Sometimes the best way to make something happen is to put it in writing.
It's the theory behind scribbling down a list of your dreams or, something more familiar to many, writing on the blackboard, Bart Simpson-style at school.
"I will not...." insert your own foible.
That said, my personal foible is overspending.
Or perhaps spending money on the wrong things.
It's not something I intentionally do. It's something that just seems to happen.
Here I am, the wrong side of 40, single and swimming in debt.
How did this happen?
Admittedly it's not all 'bad' debt. A mortgage (or three!) will help me finance my retirement when the properties they cover become income.
It's getting to that point that is the difficult part!
The big challenge is to cut my spending, increase the mortgage payments on my principal property (the biggest debt I have!), and do it while still experiencing some of the good things in life.
Budgeting is tough.
It's not cost-effective for a single person to shop at Costco.
There are compromises that need to be made. Eating take-away for lunch at work is one of them (though this fell by the wayside some time ago)
Buying $300 dresses is another one. You can only wear one outfit at a time. Once you have a wardrobe full, you don't need more.
We all have will-power. We just need something to motivate us to use it instead of making excuses.
Lunch? I can make a perfectly good soup or salad, depending on the season, to take to work.
Clothes? I have plenty. Some of them I don't fit into right now, but you know what? The home-made lunches instead of the take-away may help solve that problem.
Energy costs? I have an ongoing battle with a certain power company that will remain nameless, which tried to charge me around $10,000 for power bills I wasn't responsible for (thank you Ombudsman!!! Though I suspect I will need you again very soon!), so I'm sitting here, on my unplugged, charged up laptop, working by the light of a nicely scented soy candle. And I've just purchased an indoor solar lamp to try. If it's a good buy, I'll pick up a few more.
Bottom line, costs cut elsewhere will lead to more money for the mortgage.
I'd like to put an extra $1000 a month onto my mortgage, but $500 is probably more realistic.
At this point I'm going to try for $1000 and possibly cut down if I need to.
You don't know unless you try.
I'll also be looking around for bargains, and shopping more responsibly.
NQR, here I come. It would be handy if you could stock some vegan options...
