Monday 28 April 2008

Money, money, money and feeling guilty

I was thinking about Consumption last night, well my consumption habits to be exact.

In the last month I (and my family) have been spending more than we normally do to stock up the garden. A lot of this is due to it needing to be stocked (I really must find the 'before' pictures for you guys to see) and me wanting to build it up 'just in case'.

Of course when we purchase, these items are put onto the credit card. Now we are lucky that we always pay our very small credit card debt in full each month so we don't get hit by any interest. It's more of a habit for us but will there come a time when we have to rely on cash? I think that next month I will try to only pay cash for our purchases. Here are some of the thoughts going through my head at the moment;

Do you really spend less when you hand over cash instead of plastic?
Do you haggle to get a better price?
Do you write it all down in a book to keep track of where it all goes?

We are a very disciplined budgetting family (okay, apart from my nursery binge this month) but I want to see how changing to cash will change my mindset.

I also want to see if we in WA can set up a plant exchange. Would anyone be interested in doing this? Let's get back to basic bartering/swapping now! Leave a message if you would be interested.

3 comments:

karen said...

I know I certainly spend less when I have to hand over *real* money. For some reason a credit card doesn't seem like using real money, even though I KNOW it has to be repaid. With cash, you have a definite limit - when it's gone, it's gone - but with plastic there's often a little more wiggle room. I am planning to eliminate my credit card (just as soon as I get back from my little holiday ;) - then I get serious!).

naturewitch said...

Yep, definitely spend less with cash. Got rid of my CCs a while ago, except for a tiny one I keep for internet purchases. I structure my budget with forecast expenditure, so that I can only spend it if I've got it. Any purchases on CC are therefore paid off within the month and no interest applies. This has made a huge difference to my approach to money and I don't impulse buy like I did before.

Having said that, investing in your garden is generally a good thing. It is, after all, a major food supply for your family. We find that there are weeks now when we don't have to import very much food and that certainly helps to keep down living costs.

xx

Anonymous said...

Would love to join a plant swap, I am guessing I am about an hour to 1.5 hours from you, I go to shop in Midland (about .75 hours from here) once a blue moon if thats any help :)

Blessings:)