Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Money Crunching

So, I stupidly lost almost $200 the other day when I forgot to make a transfer and then used my debit card 6 times without anything in my account. Even though I made small purchases, every swipe was $30 down the hole in overdraft fees. I've been kicking myself about it like crazy, but Bryce reminds me we all make a few money mistakes in our lives. So to make myself feel better I have been paying attention to my savings and extra earnings. For example I won $50 in the gingerbread house contest, so that is taking me to $150. I recycled cans and bottles for redemption money and pulled out $5. So now $145. I realize there is a cost spent in purchasing materials for these things, but I could have received nothing and still spent so thus a savings. Yesterday I wanted to purchase a cool plaid shirt at Hot Topic for $44. I had it in my cart and everything and then realized I shouldn't because of my stupidity beforehand. So I decided to make a a quick trip to Goodwill to see if they had anything and I found an almost identical shirt for $3, plus two other shirts from brands I like that were also $3. So now I am at $101 loss. I will keep playing this game in my head till I reach 0, but doing this I am realizing it is not such a bad way to go. Saving money is almost as fun as shopping in general. Hopefully I don't turn into my mother who buys all this not needed stuff on sale because it is on sale and in the end can spend the same amount at the check out line with me, but I don't have extra garbage in my cart and I have bought a longer lasting product.

1 comment:

Emm said...

yup, I am doing the same thing, got a $75.00 right light ticket in the mail last week...for a right hand turn grrr.