When spending
Do you ever put off purchases for a few days to catch the next month credit card billing cycle even though you have the money and it doesn’t matter in the slightest?
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Have you ever read the shopaholic series? It’s about a lady who is seriously in debt because of a shopping addiction. She decides to get her finances under control by eating out less and cooking at home, so she goes out and buys hundreds of dollars of cookware.
That book hurt me to read. No! You need to make sure your hobbies are real. Dip a toe in. Start with one pot and go from there.
I worked out for over a year before I bought some weights.
Do you feel like you have to “earn” your hobbies before you can spend money on them?
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Do you ever look at your old shopping lists to judge whether the purchase made your life better?
Kitchen island: yes. Another pair of earrings: kind of. Humidifier: I haven’t noticed a difference, actually.
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Do you open up credit cards and bank accounts for the points and cash and other goodies? Do you now have dozens of cards to your name?
I used to do that, but ever since I froze my credit, I’ve found it to be too much of a hassle.
On attraction
Do you cringe when you see someone use their and there and they’re wrong? Is consistently poor grammar and spelling enough of a reason to not want to date someone? I’m in love with the written word and when someone misuses “you’re” and “your,” I find myself in physical pain. Am I being ridiculous?
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Do you hate certain names because it belongs to an ex? Like, do you have a visceral reaction to the name because of the memory of the person associated with it is tainted?
On traveling
Do you keep an emergency $100 bill on you at all times? Just in case? My mom gave me my emergency hundred that I haven’t had to use in years. Touch wood.
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If you’re paying by credit card and the shop owner asks if you would like to pay in U.S. dollars or the currency of the country you’re currently in, request the currency of the country you’re currently in. The exchange rate your credit card is giving you will likely be better than the one from the shop keep who is savvy enough to ask the question.
That’s more a tip than a question for you.
I hadn’t delayed purchases on my credit card until just now. I waited two days to gas up my car because on July 1, gas was the category for my Chase Freedom credit card. Normally I gas up early because I feel anxious but this time I drove a little with the gas low light indicator on.
I chase credit card and new bank account bonuses. I think I harvest about $2000/ year and the extra management from doing so is not that great an effort.
Wow, color me impressed at $2,000 a year! That’s not an insignificant chunk of change. Also, I love your reason for putting off a purchase.
The grammar errors drove me CRAZY when I was dating as well! But now having dated my fiancee for 4 years, I couldn’t be happier – he’s 100% the right person for me, and he misspells things and uses the wrong your/you’re on occassion. I realized it’s not because he doesn’t know the difference, it’s because we all make mistakes and he just don’t bother to correct them. We talked about it once and he said “I knew you’d know what I meant”. His being laid-back has become one of my favorite things about him, and I love that he isn’t judgmental. It’s made me less judgemental in turn. Long story long, don’t let a few grammar errors turn you off of someone – it doesn’t tell you as much as you might think about them!
I knew I was being irrational! Thanks for the advice.
Get out of my head!
I often wait for the next billing cycle, even though I don’t carry a balance. I just prefer seeing the money sit in my bank account a bit longer.
I always have an emergency $50 tucked in my wallet.
And don’t even get me started about people who don’t know how to use your you’re and there their they’re and its it’s. Definitely grounds for swiping left on a prospective date.
Twinsies!
Putting off: Yes, but not for that reason. I don’t even think I have credit on my card, it’s just where I keep the 1-month expenses.
Earning hobbies: Yes, almost to a point where I’m reluctant to pay for a glass of water to dip my toes in. I’m working on getting a balance between actually trying something new and not wasting too much money.
One exception is that I for one did not bother going to the gym for a year before getting my weights, and now I’m following my scheduled exercises reasonably well. I have no justification for why this worked out (no pun intended) and I ended up fit instead of with a very heavy box in the wardrobe.
Evaluating previous shopping: I do this before I buy. Perhaps I should think less before and evaluate after in order to get better feedback on my shopping habits. This would cost more before the feedback loop kicks in and corrects my buying.
Credit card: As far as I know this is not really a thing here.
Grammar: I casually judge people based on the effort they put in but it’s not the top 3 qualities I look for in a date. That being said I quickly lose interest if I have to frequently put effort into deciphering the meaning of messages.
Names of ex: No, but they’ve always acted (I believe) honestly and not out of malice. Time helps with this too I suppose, as does avoiding exposure to any exes.
Emergency bill: I get my fill of travelling for work at the moment and then it’s not my headache. It seems like a good idea and I probably should if/when I do travel for my own sake.
I am an underbuyer and I should also spend less time mulling the purchase beforehand and more time after the fact. I too just bought a set of weights too and I’m excited to see if I use them! I think I will.
Yes to the waiting until next billing period, especially if it’s something “unnecessary” like fun clothes or hobby related (can only spend so much on knitting a month, otherwise the general frugality of this hobby becomes less of a perk…) Likewise, yes to waiting until I’m really sure to spend on hobbies. 😉
high five responsible money-ing!
Putting off: Yes, just because I like my bank account to stay in a certain range. It’s a very healthy range ($4k-$5k), and when it drops to $3k I get anxious even though I know I shouldn’t be.
