Frugal Failures…

As a frugal person, I occasionally look back and start kicking myself repeatedly over my past financial blunders. I’m 24 years old, so I can’t have that many, right? Ahh… actually, I have had a few in my day. It bugs me to no end that in most cases, I could have done it differently. As a confessed perfectionist, I have a terrible tendency to focus on the “oops” moments of my financial past. So for some therupetic financial healing, I am dedicating this post to the imperfect moments in life. To the days that we forget coupons, impulse buy, and don’t prepare! For the mishaps, mistakes, and stupid decisions that we all make because we are all human and therfore not perfect… this post is therefore dedicated.

My Top Ten Frugal Failures:

10. Missed coupons

I hate it when I forget coupons! I had a B1G1 for head and shoulders when it was 2/$8 with a $4 rebate. I could have gotten the stuff for free after rebate! There have been several moments such as this and it just kills me. Coupons to me are like free money. I hate it when I lose that free money!

9. Buying stuff I don’t use

This is especially true of produce and dairy. I throw away way too much produce. With just the two of us, we have a hard time using it all. One time when we were first married, I went to the store without first looking at the cupboards and fridge, came home to two full gallons of milk, and ended up with four gallons of milk in the fridge after I bought 2 more and it all expired in 2 weeks… for two people. I also did not know that you could successfully freeze milk at that time and just dumped it down the drain. Ugh.

8. Extravangant spending:

Well… when I was in high school, I worked at a little pretzel store part time. I made about $40 a paycheck. I would deposit my little check, and go get my nails done! $30 a pop! I would then go and spend my remaining $10 on eating out or going to the movies or bowling with friends leaving me at a balance of $0. I know, I was so stupid. After I graduated, I went to Haiti on a mission’s trip and felt so convicted about my worldliness and stopped going. Thank goodness! I’ve estimated that I spent about $600 dollars on my nails over 10 months time. Yuck! Unfortunately, this is just one example of my extravagant spending during that time in my life.

7. Buying stuff just because its on sale!

Oh I know I have a ton of frugal friends who do this too! In college, my entire wardrobe was made of cheapy stuff that barely lasted the school year. I always felt I was doing so well in the clothes department because I spent so litte. I just kept spending a little to replace this, oh! And this is only $10! Ooo! This is just $5! Add up all those little expenditures for all that stuff, and it all added up, big time. I don’t have a single one of those “bargains” still hanging around my wardrobe… they all fell apart. Cheap doesn’t mean frugal Rach! Oh how I wish I could go back!

6. Shopping as therapy

I’m a woman. This is normal, right? Just because I am a woman doensn’t make this okay. I need to seek after Christ for comfort when I am freaking out or sad or overwhelmed. Word of advice– stay away from friends who use shopping as therapy. It’s just not healthy.

5. Store Credit Cards!

Target! Gap! You have led me astray! Well, I never went over a balance of $260, but still, I shouldn’t have gone there in the first place. So awful! By the way, I used to work at Target. I recieved a lot of training on how to get customers to sign up for credit cards. Part of my evaluation as an employee revolved around how many credit cards I got people to sign up for. I hated it! I can’t believe I participated in such atrocities!  As I got towards the end of my time there, I told my supervisers that I just didn’t believe in debt. It went against my values. They allowed me to work on the sales floor instead. I scored so high as an employee in all other areas that they still thought I was worth while on the target team.

4. Not having Carbon Copy Checks

My husband and I rent. We always, and I mean always pay our rent on time. I sent our January rent on time, and on the 7th of January, we got a 72 hour eviction notice on our door! What?!! Apparently, the office never got our rent. But I sent it! I went back and forth with the lady at the office for a couple days, and she was going to fine us $100! I could not believe it. I was able to convince her to allow me to rewrite the check and cancel the old one with out the fee. THE NEXT DAY she received our rent with a note from the post office saying that it was delivered to the wrong address. Yup. So after a lot of stress and anxiety and a $30 check cancellation fee, I realized I needed a copy machine, automatic bill pay, or carbon copy checks to prove that I sent the money. I have since purchased carbon copy checks and started automatic billing as well. It’s just the smarter thing to do.

3. Over spending the bank account

In college, before marriage, I did not keep track of my spending… and I over spent. I had to call my mom and ask her to bail me out! Yeah, talk about embarrassing. She did, and then graciously explained to me how to keep track of my spending. Thanks mom!

2. Buying a warranty on a used car

This was dumb. We spent an extra $1700 on a warranty on our car when we bought it, and all the stuff that happened to the car was not covered by the warranty! We had just gotten rid of two beaters that kept breaking down and we were spending truck loads of money on tow fees and work on the cars. We thought we were helping ourselves. We bought a 2001 mazda, it didn’t need a warranty. Why? Because its a newer, quality car.

1. Not tithing (and not telling my husband)

Our first summer as husband and wife, I stopped tithing. At that time, I was solely responsible for the finances. We didn’t communicate well about finances at the time, and I didn’t want my husband to know how “bad” it was. BIG mistake! The Bible is very clear that tithing should be our first expense… we are to give the first fruits of our labor. It was obvious we were not living in God’s will. Fincancially, things were very, very tight. As soon as I fessed up to hubbie, and caught up on all our tithing and giving, we were blessed. We learned from our mistakes and communicate about our finances, work together on it, and most importantly, tithe regularly.

June 28, 2008. Frugal Living, The Budget, Uncategorized. 2 comments.