I Love Money

Today marks the thirteenth day of Blogmas. Fifteen days of my thoughts, with some Christmas cheer sprinkled in.

I know I have mentioned working a handful of times; I tend to mention it because it's a part of my daily life. I work 43 hours a week between my two jobs, although for three months, I had been working 52-60 hours a week. Soon enough, I realized that I was dying slowly, so I cut down the hours to a regular person's hours. You might be wondering and asking yourself, why does she work so hard?

Honestly, I don't have one straight answer since I basically save all of the money that I earn. When I was younger, I was also a big saver. When asked what I was saving for, I would say in case I need it for later. I have continued to be that way, but slowly I am easing up on saving every single dime.

As a part of growing up, I got a debit card, using it to get my paychecks and to buy food. I would look back at the payments I had made, and think huh I don't remember any of these things I bought. I would see something for three dollars, and I couldn't for the life of me remember what I had bought. I realized that this wasn't good and that I wouldn't be able to tell if fraud occurred because I didn't remember what I had bought.

That is what led me to start tracking purchases in an Excel spreadsheet. I keep track of the day I purchased, the store, what I bought, the cost, and the product category. These categories include miscellaneous, food, gas, clothing, events, and gifts. The majority of these are self-explanatory, but I will explain the less clear categories. The first one is miscellaneous: it's the category that includes everything that doesn't fit into the other categories. These may be things like getting my nails done, renewing my food handlers card, sending a package, or buying books for myself. Then my events category includes the costs I incur for getting out of the house. Including movie tickets, concert tickets, and other random things I may do with other people. At the end of the month, I tally up each category and the month's total.

I don't necessarily scrape by and cut back, although keeping track helps me be aware of what I buy. It causes me to think about whether I need it or not. I'm becoming more okay with buying things that cause me joy, as long as it's something that I will get good use out of. Yes, money doesn't grow on trees, but it does come from my blood, sweat, and tears.