Saturday, March 21, 2015
As I'm preparing to head off for a semester in Mexico, one of the re`uierrments is to start a blog. For those who are unaware, I am currrently in Peru for an internship for my degree in international relations. I leave Peru in early April and return to the Stats to earn money for my Semester in Mxico. The overarching goal with both experiences is to learn Spanish through immertion.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
With the new year approaching, I have been thinking of my spending habits and realized that while I am not in debt, I would like a more secure grip on my finances. I know I'm not alone when I say that I have moments of guilt after spending money or feeling pressured into buying something and then give in.
This post comes from a hotel room across several parking lots next the the Mall Of America where my family made a stop on our way to visit my grandparents in Chicago from Fargo, North Dakota. I've been thinking of my unneeded purchases from my journey into the mall and after briefly talking with my mother on this subject, I glanced over the web, reading stories about individuals overcoming their challenges of reckless spending and their goal of curbing it. many of these goals included not purchasing clothing for one year. What I found intriguing was that all of the articles I read were written by, or geared towards women. I'm sure that I am not the only male who has the desire to save money and realizes that their expediters from clothing is the iceberg in their Titanic.
Now I acknowledge, from my prideful nature state, that I do not have any debt from my spending and I have a job while I am at college at Brigham Young University-Idaho, but I want to control and stop the potential nightmare of being addicted to shopping. I assume there are many of these people in the world too. We all have our avenues for spending money, my spending generally follows the pattern of "droughts" and then sudden, and expensive spikes. I have reasoned with myself on this by saying that I spend on these pulses as a result of living and going to school in places (North Dakota and Idaho) where certain stores are not available and I do my spending in these chunks when I have the ability. While I can't foresee anyone subscribing to this blog, my desire is to make my goal of monetary control and my progress placed in a more public setting to hold myself more accountable and to inspire and help others as well.
Upon reading other peoples' progress on slashing spending, I too feel like I want to accomplish the goal of not spending money on clothes for a year. I will make this desire less overwhelming by breaking the year into three, four month periods. My first reaction was to rationally question if it's even possible to go without new purchases for an entire year knowing that I am returning to work in Alaska and will need a few things. As a result, I am going to establish rules for my goal
1. If I have to purchase something, I will first turn to used clothing.
2. However, I know that there will be certain things that I may have to purchase such as rain pants, but before I do so, I will do so only if no other reasonable option is present. My goal is to teach myself how to live frugally not to force suffering.
3. I will also need to write down all expenses as well. While this goal focuses on clothing and the like, the overarching desire is to develop a budget and finical awareness. I do need to realize that I may falter, but I have to balance this with not beating myself over my detours as I'm not perfect and this will be a learning opportunity to refine myself and not excusing myself to bow the whole thing once I make a mistake.
Lastly, as I mentioned previously, to help accomplish this goal, I will be making frequent posts as a way to share my thoughts on my journey. I'm also going to reach out to a few friends in an effort for them to keep tabs on me as well.
Feel free to use this space to voice your thoughts and feelings regarding this subject or if you are looking for support in the as well. While I am the first to recognize that this is a drastic action, my goal is to always be better tomorrow than I am today.
Nathanael Haggard.
This post comes from a hotel room across several parking lots next the the Mall Of America where my family made a stop on our way to visit my grandparents in Chicago from Fargo, North Dakota. I've been thinking of my unneeded purchases from my journey into the mall and after briefly talking with my mother on this subject, I glanced over the web, reading stories about individuals overcoming their challenges of reckless spending and their goal of curbing it. many of these goals included not purchasing clothing for one year. What I found intriguing was that all of the articles I read were written by, or geared towards women. I'm sure that I am not the only male who has the desire to save money and realizes that their expediters from clothing is the iceberg in their Titanic.
Now I acknowledge, from my prideful nature state, that I do not have any debt from my spending and I have a job while I am at college at Brigham Young University-Idaho, but I want to control and stop the potential nightmare of being addicted to shopping. I assume there are many of these people in the world too. We all have our avenues for spending money, my spending generally follows the pattern of "droughts" and then sudden, and expensive spikes. I have reasoned with myself on this by saying that I spend on these pulses as a result of living and going to school in places (North Dakota and Idaho) where certain stores are not available and I do my spending in these chunks when I have the ability. While I can't foresee anyone subscribing to this blog, my desire is to make my goal of monetary control and my progress placed in a more public setting to hold myself more accountable and to inspire and help others as well.
Upon reading other peoples' progress on slashing spending, I too feel like I want to accomplish the goal of not spending money on clothes for a year. I will make this desire less overwhelming by breaking the year into three, four month periods. My first reaction was to rationally question if it's even possible to go without new purchases for an entire year knowing that I am returning to work in Alaska and will need a few things. As a result, I am going to establish rules for my goal
1. If I have to purchase something, I will first turn to used clothing.
2. However, I know that there will be certain things that I may have to purchase such as rain pants, but before I do so, I will do so only if no other reasonable option is present. My goal is to teach myself how to live frugally not to force suffering.
3. I will also need to write down all expenses as well. While this goal focuses on clothing and the like, the overarching desire is to develop a budget and finical awareness. I do need to realize that I may falter, but I have to balance this with not beating myself over my detours as I'm not perfect and this will be a learning opportunity to refine myself and not excusing myself to bow the whole thing once I make a mistake.
Lastly, as I mentioned previously, to help accomplish this goal, I will be making frequent posts as a way to share my thoughts on my journey. I'm also going to reach out to a few friends in an effort for them to keep tabs on me as well.
Feel free to use this space to voice your thoughts and feelings regarding this subject or if you are looking for support in the as well. While I am the first to recognize that this is a drastic action, my goal is to always be better tomorrow than I am today.
Nathanael Haggard.
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