Perhaps I am a tightwad; the line keeps shifting
It's only this year that, due to a couple of fortuitous and long overdue payrises, I started earning a good salary for the first time. Now that I've got over the horror of paying 40% tax I've become more and more aware that things that were once unaffordable are now within reach. Example: yesterday I took a peak-time train instead of the usual trick of waiting two and a half hours for an off-peak one (that would have saved me 20 quid). I got a taxi last week and it cost me nine quid whereas my normal bus journey would have been two quid but would have taken an hour longer.

I grew up really poor. Since I was a child I've been used to thrifty, penny-pinching ways. When I got older, as a student (and I was a student for eight or nine years) I was used to living on fresh air and porridge oats and I used to win beer at pub quizzes if I fancied a night out.

But now? Now I have so much shame and apprehension associated with spending my own money (and I will attribute this in part to my Protestant frugality and my Catholic guilt) that I find myself automatically following the ingrained spendthrift ways of my life to date. I reuse envelopes, and not because I give a crap about the planet. If anyone knows how to break this habit so that I can become gloriously profligate, please let me know.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 9:58, 23 replies)

To find out how you too can spend ridiculously like me,
Please send £80 to my paypal account.
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:06, closed)

Can I do so
through a cashback website, and can I pay on my credit card with 0.5% cashback too? And are there vouchers I can use?
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:07, closed)

mulberry handbags
works for me!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:17, closed)

they are very beautiful - I could be tempted.
But I spent some money on an iMac last week instead (through a cashback site, with an educational discount and rebate, and only because my other computer died, and then I spent 3 days wondering if I should send it back because it was too new and beautiful for me to own and normally I build shit computers from other peoples' leftovers).
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:20, closed)

Take small steps.
I used to be the same. Years of studantage made me very
careful with my money but now I'm middle aged and have had a good wage for some years I'm as profilgate as they come.

I've even been known to throw food away if it's slightly out of date, I have clothing I've only ever worn once and sometimes I don't even check if I can get a better deal on home insurance when it runs out.

Jesus Christ, what has happened to me?
( girlinthehole, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:26, closed)

!
"I don't even check if I can get a better deal on home insurance when it runs out"

That's shocking!!!
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:29, closed)

Looking at the high earners all around me in work and on the tube...
a cocaine addiction seems to be pretty safe bet.
( Sonic James Doom forgetting the date since... umm..., Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:33, closed)

I'm more the prescription drug type.
I'm all out of Valium though, so I either have to fake stress or buy it on the black market now.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 10:51, closed)

I say carry on as you are
There are much worse personality flaws to have.

Good for you
(Jugular, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 11:04, closed)

I think you should carry on as you are
fortuitous payrises are great.
sudden unemployment isn't.

god, I sound like my mum ffs

Develop an expensive drug habit, that'll help!
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:13, closed)

be me
im useless with money.

so far this month I have

Spent £100 on a mystery trio of whiskys from the SMWS.

Spent £35 on Amazon for some graphic novels

Spent £50 at a bookies on saturday afternoon.

Sometimes I wonder why im 33, drive a shit car, have (only just) a 3 figure amount in my savings, a credit card bill in 4 figures and rent. Then I realise its because I am just shit
edit: oops im 33 not 34
(Halfy By light alone, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:28, closed)

I'm half-horrfied, half-admiring of this.
I have a terrible fear of debt - my only debt is my mortgage which I sensibly overpay each month. The enormous guilt I feel at spending my own money which I have earned all by myself is incredible. I get shaky and sweaty with fear at a purchase over 20 quid.

I spent 10 quid on a car window from the scrapyard and fitted it myself rather than pay an autoglass company 80 quid to do it for me. Now my back passenger window doesn't work quite right, but dammit, I saved a whole 70 quid! And spent an entire afternoon up to my arse in torx keys and the pouring rain.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:41, closed)

I
tend to live month to month, have no pension (eek!) and until only a few years ago earnt a pittance.

I scrimp and splash in equal proportions which makes no sense at all, I also buy car spares from scrapyards, and books from Oxfam, but then blow money at a racecourse or casino.

will soon all change, my loan is gone, am paying £500 a month of my credit card and looking to buy 50% of a house next year using a government equity loan as the deposit so will have to learn to be frugal pretty damn quick!
(Halfy By light alone, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:47, closed)

Enjoy more stuff
I am utterly profligate; a 32 year old near wage slave. I eat out 2-3 times a week and spend the rest down the boozer. I also take a lot of flights just to see shows or visit mates round Europe. Life is good.

I also have lots of shoes.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 13:11, closed)

I have lots of shoes
but only one pair didn't come from TK Maxx.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:29, closed)

No shame in that..
I got a pair of Loakes from Tackies.. It's always worth a rummage around there.. came in at half price and they're a damn fine pair of hooves!
(AndyC4m Eject Eject [><], Mon 27 Oct 2008, 13:15, closed)

Develop a nasty book habit
I look forward to the day when I can spend my usual £30 or so each month in bookshops and not think twice about it.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 13:31, closed)

I still buy secondhand versions online
- even though the postage is about 5 times the cost of the book. The only book I've bought new from a shop in the past year is Anne Enright's short stories Taking Pictures because when I heard the first story from it being read on Book at Bedtime it made me sob uncontrollably for an hour. I went straight out and bought the damn book the next day and cried all over again.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:31, closed)

I can't seem to leave any branch of Waterstones
without buying 3 books - damn 3 for 2 offers!

I have a shelf full of books waiting to be read....but I just can't seem to stop myself from buying more of the bloody things. Yesterday I bought three poetry books, today three popular fiction on 3 for 2. I'm singlehandedly keeping Waterstones afloat.

And don't get me onto Amazon....

A couple of weeks back I spent £10 on secondhand books in Oxfam too.

I buy my kids (and my) clothes in the sales and any cheap shops going just so I can keep up the book habit.

It'd be cheaper to be a druggie.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 17:29, closed)

And now I'm going to google Anne Enright
thank you.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 17:30, closed)

I say
Enjoy it.
Life's too short.

My wife says I'm an irresponsible child and I need to get some priorities in my life.

However I did get a 5.4% re mortgage fixed for 10 years just before it all went tits up.

I'm quite happy about that at the moment
(MadBouncyDog Barking at the moon since, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 15:44, closed)

Good shout!
Spend the balance on chocolate bon-bons.. or overpay heavily on the repayments.

The choice, as they say, is yours!
(AndyC4m Eject Eject [><], Mon 27 Oct 2008, 13:17, closed)

if you want the thrill of splashing out
but don't want to break the bank, develop a passion for radley handbags.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 15:47, closed)