Roughly £600 was split between content insurance, car insurance, council tax, and a number of other achingly burdensome non-consumables. Her response was a very understandable one; "Had I spent that amount of money in Asos, I'd be feeling a whole lot happier right now".
Rather than challenging the way in which consumerism has plagued us with a love affair for stuff - or more importantly, new, current, fashionable stuff - I wish to challenge the concept of easy spending. My housemate managed to spend £600 in a way which would baffle an Western individual from three, perhaps even two generations ago. She didn't actually touch the physical, corporeal cash that she was departing with for any of her transactions. The only reality it ever had was numbers on a screen - flowing from one account to the next, as service was exchanged for monetary reward. Which is fine when it's for the essentials, but a touch terrifying if it were to have occurred at Asos.
For most of us, money = plastic. It's one of the most essential components of our daily lives. Number 99 of The History of the World in 100 Objects (best coffee table/toilet book EVER) is the credit card - a rather monumental statement on the part of the British Museum; the single item which might best define our modern era, which would allow future generations to look back on us and understand us from a single tool, is an object which turns currency into a transaction of data and numbers rather than physical wonga.
I don't wish to suggest that we should snap all our plastic cards up at once - far from it. They are a natural evolution of currency, and bloody handy. What I suggest is that they hold an unaccountable amount of power over our spending habits. When I was young(er), I used to flipping love counting my pocket money. I would stack all the little coins into neat piles, enjoying the concept that these little pieces of metal could actually be exchanged for far more useful things, like Lego. But I used to hate spending it. I would agonise over exactly what it was I wanted to spend my little piggy bank on - did I want the action figure from Biker Mice from Mars or the Power Ranger? (That decision was actually made for me - Argos were out of Power Rangers). Once the money was gone, it was gone. Were I a child with a debit or (God forbid) a credit card, such a decision process would have been far less of an ordeal. "I'll have both".
It's incredibly hard to form a feeling of responsibility when using a piece of plastic. Chip and Pin it. Swipe it. Scan it. Something goes beep, and you've got the thing you want in your hand. Staggeringly simple, and life-changingly brilliant. But it can be so easy to pick up that extra thing you don't need with a piece of plastic. Another magazine. Another belt. That new ice cream flavour. The album form that band you kinda liked that's now on offer on iTunes. Pay for the none essential with a physical stack of cash and you realise what you're spending. Pay for it with a card and it's oh-so-easy to blow out on something you didn't really need.
The point stands with holidays. Foreign currency is just that - foreign. It's a weird shape. It's heavier/lighter/papery/collapsed (Euro banter). Unless you have the keenest of interests in exchange rates, you can spend it like it's Monopoly money. But not, if is often the case for most holidays, you're budgeting. You have to think about what you'll be spending that week. Do you get your Mum the nice necklace and miss out on the paragliding, or do you just get her a fridge magnet? If it's plastic, you possibly do both, but when you feel your wallet/purse get increasingly empty, it doesn't half weigh you down in a different way.
So my challenge is this. To cut down on the easy spending, budget a week's essential purchases. Food, the new shoes you need for work, stamps. Stuff you definitely need to have (we'll ignore bills as it's almost impossible to pay those with cash these days). Now, work out exactly how much that will cost you - say £46. Go to a cash point and take out £50. This is all you are allowed to have in your wallet/purse for the week. Your pocket is to be a plastic free zone. Money suddenly becomes real again - a commodity you have to deal with responsibly.
I was forced to do this when my bank failed to send me a new debit card and cancelled my existing one. I nearly broke down in the first 24 hours, but having borrowed some money from my girlfriend, I existed very contently for the next 2 weeks. I under spent considerably. I wouldn't suggest I became happier or more pure because of it, but I did worry less about the amount of money I had and what I was spending it on.
If you are a natural budgeter, then this won't make a difference. But if you worry that your bank account has a small leak or an open tap on it, chances are it's from the plastic in your pocket. Give it a go. Save yourself (some money).
If you are a natural budgeter, then this won't make a difference. But if you worry that your bank account has a small leak or an open tap on it, chances are it's from the plastic in your pocket. Give it a go. Save yourself (some money).
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