Who are you?
Back in October, I set out to do the impossible. Something so crazy that everybody I told either said “good luck” or “that’s really aggressive.” I wasn’t sure I’d make it either, but it’s something that I’ve needed to do for a long time. And after giving it a go, I realized that even though I only got to 90% of my goal, Jesus still loves me. There’s nothing like being patted on the head by an almighty invisible hand and hearing a thunderous yet calming voice say ”I’ll let you have better luck next time.” Thanks Jesus. You always know the right thing to say.
So what exactly did I set out to accomplish in October?
I made it a goal to keep each and every receipt that came with a purchase or ATM withdrawal. At the end of the month, I wanted to do an in-depth review of my spending habits and see where my money was going. You are what you spend. So I wanted to see who I am. And in 31 days of stuffing 90% of receipts into ziplock bags (I was moving paper weight), I noticed something that I hadn’t thought about before. But first, let me ask you a question.
How many times per week do you think you swipe your debit card? Go ahead. Take a second and reallllly think about it.
After a week, I was like “Damn. I’m a swipe monster.” After two weeks, I was like “Is this really what I do every month?” After a month, I was like “Yo Slim. You need to stop spending money and start spending time with the Amish.”
I swiped my card around 12 times per week, meaning that I had around 50 transactions for the month. And since I got tired of receipt paper cuts, I went into my online account and sorted everything to get the real story. I wasn’t too happy with the results, particularly since I hadn’t thought about regularly paid bills as I was swiping away. 60+ transactions in a 30 day period? Really? Really though? Needless to say, it was a real eye opener.
So I sorted again by purchase type to see who I was — well, am. If I were to just print out my transaction history and show it to someone as a way for them to learn about me, it would reflect very little of the person that I am today. If I were to blindly send it to someone that’s never met me before, they’d deduce that I’m an obese party machine that hates to cook. Part of this is true, but not enough for me to be comfortable with it.
I'm a Chalupa.
Fast food was the most frequent purchase, followed by night outings and beverages. I knew that I’d be going hard in the trans fats over the last few months as I’ve become busier, but I had no idea it looked like this.
I started thinking about what I tell people I really value versus what my bank account said about the way I live my life. Spending speaks louder than words and my account definitely said “You lie.” We had a few heated exchanges before I realized I was just talking to the financial version of myself.
So what’s the plan going forward?
Start small and start asking myself a basic question. When I make a purchase, the question will be ”how does this align with the person I say that I am and the person I wanna be?” Of course I’m not going to cut out all fast food and meal purchases, or beverage consumption. The point is to use a repetitive question to change a costly trend and inaccurate portrait. Sustained change is never easy. But I’m hoping that by putting spending in the context of what I really value that the transactions will slowly decrease and the quality of those that I do make will go up.
Most importantly, if you decide to give this a try, remember that the purpose of refining your portrait isn’t so that you can impress someone if you turn over your transaction statement for them to look at. It’s so that you can be confident that you’re living the best life you can for yourself. And when you do that in one aspect of your, it starts to spill into the others. That’s the real progress.
If you were to print out your transaction statement or summary of spending and give it to someone that knows nothing about you other than what’s on the page(s), what would it say about you? Is it a reflection of who you really are?
One Purchase at a Time,
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I guess I’m shoes and hair products (or perhaps just beauty products in general). Cousin It-a, perhaps. Barring my infrequent trips to the mall, I’m not a swiping monster. I’ll take out $100 or so every couple of weeks, and use my card every now and again. When I was working, I’d immediately set aside half of my paycheque towards my outstanding school loan and the now-present school year, so I kinda lived like a poor woman. Phone bill, Transportation fees, Tithes, and a little bit to spoil myself with some outside food & entertainment when friendship duties called. Of course, I was only able to do this because I moved back home. I don’t really think you’d be able to tell much about what I value by analyzing any of my statements.
Mine would be food and gadgets, and I’m fine with that. As long as its with discretionary funds that come after important things are paid (rent/mortgage, utilities, other bills, etc), I think it’s fine. A better description of who you are is if you’re consistently spending more than you make.
You know what though. You can fall on hard times and end up spending more than you make. Or, you can be in the process of getting a business off the ground. I definitely see what you’re saying though. You mean the “irresponsible.”
Yeah that’s why I mean. Also why I know I’d never be able to take a non-traditional job. I was in debt once before from spending more than I made and no way do I want to go back to that.
Mine says I’m a hippy, coffee freak who spends WAAY too much on shoes. Purchases that get swiped 3-4 times a week? Wawa, Trader Joes, Nordstrom. I could probably cut out the Nordstrom but who am I to say good-bye to pumpkin spice coffee every morning?
This is a very eye-opening exercise. I was forced to do it a few years ago when I was planning to buy a house. Shortly after I purchased the house, my food/entertainment spending slacked up a bit (because it had to) but I’m sad to say that more recently is has crept back up. New year’s resolution time…
You just gave me an idea for a resolution post to write. When the time is right, I shall shout you out!
