Money, Money, Money

Since I am currently a little obsessed with personal finance (PF) blogs I thought I would start my little makeover there. So here’s my problem…..

I’m a spender. I can’t help it. I try to not spend money. I say to myself ‘you’re saving for a house/holiday/anything’ but I just can’t resist. When I walk past something I like all rational thoughts disappear and I completely forget that I’d like to move out of my 125 year old freezing- cold, dark, gloomy terrace and into something that I own.

On the upside, apart from HECS (which doesn’t really count… does it?), I have no debt. Despite my penchant for pretty things I do manage to pay the good ol’ Visa off every month (and the MasterCard too). Admittedly, this is often at the expense of my savings account. It is also often at the expense of my wardrobe (thank you eBay).

There are three things that really get me down about this:

1. My husband is a saver. He hardly buys anything that he doesn’t need. He is the type of person who can go a whole year without purchasing any new clothes/shoes/books/CDs, in fact, if it isn’t food, alcohol or an internet bill he can pretty much live without it.
2. All the stuff I buy doesn’t really make me feel very happy. I think it will when I buy it. I think to myself that I can’t possibly be happy unless I own Christian Louboutin shoes or a Miu Miu handbag but in truth, I could be very happy without these things (the perfectly unworn condition of my Christian Louboutin’s will attest to this).
3. I feel much happier when I see my savings account growing, when I think of buying a house or taking a year off work to travel or being able to start a family in a few years and know that we could be comfortable on one income for a while.

I’ve read a lot about how being in debt can be incredibly stressful (in fact, after sex, money is the number one things couples fight about) and I know that although I am not in debt (in fact after emptying our savings in January for our wedding/honeymoon my hubby and I are back to $10,000 in savings) money still worries me….daily. I really hope that by taking a few minor steps and making my self a lot more conscious of my spending I will be able to turn things around a little. So here we go!