A couple of days ago LadyBowTie celebrated her 1st birthday. In celebration, I wanted to re-post a bunch of my favorites from this last year for my new readers to enjoy and so you could reminisce with me.~Cori
Its Only Money
“Its only money.” is a powerful statement. It can be used for good or it can be used for evil depending upon how you look at it. I have heard this statement a million times. I hear it a lot when a natural disaster strikes or a child has cancer and a community is uplifted together in charity to help. But you know when I hear it the most? When 
someone is shopping. And they aren’t shopping for canned goods for the local food bank, they are shopping for clothes, shoes, make-up, electronics, movies, etc. “Eh…its only money,” as they drop another DVD into their basket as they whip out their credit card to pay for their haul.
I love clothes, I love shopping for clothes (and shoes and make-up and shampoo and umbrellas and movies and….you get the point). I love the satisfaction of walking into a store, seeing something I like or something I only kinda like, taking it to the cash register buying it and taking it home to look at it some more. Don’t we all just love the process of buying something? The freedom to choose and own instantly. It’s an awesome thing.
However, what is not awesome is debt. Liking the cozy warm feeling of buying something so much that you are riddled with debt. And that debt comes in the form of credit card debt plus 15% interest. It has become very clear to me over the years that people are perfectly comfortable and very accepting of their own mountain of credit card debt. They accept it as a part of life, a privilege even. The philosophy that debt is a fact of life and we all have to live in it.
No we don’t. No you don’t. Somewhere along the way, in our nation that lives by the have-it-now attitude we somehow forgot the equally satisfying world of saving. This coming from a former shopaholic, trust me, you can get that same high from seeing how much money you have NOT spent and that is sitting in your account growing. You can get the same delight thinking of and actually seeing your financial future. Your future vacations, your retirement, your kid’s college graduation, and it is 10 times better than the feeling of buying yet another black sweater.
What, how could this be? A fashion writer not buying clothes? No its true. Yep, I’ve been on the wagon for a few years now. I do slip up from time to time, especially when I’m about to travel. I HATE packing, I would much rather go shopping and buy a weekends worth of clothes than pack my own suitcase. I know, its ridiculous, but its true – that’s my thing. But I have completely revamped my lifestyle and my spending so that I could grow as an adult and become financially independent. I shop no longer and I am proud to say that I am debt free. The last time I bought clothes was in the Spring with a $100 gift card from one of my bosses. I desperately needed some new work clothes and so I got some coupons and bought as much as that $100 would take me. I actually went over by $3 …but hey its only money.
More to come on this topic.
Very good article and very TRUE!