Avoiding Budget Busting Monsters

Budget busting monsters, are the monsters warring against the soul of your budget, they snap at your fragile purse strings. Some of them operate behind enemy lines. They operate from within, with our active cooperation. We feed them and make them bigger.

Here they come:

Impulse Monster

This one cannot operate unless we give it room. Items that follow us to the checkout, that is nowhere to be found in our budget at home. We did not plan to buy them when we left home. They somehow follow us to the checkout. Some of them wait for us at the checkout, sneaking in before the cashier asked with a bewitching smile “Is that all?” in some cases, they still barge in after our totals have been tallied. We pay for them separately.

I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first son. She had a craving for guava fruit and sent me to the grocery store to pick a couple for her. I came home an hour later, laden with four heavy grocery bags!

How do you contain this monster from its frequent rampaging runs? Stick to your budget, and ignore its antics. Make a list before you go out the door, and shop strictly by that list. If possible, pay cash for your purchases, so that you may not be tempted to flash your plastic.

Image Monster

This monster is green-eyed with envy and covetousness, almost crossed-eyed from looking sideward at what is happening across the fence. If the Joneses buy a brand-new SUV, our family car is due for a trade-in. If John buys a new laptop, mine cannot cope with my needs anymore. If Mark buys a wide screen TV, watching movies on our old reliable is not fun anymore

We place ourselves in a class and play catch-up. We buy things to fit our image, not our needs. We think about the financial implications later, after the damage has been done.

You need discipline and contentment to deal with this monster. Have a plan, and stick with it. Plan ahead for major purchases. Do not take spur-of-the-moment financial decisions. Don’t allow money to sit in your savings account staring at you. Have an investment plan. Get the money to work

Save! Sales! Monster

This monster is relentless and merciless. It bombards our budget when we are most vulnerable, Christmas, New Year, Easter, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, etc. This monster waits for a season of celebration when folks let down their guard. It strikes without mercy. The deal looks very lucrative. Why not buy it cheaply? Who is not in love with freebies?

Our budget gets thrown into the high street thrash as we give in to the season. Nobody stops to think whether this item is in her budget. Nobody ponders how one saves by giving money away. The more you save, the more broke you become, as storekeepers smile all the way to the bank.

A stiff dose of discipline keeps this monster at bay. You can only save if you plan to buy those items during sales. Plan your purchases ahead. Instead of this monster depleting your bank balance, you can ride on its back and really make good savings by timing your purchases well

Advertising Monster

This monster is very deadly, though it only barks, but does not bite. It does not attack your budget directly but goes for your mind and emotions, where the action is. This monster bombards you from all directions. There is no hiding place, even in the loo. It wears down your defenses, takes over your subconscious, and works you into a frenzy. Then it waits for the kill. It feeds impulse, joins the other monsters, and runs a ring around you. Surrounded, and outnumbered, you give in and whip out your plastic, or reach for the phone.

It comes at you at every waking moment. In magazines and newspapers, on TV and radio, and on the road, they dominate the landscape with giant billboards and neon signs. You enter the train station, it is everywhere, free publications/newspapers, inside the wagon, on the tunnel. There is no hiding place. You step out, it is on the buses, taxis. Sometimes if you are not careful, you find yourself playing jingles in your head. You are simply surrounded.

Advertising, the patient and persistent monster

It does not work immediately. This monster is very gentle and patient. It makes subtle suggestions, over and over again, until you believe it. Your car is too old. The home entertainment system is obsolete and your computer is too slow. Your fashion is out of date, your house is too small, life is too dull…it goes on and on. This monster normally leads the attack, then steps back and allows the others to finish the job.

The best way to contain this monster is to define who you are and refuse to be intimidated. Have a plan, and stick with it. This monster is powerless without the others. If you effectively contain the others, it will shout itself house, and fizzle out. You have to be always on your guard against this monster. It never ever gives up, never will. If you are resolute, you can tune it out completely, until when you are good and ready to entertain it…