Originally Posted by
SusieQOH
You have to enjoy life and sometimes it involves money.
That's the hard line for me to walk - I'm often almost afraid to spend money I've saved up. Which is exactly the opposite from my spouse!
His attitude tends to be more like, "Spend the money now, because you never know what will happen!" and my attitude is, "
Save the money now, because you never know what will happen!" I guess we balance each other out though.
He has to really talk me into spending money on things like "big" vacations, although once he does talk me into it I never really regret it. I really need to loosen up! But I'm kind of obsessive about my finances.
Anybody else keep spreadsheets to track your spending and saving habits? I have several; some are updated weekly, others monthly, some quarterly; and I use my online banking system's budgeting and alert system like mad and check my balances and transaction history nearly daily. I can tell you how much I've spent on eating out, how much I've spent on fabric, how much I've stashed away for my retirement...I can give you specific figures or an annual average. To me that's really fascinating stuff and has helped me understand my own finances very clearly, and identify great places to save a little more and waste a little less.
Like I had no idea, until I charted it, that I was spending well over $1,000 a year at Starbucks.
Now that figure is down to
zero and that money now goes into my "pocket money" fund (aka my fabric-buying fund) and into my vacation fund (aka my going-to-out-of-town-quilt-shows fund) and I'm happier for it. (And ingesting fewer calories!)