Saturday, February 14, 2009

learning to say no

Prepare for a long winded post... cause I feel like it. I'm learning to say no...

lately I notice that the more I hang out with friends, the less that remains in my wallet (no duh?). That 30 bucks left over in my gasoline budget doesn't get saved for car repairs like it used to... nope, it goes to another night out with my friends... But i can't really be doing that anymore... My work has massively cut back on overtime to none. I've had under $400 from overtime this year and all those hours were worked LAST year and just paid out to me in the begginning of this year... and went toward moving costs.

The problem is, annually I rely on a lot of overtime to agressively save for my future. No where in my budget do you see monthly amounts going towards My Roth IRA, my wedding, that $800 bucks I need to buy my final invisiline retainers, my annual car tags for CA 155 this year (310 next year... crapy CA).....

the list goes on and on. I need to be saving the extra remnents from my monthly budget to cover these things since I can't just pick up a shift at work like I used to.

Luckily, I've made smart choices and have not finacially over extended myself. I know I have the money at any given time to pay for any of these things. But there are things I really want out there in life... enough to sacrifice for them. I want to own a place... a real home... something I've lacked for years emotionally. I want to one day marry that handsome boyfriend of mine and there are no family members of mine to chip in. I want to have a retirement system set up so I won't be a burden to others. Frankly, I'm morphing out of the early 20 something mentality into the mindset of the late 20 early 30's... (and i'm not even 23 yet.)

This will be the last year I agressively save for my house downpayment. I'll have 21,000 so Next year I'll be plugging in line item amounts in my budget to cover the stuff I used to rely on Overtime for, thus reducing the amount that can go towards the house.

But for the time being, I must rely on good budgeting strategies... living like a broke college student, and saving the extra, no matter how small. I must learn to say no to just going out and doing stuff i'm not that interested in doing.

and I have been lately. When half my fun money was blown in 2 days I knew I needed to change my mentality. Most of my friends live at home and don't have rent payments or "real obligations" financially. Mom and day pay for their tuition and books... they mainly pay for their cars, half their gasoline... cell phones... all luxury stuff.... So of course they still want to go out to dinner all the time, and what not, but i'm learning to suggest over things... and when I do they tend to be well accepted. (A few of my friends are jobless at the moment and that helps. I'll also pull out coupons for resturants for a free meals and suggest we go there instead cause it will be cheaper.)

Since we are normally a hang in crowd anyway, and therefore have games, movies, and things to keep us occupied at someones house, i've been suggesting that we hit the grocery store, each chip in a few bucks and make food at someone's house and hang in. It helps that we have an amazing chef in our circle of compadres.

We're board game lovers, pool players (boyfriend has a table at his parent house), jacuzzi sitters (my apt), and park fiends if its warm and sunny.

With boyfriends work more and more sporatic, I tend to treat more since he can go weeks without a gig... or inbetween paychecks. (they have up to three weeks to get the dang thing in the mail...) which means I need to stay more careful with my cash.

The other day the guys wanted to all go out and get a bite, and I flat out said I wasn't hungry (totally true since I had a late lunch... and if we would have gone out I would have ordered something anyway... not good for that waistline thing i've been trying to curb). So instead we picked up some stuff at the grocery store, the boys made chicken pasta and while they ate i made peach cobbler in the kitchen and joined them for some dessert.

honesty is the best policy. I'm still down around 7 pounds from January but i've started workingout so some of that is muscle that's still hanging around. =)

If i'm going to spend my money on a luxury, its going to be something I want to do... not something others are interested in. I can just pass and say no.

4 comments:

  1. I wish I would have read you post 2-hrs ago .. a friend called and wanted to go for a drink ... i wanted to stay home but went anyway, I spent $25 (I paid) because she paid the last two times and then I wonder how & why I am bleeding money! UGH! I feel your pain.

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  2. P.S. Is there any way you could do some personal training with your fitness background, even though I am sure lots of people are cutting back on those types of expenditures? Or maybe design a triathlon training program for a group of women who want to do triathlons? Maybe lead some fitness walks? Charge $10 per person.Good Luck.

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  3. You are a very smart 23 year old. If I had been that smart I wouldn't be in the nightmare money mess I'm in at 42. Keep saying NO, that is the best word you will ever learn.
    http://jennslifein2009.blogspot.com/

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  4. I'm not a certified personal trainer, but eventually my work is going to pay for my certification... but that's not in the budget right now.

    once i get my certificate, i could charge around 60 a hour for personal sessions, group sessions, you name it... but for now, I can't do much with all my random health knowledge.

    Goal of Zero-
    =)

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