I’m going through a Poor Phase. It’s kind of like money dieting, every now and than I’ll cut way back on spending in order to catch up on everything. The move (this Sunday is already the first of August, Dear God) has provoked this phase as well as my upcoming trip to Portland in several weeks. Basically I go back to my frugal, penny-pitching, cut-a-burrito-in-half-and-eat-one-half-for-lunch-one-half-for-dinner days back when I was a Drama student at the University of Washington. Those were sad, lonely, hungry days but man, I came out of college NOT OWING A CENT. I have zero debt (but don’t get excited, I inherited Josh’s debt mysteriously by way of marriage).
In fact, I wasn’t issued a credit card until last year because up until my Dad co-signed on a car loan I had NO credit which almost equals Bad Credit. No one would give me a credit card! They would offer me stupid traning wheel credit cards, the kind where you put 300 away and use THAT as a credit card to prove that you can charge money. What the hell? Isn’t that like me using a debit card all these years? The tragedy is that I would visit Josh on campus and there would be swarms of tables set up with various credit card companies soliciting the students with frisbees and plastic footballs and other incentives to sign up. This trap actually led to some of Josh’s debt (WHY give starving college students a HUGE opening balance, do they WANT them to fail?)
When we moved to Fort Collins, McLeod wouldn’t let me open up a phone line with them because I had no credit. I screamed: “I had a phone line in my name for four years in Seattle with Qwest, what’s wrong with you people?!” Unfortunantly a lot of stuff is in Josh’s name just because he has the credit to establish it. (But not the Honda, waahaahaa!)
Anyway, cutting back basically means any lunches I may buy during work hours have to be under four dollars (yes, this IS possible it just means limiting myself to soup and/or cream cheese bagels), coffee needs to be made at home and brought to work, soggy sandwiches are stuffed into ancient tupperware and dragged around with me in my dance bag (God, I’m just like my MOM), and no new clothes and no new shoes. Of course bills will be paid and groceries are acceptable, the occasional (and this is hard) restaurant is ok (but we have to use coupons), and the occasional movie rental and/or cinema experience is all right. Another way to do this is to take 20 dollars out in cash as an allowance for the week and another 20 dollars for the weekend and that’s it.
This is how I’ve lived for years, and I’ll be frank: The ONLY thing Josh and I fight about is money. This is why, after five years we are completely financially separate. Our radically different styles of spending has caused greater clashes than say, the typical scuffles over who’s going to do the dishes. Now I’ve heard that money is the number one reason why people divorce in this country. And I’m firm about the fact that we’ll get passed it and unify ourselves eventually. Because, let’s face it: At this time in our young lives there will never be enough money. As long as there’s a roof and food and solid transportation I can forget the new sandals.
So I’m on a money diet until my Portland trip…and than I’m going to take advantage of their no tax and buy clothes…and food at Trader Joe’s.