I’ve never claimed to be a financial guru, but I always thought I was fairly responsible when it comes to money. I thought that not having any credit card debt somehow put me into a special category. People who have no credit card debt must be living within their means I thought.
I got laid off at the beginning of January and found myself like so many other people trying to live off of unemployment insurance. I have no children and no spouse, so my income supports me solely. I had some money in a savings account for emergency purposes and getting laid off seemed like an emergency to me. I decided to look at where I spent my money in 2009 so that I could get a better idea of how to budget myself until I found full time employment again. I almost always use my debit card not cash, so I was able to look over my bank statements for 2009 and get a pretty accurate idea of what I was spending. I did an excel spreadsheet and what an eye opener that was.
Did I really need to be buying energy drinks every day at over $3.00 a can? Why was I spending so much money every month on cosmetics and other assorted beauty products? I have started keeping track of every dollar I am spending and adding it to my spreadsheet. Seeing it all in black and white on paper has taught me a big lesson. Clearly I need to change my habits and start taking control over my finances. So far today I haven’t spent any money at all. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
