both picked up some odd jobs for extra wedding cash, plus he's been working nights, so I haven't spent more than 30 minutes (when one of us is half asleep) with him in over a week.
What are you thankful for this weekend?
Thank you ever so much for the huge thrust you have given us here, darling. (Sharing one's finances, to me, is among the bravest things one can tell).
BEST decision you can make is to stop driving places I can walk - it'll surely save you a lot of money and it'll boost up your health. Two wins in one stroke. :)
I hope it all turns out the best possible way, dear.
Hugs.
Marija
It takes a lot to talk so openly about one's financial matters, thank you for doing so here with us. I'd imagine most of of your readers are in debt, too. It seems sooooo many of us (myself included) are in today's world.
Tony and I paid off all of our personal debt (which was in the five figures), accumulated through various expenses during the first several years of our marriage, around the start of 2012, then (and we knew this was going to happen) turned around and in less than a month were sitting at about the same debt load again because of the many expenses of moving across country from Ontario to B.C., getting our condo, home renos, a bit of furniture that we needed, and buying our first (ever!) car. We haven't (thank goodness) accumulated much new debt since then, which is great, but I'm not keen on "just staying afloat" on the debt front, and I hope that next year (after this December's business taxes have been paid) we can to make more headway in paying off, and eventually eliminating, our debt load again. We budget like there's no tomorrow, monitor our personal spending very closely, are always looking for ways to bolster our income, and have a plan to hopefully be debt free by 2016-17, all things willing. I believe it's possible for us, just as it will be for you as well, my dear friend. Let's cheer each other on and spend as little as possible in the process! :)
♥ Jessica
*PS* Thank you so much for the awesome shout out! I love knowing that my post on 80s does 40s/50s fashion resonated so deeply with you. It's one of my favourites of this year, too.
I had to stop buying all things extra...right down to magazines, went cold turkey on garage sales and antique shows for a few years....I also stepped out of comfort zone and negotiated better contracts with my clients. Finally things turned around...then the boys started post secondary, etc.
I is like exercising..it hurts (me mentally) but it works!
My "problem" with thrifting is that I might splurge more because it's less expensive than something new so it's easier to justify buying something I don't actually need. Those little purchases add up so that's another thing I try to pay attention to as well :)