My confession. I used to be a saver. I wouldn't spend a penny on anything unless I had to. Then I got a few good jobs, and had kind of a lot of money to spend (after I spent what I had to on school). Then I became a spender. I got lots of stuff I didn't need, and I loved it. It was so much fun to go shopping and spend money that I had! Who needs to save, right? Clothes, shoes, music, music players, random stuff I didn't need, .... yeah, all that - and more that I won't mention.
About a year ago, God nudged me in the 'maybe you should start saving money' direction. I opened a savings account, but didn't really put anything in there because it was so much more fun to spend it. Fail. 2 weeks ago, I stopped by a fast food place for lunch, and paid with my debit card like I always do. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well... to make a long story short, the guy I gave my card to was super creepy, and started asking me all these questions.... not cool. And here I had basically handed him my identity!
I was scared, and for good reason (God does things like that to make you learn, ya know?). So I decided to only buy stuff with cash that I had with me. And to only take x amount of cash out of my account every week. So far - it's been amazing. I've been spending less money, and really thinking "do I have enough cash to buy this, and if I do buy this, will that leave me lunch money tomorrow?". Plus, I'm not handing my name and life information to any random stranger. Life is good.
But life is harder. I was in a bad rut of being able to buy whatever I wanted, and it's hard to get on this new path. God's been helping me in the past couple weeks to turn away from my spending-ness and to save more. I still really want to buy that really cute necklace in the store window. But do I need it? Nope. And I've been learning (while still failing sometimes) that living without the stuff you want but don't need, is really an okay thing.
(the confession idea was started by Ally Spotts on her blog, continued by my friends Caitlin and Michael - and I thought I would join in) (even though I'm not quite 20 yet)
About a year ago, God nudged me in the 'maybe you should start saving money' direction. I opened a savings account, but didn't really put anything in there because it was so much more fun to spend it. Fail. 2 weeks ago, I stopped by a fast food place for lunch, and paid with my debit card like I always do. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well... to make a long story short, the guy I gave my card to was super creepy, and started asking me all these questions.... not cool. And here I had basically handed him my identity!
I was scared, and for good reason (God does things like that to make you learn, ya know?). So I decided to only buy stuff with cash that I had with me. And to only take x amount of cash out of my account every week. So far - it's been amazing. I've been spending less money, and really thinking "do I have enough cash to buy this, and if I do buy this, will that leave me lunch money tomorrow?". Plus, I'm not handing my name and life information to any random stranger. Life is good.
But life is harder. I was in a bad rut of being able to buy whatever I wanted, and it's hard to get on this new path. God's been helping me in the past couple weeks to turn away from my spending-ness and to save more. I still really want to buy that really cute necklace in the store window. But do I need it? Nope. And I've been learning (while still failing sometimes) that living without the stuff you want but don't need, is really an okay thing.
(the confession idea was started by Ally Spotts on her blog, continued by my friends Caitlin and Michael - and I thought I would join in) (even though I'm not quite 20 yet)
India, thanks for writing this so I could read it. I think God just used you to nudge me --again!-- on this subject. It's way, wayyyy to easy for me to just use my card for anything and everything that I may or may not need...but I really truly do need to be wiser with my money. So, thanks for speaking out!
ReplyDeleteHere's to listening to God AND saving money. :)
P.S.~ I've been reading up on Ally Spotts, Caitlin and Mike's posts too! Really good blogging going on here and there. :)
So glad you've joined the confessional crew! Even if you aren't a twentysomething yet. :)
ReplyDeleteDave Ramsey does the envelope system. I know because I bought one. Have I used it? Never! But one day, I will. ;)
You are definitely not alone in this! I think of myself as a miser, but lately as my miserly ways have accumulated more money, I'm being tempted more often to buy things - and sometimes I do. One thing I find ironic about saving and spending is I save for larger purchases and think I'm very self-controlled, but I buy smaller things off the clearance racks and the $5 bins without thinking about those purchases will add up. What fools we mortals be :-P
ReplyDeleteKeep up the saving and careful, controlled spending! :-)