Quotable Quotes: "Dad never said, `We can't afford that.' I never heard the words, `We don't have money for that.' He would look at what we wanted and say, `You don't need that.' And he was right. Of course we didn't need it. We simply wanted it. He taught us how to manage our wants."
Hmmmm.....spending money on stuff you want but don't need?
I went to the new Super Walmart this morning. Knowing the topic of today's life lesson, I decided that whatever went in my cart would end up on my blog so I could analyze my purchases and see how many were wants compared to needs. I know, I know....you're thinking that I would have shopped differently if I wasn't going to blog about it....but I honestly bought whatever I would have in the first place.
So....here is the breakdown:
Food items: Most everything we buy for food outside of what we require to survive falls into the category of wants instead of needs, which means most of what I bought qualifies as unessessary to my existence. Expet the Diet Coke. It's critical.
Non-food items:
**Paper towels.......want
(a cloth towel would be more economical but far less convenient when you have to rinse the thing out 50 times a day.....yes, that is the approximate number of spills I clean up)
**Red hair ribbons for Halloween costume.....want
(Hello....have you ever seen a cheerleader without ribbons in her ponytails?)
**Garbage bags.....need
(I'm sorry, but in the old days people killed their own food, skinned it, ate it, and used every part of it for something. There were no packaged items to contend with. When Caroline Ingalls needed flour she went to the mercantile and put some in a burlap sack and carried it home. And then made her own bread. And I'm doubting there was any leftover food, but if there was, it went on the compost pile. As I have no gardening or hunting abilities, I'm gonna stick by the need for plastic garbage bags in my kitchen.)
**2 pair of jeans and 3 different colors of the same t-shirt......want/need
(O.K. Unless I am able to sew my own clothes or am willing to wear items that have holes or permanant stains, and unless I am humble enough to wear the same three outfits for a year like my friend Caroline Ingalls, and I am not, then this qualifies as a need. When I got home, however, I immediately placed the two jeans in the return pile by my front door after trying them on and realizing that once again the fabulous plus-size designers mistakenly thought that my legs were the same width as my stomach. Is it too much to ask for some proportion, people? I found one shirt that fit decently and so bought three which I feel is a good financial decision. It saves me time and gas money from driving store to store looking for something that fits.)
**Fly paper to catch fruit flies.....want....really want
(We have a fruit fly infestation going on right now in the Kadey household. I am so sick of them that I even offered my children 25 cents for each one they kill, which, come to think of it, is probably not exactly be a good financial decision in itself....but that's another story. Kelsea's in the lead so far having earned $4 to date. I could just let them continue to breed and land on every item of food my dear family leaves out on the counter without closing the container, but the price I would pay to recover from my nervous breakdown would supercede the cost of the fly paper)
**Hoodie for Kylie.....want
(For some reason Kylie only purchased short sleeve shirts for the fall and winter seasons. For some reason the coat we purchased in September "looks hideous" with most of her clothing, but by itself she finds it attractive, which doesn't help us unless she plans to wear it in the nude. This led to a meltdown earlier this week in which her one hoodie was in the dirty clothes and she tried to borrow one from Kara, who refused because "You never let me borrow anything in my life!", and then I told Roger I was taking a shower and locked the bathroom door and stayed in there as long as I could. So yes, when I saw the cute white hoodie with the fur trim, I impulsively grabbed it. But don't worry. As soon as she gets home from school and sees it, she will declare it "ugly" and it will go in the return pile with the jeans and all will be as it was.)
Now, let's talk credit cards. We have one. We use it. For everything. And for 17 years we paid it off in full every single month, and reaped the benefits in the way of airline miles and cash back rewards. We were pretty proud of ourselves for beating the system. And then we adopted a child, and then we adopted another child, and then we bought some property, and then the recession hit. And then there came the fateful day when we said...."just this once" to making the minimum payment. And down the slippery slope we slide (try saying that five times fast). In all our years of marriage we have (gasp) never used a budget. Roger has always been paid on commission, and his monthly paycheck varies wildly (from zero to hero), which made it hard to put a budget down on paper. So, we just tried to be careful with our money and not extravagent, and we always came out ahead at the end of the month. But times, they are a-changin'. Roger's job requires people to buy and refinance homes. They're refinancing.....but no one's been buying. And there's no end in sight. So it's time to pay attention to each dime we're spending. Time to redefine "wants" and "needs." Time to find another hobby besides visiting Target. Like gardening. Or hunting.
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