I’m good at a lot of things, but for some reason, managing how to spend my money falls out of the list most times. Of course I’m not completely clueless how to spend my money, I just tend to have problems regulating what I buy, how much of it I buy, and how frequently I buy it.
I’ve honestly gotten better recently managing how I spend. I try to live as minimalist as I can. Some people will even think I’m stingy because I don’t spend on what I don’t consider necessary. But I don’t do it out of stinginess. I do it calculating how each thing I buy affects my finances. So when some people hear me say I don’t have money, they think I just have thorny pockets. Lol
Looking at the state of the crypto market, right now is not the time to be on spending sprees. Maybe a year from now when market is good, sure we can buy as much as we want because we’ll hopefully be in good profit.
Anyways, despite my calculative spending, there are still a few things I know I need to improve on, because it seems for some reason, I just haven’t been able to get under control.
Eating Out 24/7
I’m sure this will be on a lot of people writing for this prompt’s lists. But my case is a lot lot worse because unlike most people who cook homemade meals and do a little bit of buying outside, I buy everything I eat ready to eat. Terrible, I know.
One of the biggest problems I have with buying food outside is that I do it impulsively. I can’t seem to get my hands off these sausages when I’m coming home from work.
I know that I’ll save a lot of money cooking my meals at home myself, but in my defense(or should I say my excuse is that) I don’t know how to cook. That is embarrassing to say, especially considering that I’ve gone through 4 years University already. Even if I didn’t, there are so many ways to learn including youtube and their likes in today’s era. Aside cutting down on cost, this will be a lot healthier for me as well, as you don’t really get to see what goes into the food you buy outside.
Another thing also is the time needed to to make home made meals. I wake up late for work almost everyday so imagine having to make breakfast on an already late schedule. I’m at work all day every day except for weekends so I’m compelled to eat out, and I come back in the evening, by which time I’m mostly too tired to cook.
Then there’s also the fact that the only two meals I could eat at home (breakfast and supper) seem to be cheaper bought than made at home. At least that’s how I see it. Breakfast would cost me no more than 50cents to buy outside, and supper, maybe a dollar. If I were to make them at home, unless I was buying groceries in bulk, breakfast only would cost close to a dollar (double) and supper, maybe a dollar and 50cents. So I guess the saving really comes in only through bulk buying.
Cooking my own food is not impossible to achieve, but will definitely require a lot of work. Learning won’t be easy, especially for the first few tries, but it’s totally achievable and will help me cut cost by almost half my expenses on food if I buy in bulk.
Data
I buy data mostly at $0.33 for 2GB everyday. If I used all this data, then I wouldn’t be bringing this point up in this prompt. The problem I have is that everyday when I’m about to make a data subscription, I anticipate a lot of usage for the day and buy a 2GB data bundle, but eventually the day ends with the data subscription wasting away in expiry.
At work, my office has WIFI. So I only really need my own data when I’m at home and online (around only 7 hours a day). Once I get to the office, I switch from my data subscription to the office WIFI and use it through out the day until I’m back home again. At home, I only use Hive and WhatsApp. A little bit of Discord and Twitter as well. Those few hours at home on these light apps is not enough to use up 2GB data that is valid for 24 hours, so the data subscription is mostly still left with over 1GB when the subscription expires.
Funny thing is that I always have a 1GB for GHC2.4 ($0.19) plan on my data offers everyday and I still ignore it to go for the 2GB for $0.33 everyday. I could save close to a dollar every week ($0.98) if I actually just stick with the less costly offer (which also happens to be my real data consumption).
Pens and Henkerchiefs
I want to believe there a lot more people like me, but I can’t seem to hold on to one pen or handkerchief for longer than a week. I don’t know why I keep losing them, but I buy close to 3 handkerchiefs every week because I take them somewhere and forget of them there, then have to get a new one.
Maybe it’s just me being mindless, but I definitely will save some money hanging onto them longer. I’ve almost gone through an entire box of red pens in only a few weeks of this semester. Thank God I’m not buying those myself, that would’ve been $0.33 for every loss! I still have to buy my blue pens myself though so that doesn’t really eliminate the loss or potential to save on the extra expenses it causes me.
I found it really hard picking one prompt to write on for this week’s weekend-engagement concepts. I might write on the favorite wear if I can within the designated time. I have a feeling someone has something to say if I don’t willingly come forward and declare that I know they know my favorite clothes. Lol
