I spent this past weekend in Cleveland visiting some of J’s good friends. One of these is a borderline Scrooge-y saver and another announced that she’d just (after three years) paid off the remaining balance on her credit card. Between the two, I suddenly felt painfully financially irresponsible (I am, but suddeny it stung more), and somehow, by the time we were making a rainy drive home, I had put my foot down. I would cut out needless spending! I would create a budget! I would stick to it! I would consolidate and pay off my $5,000 of credit card debt!!

But first – I would buy Jeni’s black current yogurt!

As you can see, this may be a long road to recovery. But I have taken one big step this morning, which involved opening an account on Mint.com. Mint is a money management site that securely links to your bank accounts and tracks your spending, allows you to set budgets, assists with credit consolidation and generally simplifies the task of controlling your finances.

For example, apparently I spent $85 at coffee shops last month.

I’m not stupid; I always knew the lattes added up. But to see them as a big green chunk on a pie chart (a chunk bigger than my Restaurant spending) was eye opening to say the least. Apparently The Adventurista is also a bit of a Caffeinista.
And a Fashionista… and  Jenis’s Spledid Ice Creamista.

But I’m starting to get an inkling that what would make me the happiest (elated and euphoric beyond belief, really) will not be found on a rack (second-hand or otherwise), on a plate, in a glass or an ice ream cone. Being completely free of debt and living within my means doesn’t have to mean living a boring, colorless, uneventful life. I can DO this. Yes, the office coffee tastes like someone ran the water through used grounds and the little cups of faux cream don’t improve upon this any. And yes I like dining out and shopping and taking road trips.

But I also love hiking (free), bike rides (free), taking Gabe to the dog park (free), cookouts with friends (cheap – especially when everyone brings something), cooking (ok – this I’m getting better at, so I should say I like learning how to cook, and that is less expensive than hitting up a restaurant)… The point is, there are a lot of activites that cost little or no money that can replace my pricier habits. The warmer weather (and moving to a location where the climate is generally more condusive to outdoor activites) can only help.

Today I embark on the journey that will lead me out of financial slavery. Mark the date, because I’ll update monthly on how things are going (with maybe some mini-posts on any triumphs or setbacks along the way), and one year from now, I plan to be knocking on the door of solvency. My car payments end next May, and I hope to have my credit card debt caught up and destroyed by then as well.

Lofty? Yes. Life-altering? Oh yes. I don’t plan on being the same kind of person a year from now – this type of change requires you to completely alter your frame of mind. You won’t see me donning red robes, shaving my head, and shirking all my worldly possessions (yet). But I will start to look at the material a little differently. I want to spend more of my resources doing versus having.

So – wish me luck, and if you have any advice, I’m all ears. I’m not the first person to come to this revelation and make a concerted effort to turn things around, and I won’t be the last. I’ll need all the help I can get, and hopefully will help others to make the jump as well.

~a