FUEGO
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2007
- Messages
- 7,746
Ha - this is the "problem" with people in this forum. And by "problem" I don't really mean problem, because it got most people where they are. BUT - for the love of [insert your deity here], stop fretting over single George Washington expenditures. I'm sitting here imagining you driving home after they charged you an extra $1. I bet you don't go back now, but I also bet it is killing you inside. I also bet you do make more $1-$10 expenditures, but you probably go through an agonizing analysis for each one. Suggestion: change your numbers - especially if you are someone like OP with $2.7M. How about, if you want something that is $100 or less, just buy it. Who cares.
Ohh - and you know what? If you are having trouble spending your budget, that means you don't need a budget!! Just spend freely and check the account balance every month to ensure you are not off the rails. This completely goes against virtually every forum member's rules to live by.
I realize this post might come off somewhat like I am attacking you, but I am not. I'm really attacking me. When I read your post it sounded exactly like me. So I am giving myself some terse advice.
It does sound like you're attacking me, but I get it I'm a work in progress.
I've taken a very zen approach about losing the $1 at the grocery store. I'll still mention the error and sometimes go to the customer service for higher amounts but it's just not worth 5+ minutes to collect a dollar (ie I wouldn't stand in line somewhere for $10/hr so why would I do so at the grocery store?). I also know that statistically I probably average out on the $1 ripoffs and the $1 undercharges (they miss an item or they ring a cheap item twice thinking the second item is the same type when it's really more expensive), so I'm probably not losing as much money as I think (if the goal is to be charged exactly what you owe every single time).
The $1-10 purchases probably do happen more often, and they don't bother me. We could do 100 of the $1-10 purchases per year at an average price of $5 each and only increase our spending by 1%. Therefore, not really worth worrying about since these small purchases are more like weekly or monthly occurrences and not daily. We're already rocking it on the monthly and annual expenses (no cable, free cellphones, efficient utility usage, cheap insurance, dropped to 1 car, etc).
Great example of just doing the small purchases without worrying: DW wanted to buy some plastic superheroes for our 5 year old for his birthday (and we already have quite a bit of goodies for him AND a floor with several superheroes scattered across it). My main objection was the clutter ("is it materially better to have 9 superhero action figures instead of 7 of them") and not the $21 (actually I bought some gift cards online so it was more like $15 - frugality dies hard!). Will I ever miss the $15? No, it's unlikely.
The $100 spending is a different story as those can add up quickly. I think about it and if it's much work I'll pay to outsource it or if it brings value I'll buy it. This week it was $389 for the plumber to snake my main sewer drain (could have rented the big snake drain machine for $100 or so and DIY). And $220 for an HVAC cleaning and refrigerant recharge (I surely could have purchased a manifold gauge set, 1 lb of refrigerant, violated an EPA regulation and refilled the system myself, and DIY'd the cleaning). I think that's the first home expense all year so it adds a bit to our budget but it's not like we pay that much every month.
Re: the budget - we have a budget but just spend whatever for the most part. For example, our travel budget is $10,000 per year but I booked a 9 week vacation to Europe. We might come close to only spending $10,000 but who cares if it's $12-15k since we probably won't spend 9 weeks in Europe every summer (I miss Mexico and it's CHEAP!! And US road trips are CHEAP!!).
Most of our spending is discretionary or outsourced stuff that we could DIY. If our spending capacity ever shrinks then we can tighten out belts. Otherwise we can keep spending like drunken sailors (what it feels like right now, though objectively <$40,000/yr spending is very conscientious).
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