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Recognizing our mistakes is the first step to getting it right next time.
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2022 was more stressful than most years. You’d think that after 24 moves, I would have moving down to an art. Unfortunately, as the past six months have illustrated, I do not. We’ve been in our new house for six months now, and I just now feel like I can catch my breath and reflect.
One of the things I’ve thought about lately is how much money I’ve blown over these last six months. Here’s what I came up with.
1. I needed everything done right away
We left a house that I adored. Every nook and cranny had been customized to fit our taste. The first time I saw the home we purchased in Illinois was the evening the dogs and I moved in. My husband bought it while I was busy selling the old house.
Where beige walls meet beige floors
And here’s where I got into trouble. Without exaggeration, I can say that the new house was the plainest, most vanilla structure I’d ever seen. Sure, it had promise, but it lingered on the market because it was so stinkin’ unimpressive.
Everything was beige and barren. There wasn’t a single plant in the yard. The walls still had builders-grade paint on them, and the bedroom carpeting was that exact shade of light brown. Besides an attractive epoxy coating on the garage floor, the house did not have an ounce of personality.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that the hardwood floors were badly damaged, I might have guessed that no one ever lived here.
Darn that HGTV
I’ve watched plenty of home remodeling shows on television and always thought it would be fun to fill a house with a million little features that perfectly reflected our family. That’s one of the reasons we decided to buy this house.
And here’s the dangerous part: We had extra money sitting in our savings account, earmarked for home upgrades. I could not wait to get started on this Plain Jane of a structure.
I did not wait. Within a few months, everything had been done, from adding a new patio to landscaping and new flooring and paint. Even the front door was painted a warm, welcoming shade.
What makes me sick
Now that we’re done, I’m questioning the wisdom of needing everything done so quickly. Money just poured out of our bank account into the hands of contractors. I have never in my life spent so freely.
Yes, we had it to spend, but that’s not the point. I’m all about mindful spending in my “regular life,” so why did that go out the window following this move? After considering it for days, I finally admitted to my husband that I think I spent so much so fast because I was trying to distract myself from feeling sad.
We left a city that’s home to many of our closest friends, the place where my father grew up. It’s natural that there would be feelings.
Next time: The next time I want to make a purchase, I’m going to take a beat and ask myself how I think that purchase will make me feel. Emotional spending tends to lead to regrettable choices.
2. Too little shopping around
I didn’t want to waste time shopping for contractors. Once I met someone I liked, I hired them. I normally shop around for the best price on toothpaste. The fact that I did not bother to do more checking before hiring a contractor baffles me.
About halfway through projects, I finally broke down and got bids from several contractors, but I should have done that from the jump.
Next time: One thing I do in real life is quickly calculate how many hours I would need to work to pay for something. For example, if I decided that I needed a new set of dishes, I would break down my hourly income and determine how many hours of work it would take to pay for those dishes. I need to apply that strategy to large purchases as well.
3. I failed to use shopping apps
I have shopping apps at my disposal. There’s Flipp, an app that checks out tons of weekly circulars to tell me which grocery stores have the best deals on the items I need. RetailMeNot offers coupons and discount codes on everything from clothing to refrigerators.
And finally, GasBuddy tells me where I can find the cheapest gas prices near wherever I happen to be.
I spent months thinking I was too busy to spend a little time checking apps for lower prices, which, in retrospect, was ridiculous. It wasn’t until two days ago that it occurred to me how much money I could have saved.
Next time: I’ve decided to make app-checking habitual. Before starting the car or going online, I’ll check an app to see if I can find a lower price on whatever I intend to buy.
I’m watching my bank account more closely than usual right now, like you watch a toddler a little more closely after they take a tumble. If there’s a silver lining in any of this, it’s that today is a new day, and I’m starting with a clean slate. Recognizing the mistakes I made in 2022 is the best way to prevent them from happening in 2023.
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