Earning hobbies: Absolutely. Hobbies that require initial purchase of more than $20 are already kind of a turn-off.
Evaluating previous shopping: Yeah… I used to be bad about books. It never fails that the book I purchase will be the one I never pick up. I’ve become library exclusive.
Credit card: I do, but I try to not let it get away from me. I have 5 credit cards, and only 1 has an eventual annual fee that I’ll need to cancel. I try to only ever have 1 at a time that I plan on canceling. Bank accounts are too much hassle for me.
Grammar: I can forgive a typo or two, but if it becomes clear that you actually don’t know the difference, we may need to have a talk.
Names of ex: I don’t have any ex-boyfriends… so….
Emergency bill: Sort of. I don’t like having big bills, but I do travel with about $60 in cash. If traveling to a foreign country, I’ll just wait until I get there and get it from an ATM in foreign currency.
Did you marry your first boyfriend? Or not into boyfriends?
And I agree that it’s a problem when someone doesn’t know the difference in grammar and doesn’t know the right way. Maybe that’s me being a snob and why I’m single!
Yes to the cc billing cycles.
No to shopaholic series.
No to earning hobbies for me, but yes for my spouse. I want to buy some camping gear and he says I need to borrow it first to decide whether we like it.
No to re-evaluating shopping lists.
Sometimes with credit card opening for points harvesting, but usually we don’t open cards we know will be “sock drawer” cards or closed after a year. I have a handful of cards, but not dozens.
Yes on improper grammar and usage being a turnoff. With autocorrect it seems easier to do than ever, so I give people a pass if it happens occasionally.
Meh on names. I wouldn’t choose to name a kid or a pet a name that’s associated with someone I don’t like, but I don’t write off all people of that name just because.
No on the emergency cash, but I probably should! I’m way too optimistic that I’ll just be able to use a credit card for the things I really need.
I’m stealing the term sock drawer cards.
Also, I agree with your husband. Borrow the equipment first!
I didn’t coin the sock drawer card phrase. We sometimes watch YouTube with credit card hackers (Ask sebby and credit shifu) and I stole the term from them. The thing about cards like that is they technically make economic sense in that you can get a positive ROI from them. But I’d rather just choose how to spend the associated annual fee rather than being locked into “redeeming” it for a Hilton hotel night or whatever. Cash is king!
And you’re right, he’s right. I’m notorious for aspirational purchase triggers (buy this thing and it will make you ______).
has it ever worked? Did a purchase make you ______?
You left out the confusion between the pronoun, its, and the contraction, it’s.
Yeah, that one drives me nuts, too!
The error I see a lot is not knowing the difference between lose and loose. You can lose a jacket but you never loose it.
@Karen – Unless it is tied around your waist 😉
The jacket is loose-fitting and I’m afraid I’m going to lose it. It’ll just fall off and I’ll be sad.
To include some humor modified from Pirates of the Caribbean… did you loose the Kraken or lose the Kraken? I doubt anyone else will find that funny, but I’m laughing like crazy over it for some reason 🙂
I’ve never seen the movie, but I’m laughing with you so you don’t feel so alone.
That one annoys me, too. It doesn’t even sound the same.
I can almost forgive its & it’s, as someone mentioned above. What is KILLING ME is the online popularity of the apostrophe being jammed in every plural noun. “We went out tonight to hear a couple band’s then we got a couple pizza’s.” For the love of God, stop!
I see it on menus a lot. It makes no sense! For the love of God, stop! is my life motto. 🙂
Ha ha, I have many near and dear ones who often use incorrect grammar, but they are actually great and natural communicators.
And I have not bought quite a few books because either the author or the character had the misfortune of having a name of someone I might have disliked!
My mom has poor spelling and grammar and she’s the single greatest person to ever exist. She’s a natural communicator, too. Maybe I am being ridiculous.
I’ve only had that ‘pay in the local currency’ technique fail in one place in one country: a souvenir and travel supply shop in Costa Rica. They posted all prices in dollars, then, on a screen visible only to the employees, converted the prices at the register to colones. If you pay in colones, you’re paying the store’s exchange rate for dollars to colones. But if you pay in dollars (in the mistaken belief that this will avoid their exchange rate, since prices were already in dollars), you’re actually paying them to convert the sticker price from dollars to colones, then paying them a second time (at a different rate) to convert the grand total from colones back to dollars. I was flabbergasted. This worked out to about 8% of the purchase price, and wasn’t disclosed until the receipt was placed into the bag. That’s just straight-up deceitful.
On old shopping lists – I like to torture myself by hanging on to big-box receipts for a month or so. Later, I’m looking at the total – $158 – and trying to figure out what those items even are, and how long they lasted, and which of them (it’s usually a high quantity) was a waste of money.
You understand my obsession with old purchases. They’re usually not worth it. But when they are worth it, I wish I had bought them much sooner. It’s funny that’s how life is.
Also, there will always be people trying to scam you. That’s depressing.
Yes, No, No, No, No, No, Yes, No, No, No, No, No, No 🙂
I had to go back and count all my questions and you’re right that I asked 13. That made me giggle.
You do put off spending for the credit card cycle and you do find it annoying when people use poor grammar, but you don’t think it’s enough to disqualify them from dating.