After getting my home into shape by giving away 1/3 of my stuff, I feel ready to focus more on getting my financials into shape. I'm already in fairly good standing with my money, but I do have debt, some of which I really want to get rid of sooner rather than later.
My student loan is on track to be paid down within 5 years, which is still too long for my liking, frankly, but I am paid ahead about a year and a half and I have been paying on it until it hurts. The car is also paid ahead, but not as much, and I feel like I should put more effort into erasing that debt first.
Credit cards are fairly modest. Two of them have a zero balance, one is still carrying the purchase of a saxophone (which I don't regret), and the other two carry balances that are negligible, as long as I don't get careless about repayment or start piling on more charges. I am developing a more aggressive pay down plan to erase the saxophone balance and the camera purchase.
In that regards, I have put myself on a slightly more strict spending rules.Starting with a moratorium against buying anything new, which means if I want to buy something, I have to check secondhand shops first. This has actually worked! I was browsing Amazon for long skirts, but before throwing things into my cart, I visited the local Stuff store, where I found exactly what I was looking for, plus another dress that I wanted to try for half the price of just the skirt I was looking at on Amazon. Great way to scratch an itch without overspending on clothes. Because clothes are often overpriced. This is also a way to support a more sustainable lifestyle.
I tend to spend too much on food. A couple of years ago I kept a spending journal (considering trying that again for a few weeks) and discovered that I spend a lot on food. So I have set a food budget, basically halving what I usually spend on food, and have challenged myself to make it work.
Each weekend I cook an enormous amount of food, eat what I want for dinner, then portion out the rest to take to work for lunch throughout the week. The first week was rough, as I'd developed a nasty habit of going out for lunch, but it is now a much smoother process and a better habit. More money stays in my account and more money can be directed to my debts. And I don't feel hungry at all. I just need to remember to take the time to actually cook!
Other things I have restricted myself from buying the way I used to: books, media, alcohol, clothes, shoes, dessert.
the strategy lately is to pay down smaller debts first, then snowball those payments into the larger balances when the smaller balances are gone. An exercise in discipline, for sure.
I want to travel more so paying down these debts now will help towards getting me to all of the great places I want to visit.
Now go out there and be more conscientious consumer!
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