Change is Good

Change is good

Change: smaller currency in exchange from larger. Petty cash, especially coins, silently drift through this world forgotten or abandoned. We neglect coins. We devalue them as they roll around in our cars, in the bottoms of our purses, in the gutters, on the ground outside the drive-thru's. It's almost as if we've decided it's lesser-currency or of no value. Coins are the bones of the bills. We break them, and are forced to collect cumbersome coins. It's easier to say keep the change than to take the time to properly pocket it. We see change as a burden, something we have to keep track of. We can't rightly throw it away, so it gathers in couches, pockets, jars, bowls, anything to hold the irregular shape of a mountain of coins.

A great way to make the most out of every penny, literally every penny, is to pay for things with exact change. This idea works especially in cars. Keep it handy; when you go to the drive-thru, or in to purchase something, take your change and give it away while paying. This produces the immediate result of less change or bigger, more 'valuable' money. It's nice to get a solid $5 dollar bill back instead of $4.95 in change. A $5 bill means more to us and we're more likely to take care to keep it, save it, for later. Of course the point is to reduce spending... but when you do splurge, get rid of that change. Giving it back is how it was designed to work.

The other way to make the most out of change is to invest in a money sorting and counting machine. Saving pennies has never been easier, take advantage of this simple invention to help you organize your money and tally the total. Make a point every day to gather any small change. At the end of each month take it in to the bank and trade your change up for cash. Some banks even offer an option of rounding any transactions up and sending the difference into a separate savings account. It adds up. Smaller units fit uniformly into the larger, increasing the value of your money. You just need enough, and change is not hard to come by.

Ask a waitress the importance of change, or a bartender, a taxi driver. The majority of their income is through change given by strangers. What are we throwing away when we refuse to reuse change? If less valuable, it's still money. Look at it differently. Look at it as tiny pieces of a financial puzzle. A little can go a long way.

We give money power

Money is a way to standardize value. 

I used to work in a store that sold collectibles.  People would come and inquire about the value of their pieces.  Many of them assumed their collectibles had increased in value, believing their possessions to have doubled, or even tripled over the years.  While I could reassure them that if the right buyer was interested, then yes, their piece may have substantially risen in value, but the downfall was finding the right buyer. 

Things are only worth what a purchaser will pay.  To you it may be a priceless work of art; if no one is willing to buy it it is worth nothing.  The word 'worth' implies the exchange of something equally as valuable.  That is the role of money.  We all know what we can buy for a dollar.  It's consistent, reliable.  Prices rise and prices fall, but we all know just how much we would, personally, trade for a dollar. 

Money is only worth what you believe it's worth. 


The more you need or want something, the higher it's value in your mind.  The higher it's value in your mind the more you'd be willing to pay for it.  We give power to the exchange of value for money.  We choose to spend our money on things we think will improve our lives.  Therein lies the trick.  What you believe will improve your life is not what I believe will improve mine.  Therefore the value of something you own may not be the same for me.  Opposite to that if you have something that everyone believes will improve their lives the value of that thing will increase, as you will have people willing to pay more money for it than the next guy.

This is economy.  There many things in our world that prove more valuable than others.  It is our desire for those things that drive value, and in turn drive the exchange of money for value.  It is our greed that fuels our desire and our habit of consuming for the sake of having.  This is the world we are told is real.  We grow up trusting the value of money.  It is this trust that we measure our own standing in the world.  According to what we know about our community/peers we judge if we are better off, or broke.  

We buy in to the power of money.

We drive this money game.  Money alone is worthless.  Scraps of precious metals and bits of printed paper are truly nothing.  If we all agreed that noodles were the new currency money would cease to matter.  In fact, if that happened, money would lose all of it's perceived value because it is us that give it that value.  We would then give value to noodles, and noodles would then have power.   It's our acceptance of money that makes it useful.  We give it power through our motives to improve our lives.  Unfortunately, money seems to be the only accepted way of exchanging valuable things.

Money is a way for us to agree on a standardization process.  Money is not necessarily a way to agree on value, although that is the by-product of our exchanges.  Money is a way to get us to standardize our exchanges.  It's the exchanges that are important.  However, today, noo money, no exhange, unless you have something else equally as valuable to the other party. 

This proves that money doesn't matter.  We believe that it does because we accept the lie that money is important, when the truth is it's only important because we believe it's important.  We are caught in a circle of using money, which in turn fuels the belief that we need it.  We don't.  But we continue to believe that we do, and so, it turns out that we do need money; that it is truly important.

We will only ever be free from money by severing that connection, that reliance, on it.      

