Sunday, March 04, 2007

 

Woa! Gotta start watching that!

For those who don't know I spend 90% of my money through my visa. One nice side effect is that my statements show a window into my monthly spending. I just realized something shocking - I spend 50% as much money on fast food as on groceries! This trend has held for 2 months that I checked! My typical weekend routine consists of brunch out saturday morning with the powerlifters and supper out also with some friends. Also on Wednesday night I usually go to William's coffee pub with one of my fellow coaches from Special Olympics. These 3 times a week add up to half a grocery order! Ouchy! This week I might hit myself up with a tighter fast food budget. Not that I can't afford it, I really can. It's just that I should be spending the money on things that would last longer like new clothes and books/dvd's that I want.

I feel like a fool for spending so much money at William's. It's such a sham!

Comments:
I personally spend a LOT on eating out. I would say that my eating out is about 200% of my grocery budget. It's however not fast food (McDs, etc.) but sit down restaurants. But since it's something I thoroughly enjoy I have no quarrels about keepin on. As long as you're enjoying yourself eating out then I say giv'er.

The time value of money is interesting too. (ex: If I spend $20 on supper it's only good for a couple of hours whereas this $20 t-shirt with a hilarious saying is good for years.) The question to ask is if your time is valued equally to all things? And, hopefully, it's not.

My vote is to do what makes you happy with your money and to not worry about the consequences because things will figure themselves out financially speaking anyway.

The dichotomy of my statement on liberal spending attitudes is that I meticulously track all of my spending and break it down into sub categories of spending...so eventhough I'm perfectly ok with spending lots on things others would scoff at I know exactly where my money is going and whether or not I'm able to get that appetizer to start.


end rant (didn't realize how long winded I was haha)
 
I began reading your comment without scrolling down far enough to see who you are, but when I read the end of the first paragraph as "give 'er" I knew it was you.

I must say I'm getting spring fever up here (4 weeks of class left, booya!) and looking forward to gallabenting around the C dot. It's going to be a wonderful phrase in my life.
 
Haha...I figured the eating out constantly part would give it away too.
Yes this summer will indeed be full of shenanigans. Hey if I buy a place witha garage we'll have a somewhere to work on the infamous jalopy.


/when we get our licenses
 
For a while, I think that my eating out budget equalled my grocery budget; this would have been when I first started out here in Hali. Ever since I started dating Carrie though, my eating out budget has plummeted down to about 10-15% of my grocery budget.

I'm not sure what advice to impart Sammy. By reading your short list of places, it doesn't sound like you eat out that often. Then again, you said that this budget is half your grocery budget. For you that says something since your monthly grocery bill is probably my quarterly bill. Anyway you slice it, if you can afford it and it isn't negatively affecting your life, then stay your course.

/deet!
 
I gotta say that I really enjoy dining out on the town, as I'm a fairly lazy cook, but my advice is to do it out of choice and not out of habit. Not sure if this is a problem for anyone but me, but I find that if you make thriftiness a habit and treating yourself a choice to reason out then the money issue basically resolves itself. Plus all the other advice sounded good too, so yeah.

/five slices of donair pizza in one sitting
 
I agree with everyone else on this one Sam. If you can afford it and you're enjoying the people you're with then keep at it.

The problem arises when you start eating out because you don't feel like cooking.
 
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