Frugality

When I make money mistakes like I did last week I try to make up for them.  What I mean by this is I try to earn extra money or save extra money in the amount of the mistakes I made.  This serves two purposes.  One is I’m able to feel less guilty about wasting the money because I made it back.  The other is any sacrifice I have to make to make up the money will make me less likely to repeat the mistake.

Making up the money mistakes of last week won’t be easy because they are rather large in relation to my income and my budget.  If I had made a small money mistake I could easily make it up by just cutting my food budget or working an extra shift at work.  Making up this money mistake will take a little longer.  Does anyone else try to make up for money mistakes?

I wasted $250 yesterday. Add that to the $100 I previously wasted and it comes to $350 for the month. This money could have been much better spent. I can afford to spend $350 on frivolous things if I want but I didn’t get anywhere near $350 enjoyment out of spending this money. I think this is completely out of my system now and I just have to forget about it and do the best I can with my money from now on.

I decided to play some poker Monday night and lost $100. When I went to play I rationalized that I’ve been doing well with my money and deserve to have a little fun. That is true but playing poker isn’t a good entertainment option for me. After playing for a couple of hours I was up very slightly but I didn’t leave. I have somewhat of a gambling addiction and whenever I gamble I’ll most likely stay until I’ve lost all the money I’ve brought.  This is what makes gambling a poor entertainment option for me.

Losing the $100 isn’t going to create a hardship for me but it would have been nice to have that to pay off my student loan or fund my Roth IRA quicker.  I’m going to try to make up the lost $100 over the next month.  I’m going to delay getting home internet for a month to make up some of the difference.  The rest will come from picking up extra hours at work or cutting my budget elsewhere.  This will cause me to feel some consequences from losing the money and make me less likely to repeat the mistake.

I do think I can loosen up on my spending some though.  I just need to find some other entertainment options that I enjoy and feel give me value for the money.

I’m moving into a new apartment next month.  I will be moving down from a 1 bedroom to a studio.  This will save me $60 a month in rent.  My new monthly rent will be $375 which is pretty cheap even for here.  It is almost as big as my current apartment so there will be plenty of room for me.  I don’t have a lot of stuff and don’t need much space.

The location is nice too.  While searching for apartments I discovered that you can often get an apartment just as cheap in a nice neighborhood as in a crappy one.  My new location is very convenient being about halfway between school and work.  My bank and a grocery store is right across the street so I should be able to cut down my mileage a little. Hopefully that savings won’t be negated by impulse junk food purchases at the grocery store.

When I move in I will have to get gas service again.  It will be cold soon and I have to have the gas on for heat.  I’ll be looking forward to it because the cold showers are starting to get a little too cold.

As part of their grand re-opening a local McDonald’s had a promotion giving one year of free extra value meals to the first 100 walk-in customers and first 100 drive-thru customers.  They re-opening was scheduled for 5 am and the restaurant is located just a little off my usual route home from my route home so I decided to stop by and see what the line looked like.  I got off work at 4:15 am and arrived at the restaurant at 4:30 am.  There were only 3 people in line.  This was a lot fewer than I expected.  Since there was no worry of not being in the first 100 I left to gas up my car and came back.

I was the 5th person in line when I came back.  There were no problems with getting my free coupons when they opened up.  They are good for one free extra value meal a week for a year.  The line was short enough that I thought about getting in the drive-thru line and getting another set of coupons.  I decided that one free Mcdonald’s meal a week was enough though. I think this is my best freebie yet.  For a half hour of my time and driving a couple miles out of the way I am receiving about $250 worth of free food.  I know that McD’s food is bad for me but since I’m eating it anyway it might as well be free.