Everything in time

Time and dedication.  
                  Time and dedication.  
                                    Time and dedication.  

That is what it'll take for me to reach my goals.  

I am struggling with both.

I have to accept that this is going to be a journey. 
I have to accept that this is going to take time.
I have to accept that this is going to take dedication.
I have to accept that everything happens for a reason and everything happens in it's own time.  


It's own time.

I have to accept that life comes a day at a time. 
I have to accept that I cannot complete my dreams in a day.
I have to accept that I cannot rush life.
I have to accept that hard work is an integral part of happiness and satisfaction.


Time and dedication.  
                  Time and dedication.  
                                    Time and dedication.  

That is what it'll take for me to reach my goals.

Helpful Tip #1

I already mentioned that every little bit helps.
I just discovered my first original Helpful Tip. 
Eat your leftovers.

How many times have I bought dinner thinking, "I'll have some for tomorrow!"

And then the morsels sit there, uneaten, in the fridge, left over and turning hard and dry.  

This is a waste!  There are precious dollars sitting molding in fridges all over North America!

Mine included.

The trick to eating leftovers is eating them right away.  Leftovers left for too long become suspicious to us.  We can't help ourselves.  It's a whisper of our survival instinct.  Don't eat bad food.  You could die.  We pay attention to this fact as we sniff and poke at the contents of the various containers in the back of the fridge.  

That's why it's important to eat leftovers right away!  As the next meal is ideal because you are confident that the food is still fresh and hasn't had a chance to dry out yet.  If leftovers as the next meal doesn't appeal to you, try at least to eat them at the next meal.   This allows you to remain confident as to the quality of the food without eating the same thing too many times in a row.

Finishing up leftovers can be a great way to feed yourself while still watching your pennies.  Eat leftovers as soon as possible!  Don't let that money sit and go bad in your fridge.  Choose foods that can be easily kept or made into many meals.  This keeps your body full while utilizing the full potential of each meal.  

Every Day Counts

Our lives are made up of days, each one the same length as the last, each one just as important and full of promise, each one an opportunity to make good decisions.  

Our debt is made up of dollars, each one the same value as the last, each one just as important and full of promise, each one an opportunity to make good decisions.  

Am I making good decisions with my money?  The answer is clearly, "obviously not."  But what I've done in the past is not what I'm going to be doing in the future.  Everyday is an opportunity to make better decisions; with life, finances and relationships.  My habits when I was young matured as I did and became the habits of my future.  I can see the habits that I've been creating and cultivating.  My habit of spending money comes from the desire to lead an interesting life.  My old habit of spending is somewhat frivolous and I simply can't afford it anymore. 

There is emotion attached to money, spending and debt.  Everyday we are faced with thousands of ways to spend our money.  We are a consumer society and we've created whole industries dedicated to coming up with powerful ways to make us vote for our favourite products and services with our dollars.  There is always something we think we want, always something we think we need, and always something to entertain us if we get bored.  That's part of the problem; we always seem to be bored, in need, or wanting.  I've found that the new perspective being broke has given me is that I don't have to give in to the daily distractions designed to draw the dollars out of my wallet.  I am developing new habits involving money.  I am spending less on more, choosing value over quantity and making an effort to decide wants vs. needs.


I've found that every day is a chance to change my habits and through them, my future.  Every day is an opportunity for one more dinner out, or one more dollar in the bank.  Every day has it's challenges that must be overcome, but with a clear head and attainable goals in mind the days can be met with the right attitude and dedication to get me where I need to be.  Where I want to be.  


This day is the only day I have to make decisions about my finances.  Today is the only day I can work on, because yesterday is over and the decisions I made then, either good or bad, cannot be changed.  Tomorrow creates it's own mystery.  I can only plan and hope that things will go well and although my decisions impact and influence the success of tomorrow I truly have no power to do anything with it.

Today is the only day I can be good with my money and whether or not I choose to is a choice that I can control.  I do not regret my spending decision in the past and I have no desire to regret spending decisions I'll make in the future.   This desire helps me stay on track every day, one day at a time.  

What I've done with yesterday has allowed me to come into today.  I must make this day count; make that dollar count.  I am working towards financial sustainability.  I know I can get there, I just need to make every day count.  Because every day does.

 

I'm not cheap, I'm broke.

A friend of mine called me cheap today.  It hurt my feelings and made me mad.  I'm not cheap, I'm broke.  And the worst part was, she knew I was broke.  I talked to her about it the same day I realized I was broke.  She knew that it was because of my old lifestyle and she knew that I was changing my habits to get myself out of debt.  I had already told her that I couldn't do anything fun for the next three years and when I declined an invitation to go out for dinner not even a month later she said it was because I was cheap. 

