Blog Minx

My income is currently two-thirds less than it was last year. That’s because I decided to quit my job and join the circus, or at least travel for a bit with my savings and rely on freelance work to prop me up.

Of the cash in hand I get, half goes into savings and half is my spending money. That spending money has to last me the whole week, because although I have a credit card, it’s a NZ card with foreign currency transactions and just-because-we-feel-like-it transactions. It’s just not worth using it for all the additional fees, unless I really have to.

So it was with interest that I read Spending Too Much? Try The 7-Day Challenge which suggests the same cash-in-hand thing. It really makes me analyse every purchase (I posted about this earlier but I hadn’t quite realised what a good lesson it was going to be). Treats are possible must must be staggered over several weeks. Small change is a bit more precious than it was.

And it’s hard. I can only imagine some kind of money boot camp/rehab being harder where you’re forced into army barracks with a screaming drill sergeant and clutching a fistful of dollars. “Keep snipping those credit cards, ladies! Hey you! How much did you spend on those earrings? Right, 20 push-ups, now!”

The hardest part is when I’m out with someone else and feel embarrassed about my limited budget. Which is dumb, I should just say something, but that discomfort over thinking and talking about money is exactly why I started this blog. Who knows, they might be feeling the same way.