Day 10 - $M$O$N$E$Y$

$M$O$N$E$Y$

Instead of writing one unified blog post about this subject, I'm going to delight your senses with a few small vignettes...

I've Created a Monster

Not long after I started dating Alex, I learned that although he is a rather frugal person (unless you're talking about traveling then all bets are off), he had never done any real budgeting. Coming from a family with a strong sense of money planning, I felt compelled to share with him the many great and glorious wonders of budgeting. Everyone in my family has a money-tracking program and we are religious about using them to track and plan our spending. After lauding the many benefits of budgeting, Alex went out and bought his own program. After one use, he was hooked. He is now the most fanatical budgeting convert of us all. Every time he spends money, his comment to me is, "I can't wait to go home and put this in my budget!" He has also mentioned that he sometimes wishes he could buy something just so he can put it in the budget. I've created a money monster.

Real-ish Money

As Annie mentioned in her blog, teachers are not rolling in large Jacuzzis of money. I am, however, very fortunate to have a teaching job in my field that pays decently. If a family of four were trying to live on my salary, we would all be a lot thinner and would life in the most amazing cardboard box. But as a single person with very few expenses, my salary is perfectly reasonable. After 26 years of being alive, I am finally GETTING money instead of paying it out. Sure, I had an allowance growing up and had various jobs throughout high school and college, but this is the first time to receive a consistent-ish salary in my field of study. Let me tell you, it's rather nice. A real job = real-ish money.

Get on Your Soapbox

I have been known to ask people what their soapbox issues are. What I mean by this questions is, what injustices/wrongs in this world really make you angry? Make you want to get up and do something? The answers that people give to this question are often fascinating. Kelsi's soapbox is money. She believes that educating people about money and increasing financial literacy among the general populace would go a long way to making the world a better place. I think she's absolutely right. Get on your soapbox everyone and do something about it!

Do I Really Need Eggnog?

Some of my international students come from families that are fabulously wealthy. I've heard countless stories throughout the quarter that boggle my mind and remind me how different our economic spheres are. Some of my students would buy items without thinking twice, items that I would NEVER purchase because of their extravagant cost. $600 shoes anyone? This great money perception divide makes me wonder how people view my spending. What do extremely poor people think about my purchasing decisions? Reflecting on these questions makes me want to be more careful with how I spend my money. Am I really buying the things I need? Do I really need a carton of eggnog to celebrate Christmas? Yes, I probably do.

Speaking of Budgeting

One more budgeting story. I have a very detailed quarterly and monthly budget that I try to stick to. For the most part, I do okay although there are two areas that give me trouble. I almost inevitably spend more money than planned on food and on gifts for other people. I've always known food was a problem but it wasn't until recently that I realized how bad the spending money on other people had gotten. I was talking to Alex about money and he mentioned that if it weren't for spending money on other people, I would probably be under budget all the time. I semi-denied this and immediately went home to check. Turns out, my "Gifts for others" budget line item has been in the red for over two years. Oops. To add insult to injury, I went to the store the day right after my conversation with Alex and was compelled to buy something awesome for someone else while in the store. I texted Alex to inform him that he wasn't wrong - I spend too much money on other people. And yet I refuse to reform my dark ways. I think there are worse things I could be spending my money on. Speaking of budgeting, I should probably go look at mine right now.