Some of my biggest failings

OK, first up, this is financial failings only, haven't got all day to confess the multitude of things I am totally rubbish at doing or not doing. Second up, I don't want you to go away with the impression that I have set up my pulpit and am preaching to you poor sinners from a position of saintly glory. One of the main reasons for setting up this blog was because I need to keep putting things right in my own wallet and I frequently let myself down in moments of weakness or a lack of concentration, so I need to keep on nudging myself back to the straight and narrow.

photo by jbcurio

You know how sometimes when you are browsing through blog after blog you can get a bit fed up with all of the people who are going on and on about their marvellous and thoroughly wholesome lives - "got up at 4am,enjoyed fabulous dawn chorus, painted masterpiece of dawn chorus, made wholesome buns for the kids to take to school, spent the day making loads of beautiful things to sell on Etsy, collected kids from school, skipped all the way home laughing and joking, ...", yadda, yadda, yadda. I far prefer the (mainly British) blogs where you get a glimpse of something a bit more lifelike - tired and grumpy kids, the cake that burnt or came out like a piece of sheet metal (if you got round to making one in the first place!), the beautiful piece of sewing that got accidentally sewn to the tablecloth wasting hours of sewing time and yards of irreplacable cloth ... They are much more my sort of thing, they remind me of home.

Anyway, wasting time rambling and moaning so lets crack on:

1. Magazines - magazines lure me in month after month. They look so enticing with their glossy covers and fabulous photographs and promises of redecorating your house on a budget. It's so easy to just pop one into the basket before the checkout (another good reason to try and do all your shopping online and avoid the temptation in the first place). It has always been a pretty obvious potential money drain but it really came home to me some while back when I was having a sort out. I was going through a pile of old magazines pulling out articles and photos that I wanted to keep. The pile was getting quite high so I quickly totted up how many there were and multiplied that by the average cost of a magazine these days (not cheap and we're not talking about "OK" or "Womans Weekly" here). It was a hefty sum and I could have bought a lot of hardback books for the same money that would have lasted longer and been of more use. Or saved the money and not spent it at all. I still fall into the temptation from time to time, but some of the time I do manage to stop myself by remembering that only 3 to 5 of these magazines equals one nice hardback book.




photo by bravenewtraveler




2. Loading up the basket - I'm referring to online baskets here. It's not an issue for the weekly grocery shop, but when I shop online for, say, craft materials I often find myself feeling that just ordering one item looks a bit mean. Someone has to pack up your parcel and send it off so I often find myself thinking I should put a few more items in to make it worth the while of the packer - ummmm, dumb I know. There's also the nagging feeling that I need to make the most of the postage or buy enough to qualify for free postage. It's still a hard one to crack.
3. Failure to check how much is already on the credit card - this is particularly slack. Sometimes if I 'need' something right then and there it's far better to not check how much is already on the card bill for this month. If I don't look it's not there right? And I know full well if I look I'll probably come to my senses and put the purchase off for another month or two at least ... and sometimes that ends up meaning I never buy it and probably never miss it.

photo by szlea

Oh, there are more but I think three is just right and not too greedy don't you? The point is, the theory is all very obvious and sensible but sometimes putting things into practice and taking a dose of your own medicine is a whole other thing. And it feels good to 'fess up. And hopefully makes you feel a bit better too. But that's no excuse for any of us to stop trying, eh?