I realized that my being broke was going to look like being cheap to some people.  I realized that my desire to get out of debt was going to take a long time and my friends weren't going to easily accept the fact that I truly must decline for financial purposes.  I realized that even though most people are broke, they usually don't recognize it as a fact and therefore hold on to their bad spending habits.  This same friend was in worse financial shape than I was, but accepted the dinner invitation anyway.  The difference is I recognized that I truly can't afford it.  She and millions of other people look at their credit card statements every month and think, "Oops, I overspent."  This line of thinking is dangerous and counterproductive for good spending habits.  

I can almost hear them now... What's one dinner out?  What's one more DVD?  What's one more computer game?  What's one more pair of shoes?  Nothing.  The answer is, nothing is wrong with one more dinner out.  It's when you do dinner and buy that one more DVD and that one more game AND that one more pair of shoes is when you have the problem.  Most people cannot comprehend that one more dinner out is never ONE more dinner out.  It's one dinner today ($20), and then one extra coffee tomorrow ($5), and then one pair of shoes ($60) on the weekend, and drinks ($50) out with friends that same evening and then you buy that one extra game anyway. ($60)  After your ONE more dinner out, you've gone and spent $175 on top of your one dinner out.  That's nearly $200.  That is where the idea of one dinner out becomes one helluva bad spending habit.  Everything is only ever ONE more! 

That's how I got in this mess in the first place. 

I would tell myself "It's only one trip.  I can afford one trip."  Yes.  It was true.  But that trip cost $1,270 and then add excursions ($250) and shopping ($350) and the food bought at the airport ($30) and parking for the week ($110) and the one trip that I thought I could afford ends up costing over $2,000.  And then I come home and people want to go for one dinner out.  It's hard to say, "I just came back from vacation.  I can't afford it.  And I won't be able to afford it the week after, or the week after, or the week after." 

Let's put it in perspective.  Travelling once is like eating out 100 times.  I have to say no to 'one more dinner out' 100 times to make up what I spent on vacation.  That's how it works.  I can't do both.  I can't afford it.  I'm not cheap, I'm broke.  There is a difference.  I've declined one dinner out and have 99 more to go.  And that only counteracts my first trip.  I've got 8 in total to make up for.

 

Trimming the Fat

I assumed my debt wasn't out of control because I had a very extensive budget.  But a very extensive budget didn't ensure my financial stability.  The mere act of having a budget wasn't enough to keep my spending habits align with my limits and goals according to my very extensive budget.  Going broke forced me to take a hard look at my own bottom line. 

We've all heard the term.  Trimming the Fat.  A metaphor to show the act of maximizing and utlizing cash flow.  According to my budget I had already trimmed my fat.  I felt fully secure in believing that I was making the most out of every penny that was coming through my bank account.  I had assumed that there was simply no way I could reduce my monthly spending by another cent!   

However, going broke and accepting help made me re-prioritize my finances.  I set easier, more specific goals.  Achievable goals.  Goals I could control and keep an eye on.  I knew that my savings and emergency fund were virtually decimated and if I was truly going to be prepared for my future, and the surprises synchronous with life, I had to find extra money in creative places for those days that I would need extra cash on hand.

Who can honestly say they have extra cash on hand?  Extra cash on hand.  Not many, I assure you.  Those lucky few who do end up with extra cash on hand are rare, and boring, I'm sure.  It takes money to live a life!  It takes money to try new things!  It takes money to pursue most hobbies!  Those with extra cash simply aren't doing enough living.  But because of my living habits I found that since I had NO extra cash on hand, I was in danger of using my credit should something unfortunate happen.  

That's not even fair.  It doesn't take something unfortunate to happen to be in need of a few extra $20's.  Life is full of ways to make us spend our dollars.  And life is also full of surprises.  For those surprises I knew I'd need to start saving every nickle I could to reduce the amount of credit I would have to use, since credit is what got me in this predicament in the first place!  

So I did it.  Through newly rationalized priorities I managed to squeeze honey from a stone.  I found extra fat on my budget and shaved off some extra cash each pay cheque.  I learnt that every dollar counts, and that if I don't have to spend one, I won't.  One day I'll be able to save towards more luxurious spending, but for the time being a dollar saved is one more in my pocket.  I have the comfort of knowing that in an emergency, albeit, a small emergency, I will not have to pull out my credit to save myself from an unforeseen expense.