10 on Thursday

I'm not good at finances. I was thinking about that when I woke up at 3am this morning and had a difficult time falling back to sleep. Oh, I can do math, and balance a checkbook, and pay the credit card bill monthly to avoid an interest charge. I'm just not good at staying under budget, and keeping my spending at a certain level. It's like gross motor skills vs. fine motor skills. I do well at the gross financial skills, but not so well the the fine financial skills, at the finesse, the nuance, the more abstract skill of mentally monitoring my spending habits and keeping things under perfect control. I guess the real issue is impulse control.

What frustrates me most is that my "excesses" are not those you might expect from a shopaholic (which I have determined that I am.) I'm so good at finding great deals that I spend too much on great deals. I rarely pay full price for anything we don't eat (often food just has to be paid full price for, even at Costco.) For example, I spend too much on clearance clothing for my kids. Believe me, I don't even spend a lot on that, but probably more than is necessary. And I love bins and containers, but I won't pay full price for those either, so my house is quite organized, but nothing really matches, which is fine in my book. The problem isn't the mismatching, but that I buy bins on sale when I don't need them. Right now I have about 5 large totes under the stairs that I found on sale. They are just waiting for me to need them. I also have several smaller containers like pencil boxes and recipe card boxes and photo albums, all new and empty, just waiting to be put to good use. (I used to do the same with fabric, even though I rarely sew, but I have kicked that habit. I still have enough fabric to make a small wardrobe for someone should I need to. )

This isn't necessarily a bad practice, to buy on sale what you don't need now, knowing that eventually you will need it. In most circumstances it would be considered in a positive light. For me, however, it is a symptom of my inability to say no to a great deal. I have determined, due to the current financial situation in the world, and the looming cutbacks in the education budget for the state, that I need to cut my spending by about 20%, across the board. It will be an exercise in self control, practice for the coming lean years. So, no more buying ahead unless I know the need will be realized in the immediate future (say, 3 months.) This includes clothes, storage containers, and even wrapping paper and ribbon (no, don't take away my paper and ribbon!!!) Only year's supply items will be allowed to be purchased ahead.

In one month I will check my spending and return and report (my financial month runs from about the 28th to the 28th of each month.) This should be a good month to start this project, as there are only 28 days in Feb., which makes this financial month about 3 days shorter. Less time to spend!