Mine would say two things…there’s the serious angle where I have my direct debits from bank to my tithe and investments (these I’m pretty serious about, I don’t touch my money until these are paid out every month)…then the monster comes out after this….there’s the really really bad ATM withdrawals and mostly for ‘stuff’. ‘Stuff’ meaning things I could possibly do without…the nights out, the cab rides, the take out/ dinner out..the handbag I ‘couldn’t resist’.
I don’t do the receipts things..and my friend challenged me to do it two weeks ago. This will now start. And especially when it looks like I could be saving/doing more positive things with the money, especially with wanting to go back to school and such.
Another good one Slim..waiting on the resolutions post…God knows I have a list of those, but I can confidently say that I’ve ticked off all but one of my 2011 resolutions…not bad
Why did this post make me chuckle. When you revealed what you set out to do my first thought was “people don’t do that already?”.
Anyhoo, all the best with your self-evaluation. I suppose being the daughter of a CPA and married to a money monster breeds different behaviors.
Womp womp … coming back ’cause I didn’t answer the question. It says I’m a Christian (tithes), who likes to eat (groceries and dining out), and travel (travel expenses) and has been injured for the past 2 year (medical expenses).
Thanks for dropping by!
I think the “everybody is at a different point in their walk” is applicable here.lol. Spending has always been challenging, even when I’ve tried to behave. I think the difference before was that I’d do too much at once (cold turkey) and then would fall back into old habits. Hoping that “just a little at a time” will stop me from “relapsing.”
Thank you for making me feel less weird cuz i used to do this on the regular, especially in that fuzzy time between undergrad and grad school when the loan money stopped coming in lol. I had to set monthly budget for myself so i started tracking my purchases and dang was i surprised. Stuff adds up and fast…especially when you know you have a little nest egg you can fall back on.
Thankfully now i’ve found myself in a halfway decent financial space (at least until i finish my program and the government comes to collect on those loans) and my assistanship provides me with free housing, free tuition, and a paycheck.
i know for a fact that i swipe my card between 50-75 times a month and most of my purchases go towards food. i’m horrible at preparing meals. i can cook well but i’m just lazy. one of my new year’s resolutions will be to stop eating out so much and taking time to cook healthy meals. this will not only force me to eat better but it will save me money in the long run.
great post.
*hooks*
I been out there with Yoda trying to figure out how to make resolutions sustainable. I always start the year strong then fizzle off after like…a month.lol.
I can cook too, but same thing. I get home from plantation and avoid it like the plague.
I get cash out weekly and bring my lunch a lot so I don’t swipe as often as you do.
Most of my swipes are weekly grocery trips to Giant or Wegmans. Random trips to the CVS up the block, etc.
But the little swipes that add up for me are: tall or grande lattes from Starbucks, 8 pack nugget combos from Chick Fil A, burrito bowls from Chipotle, and salads from Chopt pretty much. I’m anal about checking my accounts so I know exactly where I do the most damage. I also do a lot of online clothing shopping. that is my biggest vice…
With Wells Fargo I have the “save as you go” so a dollar goes to a savings acct for each of my swipes and I think I put about $30-$35 each month into that account.
I like the save as you go idea. Pretty sure BOA has something like that. It’s a good way to quietly save. Gonna give that a try and see how it works out.
BOA has something similar. they round up the next whole dollar, take the difference and put it in your savings account. i like wells fargo better.
I get where you’re going with this but I think it kind of leaves out some important stuff. For instance, I don’t spend on the time with friends just laughing and talking at lunch. I spend on the lunch, yes, b/c like you I don’t cook often due to the lazy disease. But just because my money goes one place doesn’t really mean my time does. So I don’t know if I would give it that much weight.
You’re right that time and money are 2 different things. In this particular post, I wanted to just focus on the financial aspect. That’s just one part of life and a lot of people complain about their financial situation or not being able to do certain things. But if they looked at what they are choosing to spend their money on, they’ll see that they could do the other things if they prioritize where their money goes according to what’s important.
I also think that someone eating at McDonald’s 10 days a month is different than someone eating at a health food spot 10 times per month. A person could be short on time so they eat fast food because it’s the quickest. Maybe they need to look at what’s going on in their life and make some adjustments so they have time for home-cooked meals. The same could be said for the person eating at the health food spot, but I think there’s a difference in where they place the value of what they put into their bodies.
Hopefully this makes sense.
Sigh…you’re really going to make me self-evaluate, huh? Fine. Umm…
My statement says I’m a grad student (textbooks, pizza) who takes public transportation (MTA Metro Cards) and can’t get out from underneath all her books so she does mostly ALL of her shopping online (Fresh Direct, Amazon, Ebay, H&M, Forever 21 and Victoria’s Secret). Judge me! LOL I think this reflects who I am at this stage in my life.
No, but seriously, this was a GREAT post! This is definitely something I want to think about especially in the upcoming year. Thanks!
i signed up with Mint to do this very thing. My walmart and Target spending is beyond ridiculous. i dont even remember what I bought most of the time.
The fact that Mint puts my spending into a pie chart, really made me open my eyes to all the unnecessary STUFF i was buying.