Just got back in budgeting after realizing my depression was causing lifestyle creep three years after buying a house. New job, new city, new friends and all of a sudden I don't recognize who I am or why I couldn't care less about my credit card bills. Then I deleted my social media and after 4 months the old me started to appear. I don't even know what I bought… went to a lot of weddings that I probably could have skipped. Drank a lot during those social hang outs which was probably caused by social media depression.
I'm officially off the credit cards and the amount of freedom and happiness that I'm experiencing is insane!! Could credit actually the root of all evil? I've also romanticized it in my head that I can go around being proud using debit vs credit….feels old school and avant garde in this day and age.
Also thinking of cutting up the credit cards and burying them in backyard as a little FU ceremony to the loan masters of the universe. If y'all have any better ideas, please share!!
Why does budgeting feel so freeing?? Am I happy because of these new guard rails? Is there freedom in structure?
byu/LimonesConSal94 inpersonalfinance
Posted by LimonesConSal94
2 Comments
Budgeting gets a bad wrap. While many who do not budget think of it as restrictive, you have hit on something just the opposite.
Budgeting can give yourself permission to spend. If you have $500 in the budget and only spent $100, you have given yourself permission to spend $400 more.
If you budget for Christmas gifts, you can enjoy giving gifts when the time comes.
It is wise not to use credit cards if you are not able to stay within a budget and pay them off each month. Credit cards can be too easy to use at the spur of the moment.
100%! you’re free because you got the money saved up. That bought you freedom and wouldn’t have been possible without structure. To not budget is to become a slave to credit cards, banks, your boss, your financial limitations every day