Despite the fact that February is the shortest month of the year, February 2008 is offering up something extra special. It is a three paycheck month. (Cue the fanfare and the choir of angels!) With the very first and very last day of the month falling on Friday, we also get a middle Friday. Considering that spring is still so very far away, can you think of a better gift at this time of year? Okay, the new Family Day holiday is also good, but I'm going to vote for money over time right now.
When I realized that this was the case (I figured it out back in December - I like to plan ahead!), I started contemplating what I should do with the extra paycheck. And it came to me right away! The boyfriend and I should take a trip to New York City. You see, I've been twice and he's been twice, although both times for work, but we've never been together. Plus our third anniversary is coming up at the beginning of April, so it would be the perfect time. The trees in Central Park would be in bloom, we could explore the museums together, see a show...
Once he seconded my idea, I started looking into it right away. I found a good flight/hotel deal that would give us four nights for just over $800 each. The excitement began to build! I pulled out my guidebook and looked up a few things that I didn't get to see before. I talked about it everyday. I officially put it on my "Something to look forward to" list.
But then, reality set in. And reality came to me in the form of this blog. How can I truly say I am attempting to pay off this debt if I use something as beneficial as an extra paycheck to go on vacation? I would be a big old liar. And I really don't like liars.
Instead, I will use that extra money towards the debt mountain, making it a little more manageable in the process. We may still try to get away for a couple of days in April, but at a much more affordable price.
You see how you are all rubbing off on me? My nature is to please people, so I want to please all of you and make you proud. There will be plenty of time for vacations when I'm back in the black, right?
Meanwhile, another good day today! I only parted with money for some bananas and some shave gel (on sale!). I would have bought toilet paper, but I think I can get a better deal somewhere else, so I'll leave that for tomorrow. (Don't worry, there's still a roll or two in the house... plus tissues.)
Total debt: $11,000 and change
Spent today: $2.53
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3 comments:
Tammy, you are a better man than I, that's for sure... To give up a trip to New York City so that you can make a payment against your debt!! WOW is all I have to say. I'm pretty proud of you!
Good on ya!
Arlene
Thanks. It's not fun to be frugal, but I'm hoping it will pay off in the long run. (BIG sigh.)
Yay for you! You managed to avoid confirmation bias once again! Congrats!
And so now I think you are ready for "agreement bias". Yes another little nasty human tendency to watch out for - the evils of agreement bias. Agreement bias is making decisions based on the inability to discount sunk costs. What does that mean? Well it means that you do something simply because you've already invested in it. So for example, if you had decided to go to NYC and you were going to get cheap tickets to see a show, but they only had $100 tickets left, well, you might say, "Since I've already spent so much to get here, what's a little more?!" thus convincing yourself to buy the $100 when you were originally only budgetting to spend $35. That's agreement bias. Not as common as confirmation bias, but just as dangerous!
Who knows, maybe by the end of this blog I'll have spewed out a whole MBA's worth of info... just think of the value you are getting out of this blog! Actually you should keep a tally of how much the blog has saved you. Everytime you use the blog to justify not spending you should add that value to the "Blog-savings" tally. That would be interesting to see. Of course then google might somehow try to extract that from you ... they are willy marketers you know!
Care :-)
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