[...] goal into smaller sub-goals. Be patient. Don’t expect perfection, and don’t allow small mistakes to derail your progress. It’s the destination that’s important, not the fact that you [...]

I was actually perusing personal finance sites to impose a cooling of period This has given me a much-needed financial course correction. [But I'm keeping the new floor buffer.]

You probably need to let yourself celebrate a bit though, since you just killed off the debt monster. It won’t hurt as long as you know what you are doing and get back on track soon.

Back in september, at the beginning of the semester (finishing a masters in urban planning policies), my personnal finances were in top shape. I had wonderful savings (enough to pay my university debts at the end of my studies!!!) a budget, a financial plan, various enveloppes for necessities (rent, phone & internet bills, food, schoolarship tuitions, etc..) and everything was going according to plan. Until…

That time of the semester, the one every student dreads : the god awfull mid-semester. With the exams, papers due and team-work-projects-with-questionable-teammates, the stress level sky-rocketed. The good financial habits when down the drain. Ive spend a lot of money dinning out because of lack of time and social activities. I kept the usual good habits : favoring healty plates and avoiding alcohol as much as possible, but still. The most ressource draining habit was coffee. I don’t know how many precious dollars I funneled down that hatch. Probably nearly 75$ in 1$-1.5$ coffees available at the student coffee.

We also had unlikely events at my appartements : water-pipes breaking – small bed-bug infestation. That last one was a trip to hell. Took a whole week, the reading week to clean the whole appartement, get rid of some bedroom furniture and contract an exterminator. The bill was astonishing: 650$ for the exterminator and more than a 1000$ in furniture (mattresses are expansive!) loss.

Good thing for good financial habits: I had the cash available to fund everything. Now, if this would happen to anyone who had poor credit history or very low on cash, I don’t know how they could litteraly get through.

In conclusion: stress is one of the worst enemies of GOOD habits. Hence the need of REGULAR habits: to keep a certain level of control over your life.

Can’t wait to read you again J.D. Keep up the good work.

However, the universe saved me from my budget-busting ways. Amazon.com emailed me to let me know they couldn’t fulfill the order and had to cancel it.

I guess I just have to pay off some other debt instead of making a new one. Thanks universe.

Best Wishes,
D4L

Your post brings up an interesting point that made me stop and think. You mentioned that you track you finances once a week. I do the same, but kind of irregularly. There are busy/hectic times of the year, like you describe here, that I’ll go 2 or 3 weeks without going over my expenses.

I’ve never thought about it until your post made me realize that when I go for a length of time without going over expenses, I tend to slip into old habits as well – forgetting that the little expenses add up to big expenses at the end of the month. When I consistantly go over my finances, I realize those expenses and resist unecessary spending.

It’d be intersting to look at the relationship between frequency of reviewing expenses and spending.

I think you gave me an idea for a new post!

True for many shows. I did once buy a CSI season and kept reselling it to buy the next season. That worked pretty well…I spent less than buying all seasons though more than I should have (well, my library owned a few, so I skipped them).

Off topic, but I was going through old Next Gen VHS’s over Thanksgiving and thinking what a poor choice I’d made.

Your article is just so timely, I had a similar ‘relapse’ recently as well! After being pretty frugal for the past two years after quitting a shopaholic lifestyle, I started spending more than usual recently. It is partially due to work stress and the urge to update my boring wardrobe after living a pauper-like existence for awhile. It felt great wearing those nice clothes, and people around me complimented me of my new look too. Like you, I keep track on my spending though I do not like what I saw on paper recently. I felt guilty, but am also mindlful that it is only human give in to temptations at times. It is not an excuse to indulge further, but also not a reason to give up on trying to achieve a healthy financial life. Will pick myself up again. You keep up the good job too!

Anyway, glad you caught the problem and I hope you feel better. Happy holidays everyone