Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Financial Gluttony

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Gluttony is all around us.  I’m as guilty of it as you likely are.  The most classical example of gluttony is the act of eating much more than you need.  It leads to obesity, which is a rampant problem in this country.  Gluttony is described as the excessive indulgence in food and drink.

But, since this is a personal finance blog, let’s expand that description a bit and talk about financial gluttony. In fact, lets get down right philosophical about it.

The excessive indulgence of money. It may not be an official one of the 7 deadly sins, but it certainly is one of the deadly sins of personal finance.  It’s the rampant consumerism that often runs wild in our society.  Especially around this time of year.  We spend and spend and only stop when our credit runs out.  We give little thought to what the resulting consequences will be of our spending.  Over spending, over extending, gluttonous use of money.

The excessive indulgences of finance.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that many of you have probably not thought of this side of the argument.  What I’m talking about is the gluttonous use of financial maxims to save and perform frugal acts.  Moderation is good for all things, even the stuff that is good for us.  You’ll garner no argument from me that saving money and being frugal are good things.  But, it is possible to take it too far.  Making soup by boiling your old belts, not because you can’t afford food, but because it’ll save a buck or two is finance gluttony.  Ok, that’s a pretty extreme example, but you get the point.

What I really want to get at here is that there are extremes for everything.  If we eat too much we get fat.  If we spend too much we get broke.  If we save too much, we fail to appreciate what our money can do for us.  So, the next time you’re doing your budget or even just balancing your checkbook, take the time to think about that.  Are you being financially gluttonous?

How Much is It Worth to You?

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In every purchase we make, we should ask ourselves how much is it worth to me?  It’s a very simple question, but in many cases, the answer may surprise you.  And it applies to much more than items.

Let’s try a few examples.

I’ve been keeping my eye on LCD HD receiver televisions.  With the big switchover in February and all the fear marketing going on about the loss of signals, my family may need a new television.  We don’t currently subscribe to a cable service, so we get our tv over the airwaves and will need a HD tv or a subscription to cable.  The tv’s that I’ve been looking at are in the $500 range.  Not a huge amount for tv’s nowadays, but quite a bit for my debt averse family.  Each time I look at them, I have to ask myself if having television is worth $500 to me.  We currently don’t have cable and we only receive one channel over the air.  And to be honest, it wouldn’t be a huge loss to us.  Except.  Except that I like to watch Football in the fall.  Except that my wife is addicted to COPS.  Except.  Except.  Except.  With each exception, the TV or cable subscription becomes more and more worth it to me.  I become more willing to spend the money to get the TV or Cable because of them.

Much like cable, there are some services that demand the question too.  In my hometown, there is only one full service gas station.  All the rest are self service.  The full service station charges $0.02/gallon more for their gas.  This is a non-question for me.  I don’t mind filling my tank up.  I only end up filling up about once a month, so it isn’t a big deal if I have to stand and pump gas for a few minutes.  However, with temperatures falling (it’s about 30 here today) I can certainly see why there might be some people who are asking themselves if the extra $0.02 per gallon is worth staying in the warmth of their car while someone else fills the tank.

The more my wife and I budget and track our money, the more often I find myself asking this question.  Is this service or that item worth the extra money?  Is the convenience worth paying more for or am I just being lazy?  More and more, I find that the answer is No.  In many cases, the convenience isn’t worth a little more slavery to debt.  Each penny that I spend on that convenience is another penny that I cannot use to pay down debt.  Maybe my answers will change when we get rid of our debt, but I think by then our lifestyles and attitudes will have changed significantly enough that the answer will often still be no.