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Trying to run with feet of cement

June 20th, 2013 at 04:35 am

Found eleven cents walking from my parked car to the salon, hoping for a bang trim. I joke with my kid that we use the found money to pay down our six-figures-left-of-the-decimal mortgage.

How can I go on with my hair for six-seven weeks just fine and then all of a sudden my bangs and the condition of my hair need some TLC? The salon was closed so the spending is postponed. I never really save money: I just reallocate and postpone my spending. I bought one bulb of garlic. My spouse took off to go buy some Twizzlers so there goes my barely spent any money day. Why do I have money bulimia?

Buying a clarinet for my boy on Saturday. The cost equals four months' rental, and the clarinet has had six weeks' use, so I think it's a good deal. It's definitely for the same music experience level as my boy.

I know I am old and crotchety: today's mainstream music all sounds the same, I gripe about the dumbing down of society, so maybe I should fully accept my age and seriously consider an adjustable rate mortgage. What is sad is that two years ago we thought we were doing really well to refinance our mortgage, shaving 9% off the mortgage principal and interest but keeping the payoff date, and now our spending scrapes up against our budget like muffintop belly fat on a tight pair of jeans.

Posted in glorybe, frugal actions | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Trying to run with feet of cement”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    June 20th, 2013 at 12:33 pm 1371731623
    1371731623

    Oops! Your post reminded me about your mortgage comments, and I went back and saw your reply. I will oblige... (Forgive the delay).

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    June 20th, 2013 at 07:36 pm 1371757005
    1371757005

    Dunno if this helps if things are really tight, but I have a budget line item for haircuts so I'm prepared with the money when it's time, and each family member gets a certain amount of cash each week; when it's gone, no more Twizzlers (or whatever). Do you have a written budget with amounts for groceries, grooming, fun money?

  3. PauletteGoddard Says:
    June 20th, 2013 at 08:37 pm 1371760620
    1371760620

    @ceejay74 Tracking money expenditures would be helpful even if the money going out were more than money coming in, if only to know where to cut back and how to refinance. I have YNAB and could restart it. Monthly I've recorded my account balances in a small price book and seem to be holding steady. Fun money is out of whack because when I suggested my family go to a movie (2 for 1 admission coupon) I didn't know they were going to spend $50 on food. My movies are usually rented or borrowed or on public domain. I passed up the annual film festival here because of perceived lack of funds, so the $50 for an adult and child to eat at the movies is very galling.

    It feels to me that I am trying to talk myself into an adjustable rate mortgage or devise some algebraic formula to graph the optimal use of funds in a refinance. Or trying to determine how much overspending is okay and where. I must accept, and am loath to do so because I am such a longtime SA community member, that there are either few or supersecret ways of reducing expenses, and maybe my mortgages and other loan balances are the best that they can be given the circumstances.

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