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You can't always get what you want

October 4th, 2013 at 07:19 am

Today at midnight my one check came in. I had to take so much time off from my part-time job that I didn't even get a paycheck for it this week. I was so worried about this week because my regular paycheck from my contract job would also be short and I had to pay off the balance on CC1 (now clear), and I really wanted to make a large payment to CC2 (now marked as CC). I signed up for a pasta class at my local Sur La Table and I had two more in mind that I wanted to do. I wanted to do a run and another fun event. Plus I have a doctor's appointment coming up and an appointment to check out my car plus having to fill it with a full tank of gas.

I was sitting here racking my mind trying to figure out what possibly way I could do all these things and then it really hit me. I told myself: You don't need to do all of these things and you cannot afford it! You would have to charge it and since charging it would deter you from paying off the cc balance then you cannot afford it. Besides that you have a finite amount of time at your regular contract job. You do however need to refund your EF and you need to pay down your cc balance. You are just going to have to pick a few things and let the others go.

It's just hit me if I want something I will just charge it or try to save less etc to make it happen but right now having paid off two credit cards and being so close to paying off another I realize in order to stop having a balance I need to only get things that I can afford right now, at this moment. Yes there are things I could afford and I could charge them and pay them off by the end of the month but doing that would just take away from paying off a long standing balance on other card. The past two months I have screwed myself out of paying off that card and months before that I was building up an EF. Although I don't feel bad about the EF since if I had paid off the credit card the cost of my medical bills would have just negated what I paid off putting me right back where I started.

I'm just wondering why its been so hard to tell myself no before. Why I couldn't just put my foot down and stick to the plan. Maybe its the whole growing up thing. Maybe its the fact that after paying off my credit card debt once the easy way and now the hard way I've learned my lesson and can finally use them responsibly. Whatever it is I'm glad that it happened and that I am sticking to my guns. Yes I would like learn skills in cooking classes and do fun runs. But I can imagine how much happier I would be in that cooking class knowing its paid off (like the one I will be attending) or doing that run knowing that I was able to pay for it with a debit card than having it sit on a credit card with crazy interest.

I'll be much happier doing these things later when I know choosing to do something fun didn't impede my being able to make a payment that could help to wipe out my debt.

I'm so glad I'm finally sticking to a if you can't afford it than don't buy it plan.

Posted in Budgeting, Credit Cards, Food / Groceries, Fun | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “You can't always get what you want”

  1. Bob B. Says:
    October 4th, 2013 at 10:44 am 1380883484
    1380883484

    But sometimes you get what you need. Sorry, I couldn't help it.

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    October 4th, 2013 at 11:46 am 1380887191
    1380887191

    You go girl...you have it figured out! You can't get out of credit card debt by continuing to spend the same you have in the past. There WILL be a time to do the things you want to do.

  3. CB in the City Says:
    October 4th, 2013 at 01:39 pm 1380893965
    1380893965

    Yeah, I still have to get tough with myself sometimes, and it's hard.

  4. carol Says:
    October 4th, 2013 at 06:45 pm 1380912321
    1380912321

    You had great insights in this post. I hope you get a chance to reread it every once in a while--a little sacrifice now and the card paid off will help you to feel good about yourself and give you a great feeling of freedom and security.

  5. LuckyRobin Says:
    October 5th, 2013 at 04:53 am 1380948790
    1380948790

    It's normal to want what you want and not want to wait. It takes discipline and self-control to put off getting what you want. Sometimes it can be a hard lesson to learn. Some people never learn it. Count yourself lucky that you've finally got it figured out and while you're young enough for it to make a huge difference in the rest of your life. A little sacrifice now will pay off in big rewards later and the ability to do more of what you want responsibly without having to wait too much.

  6. Permanent Temp Says:
    October 8th, 2013 at 06:17 am 1381213021
    1381213021

    Thanks all for the encouragement. This revelation has been enlightening. I have not spent any money outside of what I have in my pocket/budgeted and its been so great and liberating no I have to figure out how I'm going to pay that off stuff. I allows me to really enjoy the things I do allow myself to buy. Smile Now I just have to make that damned soup before the veggies I bought go bad!

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