Being Too Money Tight - Negative Effects Recently

[heydude]

I have suffered recently with saving too much with money.

1. I bought sunscreen for an outing. The morning of, it was very cloudy and no sun. I left the sunscreen home (since I was walking) and thought I could "return" it since there was no sun. Guess what? Later in the day, there was sun and I got sunburnt.

2. I saw $100 shoes that I liked for work. The sales associate was very nice and friendly and so good. I said I needed time to think and look around at other stores. He went out of his way to offer to hold them for me and I agreed. I spent the rest of the day wasting it looking for shoes. I found none that were better or cheaper. I went back to the store and bought the shoes from an unfriendly kinda mean guy. I wish I would have just bought them right away although from what I understand, the good guy got the credit.

3. I bought a new clipper to start cutting my hair again. It messed up and caused a stripe in the back of my head. I had to shave the rest of my head very short in order to hide it. Now I have a 30 dollar clipper that I am going to give away.

I am so focused on paying off my debt that these three incidents are proof that I need to not be so focused.

[kally]

don't give your clipper away. Just ask a friend to clip your hair.

[Kat]

I hear ya! This can easily happen to me, too, if I am not careful. I sort of get tunnel vision when it comes to paying down debt, and if I don't watch it, every word that comes out of my mouth is about money. It drives my DH nuts and rightfully so.

I'm learning to find an appropriate balance between money and enjoyment. We do need to have a little fun now and then. If, for example, my husband wants to take me on a date to a nice restaurant, I accept. We spend $75 and have a marvelous time. Sometimes I pay $1 more for something that I know is on sale at another store. Yes, I could get it cheaper somewhere else, but my time and sanity is worth something, too. Another example: I just spent $100 on a pair of boots for fall. Could I have found cheaper ones? Yes. Would the quality be as good? No. And I LOVED these.

In my opinion, this is part of what simple living is about--frugality in some areas allows for luxury in others. Paying down debt is a wonderful thing; good for you for working so hard at it! Just be sure that you don't make yourself miserable in the process. Have a litle fun. :-)

[jania]

I've slowly learned my lesson through the years to buy as close to "exactly" what I want as long as I have the money to pay for it. This may mean I delay buying for some time, but so many times if I spend less, trying to save money, I find I don't like what I buy or it doesn't work as well as I would have liked.

One problem I am having right now is resenting buying anything, I so want to save. I'll even get a little miffed at myself because I ran out of lentils or need to buy some more soap....it must be the summer heat getting to me.

[Dharma Bum]

Balance is the key for us. We set a limited means and live within it, but we try not to sweat the details much after that.