Happy Monday Folks. Sorry for the frazzled posts last week, I am hoping to kick off the week with a dozey of a post.
I am an impatient person. Always have been, probably always will be. Other than being stubborn and possibly the worst speller ever, this is one of my self proclaimed worst traits.
And right now I am stuck. Not only am I stuck at my job, but a bit so in life.
In a few months, Mr. Spice will be back at school getting his MBA, and this will pretty much consume our lives for the next 1.5 years. Which is super duper great and I support him 110%, but we already knew that. In the mean time, my impatient self has started to be super green with envy. I get super jealous of those buying a house or even worse, having a baby. Basically, I get jealous of those moving to the next stage in life.
Yep, add jealousy to my list of bad traits.
That said, I am not ready for the next stage. In the middle of Mr. Spice losing his job, and with a push from a few friends, I realized that I am a bit of a financial disaster.
It started in Grad school, a little debt here, a new dress there, and it continued for almost five years. I was a bit like Rebecca Bloomwood in the Shopaholic, but without any designer stuff.
So a few months ago, I created a financial plan, I figured out exactly how much I needed to pay off each month to be financially free in a year, and how much that left me each month to live off of. After I subtracted my fixed expenses, there is not much left.
So far I am on month 3 of my plan- month 1 a success. But I FAILED big time in May with birthdays, holidays, a brief trip to LA, and an anniversary- it was an impossible dream to actually stay on budget. But budget breaking or not- at least I feel aware. Aware of what I need to do for the next year.
I know that in a year, I will be exactly where I want to be. And be able to do exactly what I want to do.
Until then, I am sitting, waiting, wishing.
Being as impatient as I am, I need some guidance. How or what do I do to keep myself busy. This blog helps a bit, but I need suggestions.
So tell me Lovely Readers, how do you successfully pass the time without spending money??
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3 comments:
Oooh love the new layout! So fresh.
Have you heard of the Simple Dollar blog? (thesimpledollar.com)
I love, love, love it. There are tons of archieved posts on cheap and free things to keep you entertained.
Molly
Ugh, I know how you feel. I feel like I'm waiting for my life to start sometimes, too. I hate my current job and can't wait for it to end so I can find something I really want to do. To pass the time, I try to give myself lots of projects around the house to do (free/cheap things like spray painting picture frames), catch up on my Netflix queue, and read lots of blogs and books. Good luck!
Oh, this is an AWESOME post because it resonates with me. Let me 'splain. As you know I'm 38 years OLD. I have your exact same character traits. I think a lot of people do. I'm impatient, I want to move quickly to the next level. When I was in my late twenties, I was fresh out of graduate school with a ton of debt and not much in terms of savings. I was so happy to be done with school but felt that I still was not free to do anything because of the debt. So my partner (at the time) and I decided to do as you are doing and made a plan and vowed not to allow ourselves any discretionary spending: only bills and food. It was tough, and there were times when we messed up a little. But little by little in about 14 months, we got rid of our credit card debt.
I continued to be very self-disciplined in my spending after that relationship, as a single person. That latte factor mumbo jumbo is for real. I never bought anything out of convenience. No Starbucks, packed my lunch each day, and ate in as much as I could, but allowing weekend dining fun (not too extravagant). Fast forward a few years, the school loans were paid off and I bought a condo.
Today life is very comfortable because I still have no debt, and with our (husband, G and my) combined income and frugality life feels free. Not because we have a ton to spend, but we don't OWE anything except our mortgages.
I find that blogging, reading online, and crafting out of stuff around the house (like not buying anything to craft with) like scraps and recycling old clothes into funky and fun new looks is REALLY satisfying, especially since you know you're saving money!!! I think you are wise to contemplate and evaluate your finances before getting into the next level. I wish you the best and I really, really like to encourage women to do what you're doing.
If I had to write a note to my younger self, I'd say do this, sooner than later. Your 38 year old self will thank you. I promise. Your baby and house will come and they will both be VERY comfortable.
Sorry for the terribly long comment. I am passionate about this way of living.
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