Weekly Pain & Gain: Emotional Spending

Well it was a really good idea to start this weekly column. I can see now why so many bloggers do it. It forces you to write and that in turn motivates you to write more. At least that is how it worked for me. This will be the 6th installment of my weekly updates.

Pain

Most of us can relate to making poor financial decisions because of external factors. Usually due to being caused some sort of discomfort. I think people like to call it emotional spending. I had just that experience this week.

I was having a bad day this week. I was mad and stressing.

Dammit , I’m going out to eat for my break. I’m going to go out cause I deserve to unwind, and relax.

But I didn’t want to actually go out to eat. I was just feeling helpless and overwhelmed. I wanted to feel in control of something, anything, and today that was my lunch. I’m not going to pack a lunch. I told myself rebelliously.

But my head, as it usually does, shot through a bunch of thoughts and at the end of it (probably less then a minute) I had lost interest.

I didn’t want to drive… I didn’t want to waste gas. That means I would have to walk and walking distance there was only a handful of places and they were all junk. Argh!

Sigh.

If I’m going to spend money on lunch I at least want it to be an indulgence not just junk. How disappointing.

This wasn’t going to help me in the long run. The things causing me stress were not going to be alleviated by this. This show of control was shallow. The worst part? the food wouldn’t have even been worth the expense. 🙁 I was feeling quite sorry for myself but logic had won out.

So instead of going out to eat I separated some food and packed my lunch. I consoled myself by spending .50 in the vending machine on sweets.  🙁

At a cost of only 50 cents its a pretty mild Pain on the finance front, since in the end I decided to not go out to eat. But a pain none the less.

Gain

Hmmm. Good stuff , good stuff?

Well I guess I should be happy I survived the first week of school. Why do I say this? Well I’m still working nights and getting home to bed around 1 am. School means I have to wake up by 6:30 to get Jr ready for school which means less time for sleep. But I survived.

A small victory!

My body is also pretty sore thanks to the fact that I biked about 4 times this week up from zero before last Monday.

So even though I thought we would bike much more often during the summer the reverse was actually true we almost didn’t bike at all.

It was surprising, shocking, and annoying all at once but I guess that’s what happens when you go to the beach every weekend. To tired to do any other physical activity….

But it seems once school starts so does biking? Which I find kind of strange but whatever.

Anyways my son is already asking me whether we will be biking to school. I told him not tomorrow but its a good thing and so I know I will eventually.

Just not tomorrow. Too tired.

So even though my body is sore its still a Gain because , well we are exercising.

Also this whole summer we have been enjoying “fancy” bread at a discount thanks to someone who had been gifting us coupons.

However they expire this Friday so this weekend we picked up much more then usual, and we still have 4 left. We spent about $6 on all this bread. It is going into the freezer and instead of gorging on it all at once ( I really love bread, plus its such an easy snack) I am hoping to use it for our usual sandwich needs. Because we all know you aren’t saving anything if its something you would normally not buy. This bread fits squarely into that statement if we just start munching on it non stop.  But if we do use it per our usual usage we will have saved.

Capsule

So we made it to the beach again. This year has been full of beach visits honestly probably 5 times more often then usual. I think this green dress has officially become my beach ware. It is perfect for changing into my bathing suit once we arrive. Though this time I just went ready board shorts and all.

Also I finally got around to wearing the white eyelet button up blouse. It almost made it to the end of the 3 months without being worn. It’s a nice shirt in my mind and so I like to save it for “special  occasions” but I only have so many of those come up that I just need to get over the idea of having clothes specifically for nice days. It’s very contrary to something Mrs. Frugalwoods recently wrote. I have more to say on the matter but I think I’ll just save it for the 3 month wrap up.

Are you a blogger, do you have a weekly column? Please let me know about it in the comments so I can check it out. What about everyone else, ever had an emotional spending moment? Have you noticed its a trigger in poor financial decisions?