Giving it up

Bit of a double whammy today as I finished yesterday's blog this morning due to lack of energy after a pretty productive day. Today I am further contemplating the strange thing that is money; a subject that has been pushed to the fore in our lives this year more than any due to our budget measures. The cut in salary we took when we left for Arran was kind of absorbed into the whole strangeness of the experience; plus we had booked holidays, savings and were earning tips. This year has been a real eye-opener, but more into past habits and wastage than in a negative way; I know I have touched on this before but it continues to intrigue me and is worth studying over the year: how our mental attitudes have had to shift with the circumstances.

For one thing, while I have never been 'banker' rich, we have never really had to worry too much about affording holidays, things for the house, new clothes and pretty much unlimited music.

This year we are suddenly in a position where I really have to think about what we need each month and what can wait; this month's 'treat' was a new light for the living room - long overdue as the space is often wasted due to lack of visibility! I am still suffering residual guilt from a few days ago when I bought myself a blouse - in a sale - with money that I was given for my birthday in January, which at the time I essentially frittered on groceries.

One of the things I learned while giving up alcohol is not to necessarily try and replace 'like for like' - a drink does not necessarily have to be replaced with another kind of drink. The space created by 'no drink' can be filled by another activity or experience quite unrelated to pouring things in your mouth. I remember the same giving up smoking (seeing a pattern here, huh?); the tendency is to replace fag with food, thus the annoying weight gain. Replace fag with nice walk or magazine and voila, no weight gain. It is actually a double positive as unproductive time is replaced by productive; spending by not spending; a replacement drink or fag could be as simple as 'sit in garden for five minutes thinking about and looking at plants.'

So to money; the same rule is starting to apply here as well - replace shopping 'therapy' and 'treats' with other activity and savings are no longer painful. It goes without saying that the things we do buy, carefully, feel far more like a treat than anything in years gone by. I look in horror at some clothes, light fittings, rugs etc we have bought without thinking and serve no useful function, but having bought them I am loth to remove them again. Don't get me started on restaurant bills... one thing I cannot see myself doing this year is eating out - at all - the thought of spending £30-£40 on food that will leave no concrete benefit and be forgotten the next day is just not an option. I shall hold off for whenever we finally get a holiday and sit at a plastic table on a beach or a field somewhere and order safe in the knowledge that I am adding to my memory bank, a worthy use for the bucks I have stashed away.

And so to cash-day-money-job, where I can look forward to ten days work equalling the money I got for the painting I sold. Great mentally on one hand - wow, sell a few more of them a month and we'd be laughing! But torturous on the other - gee, think how much more useful it would be to be in my studio; I wish I could switch my brain off...

Nearly forgot; my quote of the day from 'Death Proof' having finally got around to watching it (and loved it - don't care what that says about me!) Tarantino, playing a barman, refers to "Chartreuse, the only drink so good they named a colour after it." Love it.