A friend of mine was blogging about her family effort to be more frugal, as they set their sights on home ownership and other financial goals. I realized then, that this was the first year in awhile that I didn't really talk about money in my yearly retrospective. That's pretty weird, because the transition we had from 2009 to 2013 was pretty dramatic, and not by accident. To be burdened in credit card debt and go to zero, with savings, was a big deal for us.
Indeed, 2015 was a year where money didn't really come up beyond the purchase of our absurd car. We were saving a ton of money, and blew that on the down payment. Our monthly cash flow is essentially close to the same, since Diana works part-time and it covers probably 75% of that difference. I mean, we still "lost" all kinds of money sinking it into the car, but that didn't materially alter our lifestyle. Still, I find myself not really paying attention like I did, and that realization has brought some minor anxiety with it.
Our m.o. is still mostly "experiences not things," though I suppose I'm a little more flexible on that definition than I used to be, in no small part because of the influence of my friends. Our single largest expense last year (other than the mortgage) was travel. In fact, this was so much the case that some of that was money spent for travel next year. We like to do stuff.
I think this was also a year where, toward the end, we realized that maybe this strategy was distracting us from some other things. We both lost some weight this year (Diana more than me), and we were wearing clothes that didn't fit well, or were just entirely too old. I look at a hundred bucks for a few new pairs of pants and shorts and think, "Gosh, that's a few nights out or a lot of drinks in our next cruise." I would get an email ad from Ikea and think, "Nah, that living room TV unit is two out of three plane tickets." That's kind of screwed up. Fortunately, we now have pants that fit, and the living room feels a little more "finished" (and hey, we've only been here almost two years). It isn't that we're cheap, it's that our priorities are probably not the most conventional.
It's not all reckless abandon with our dollars, mind you. We're starting to save again (counting on a significant tax refund this year, too). While I'm the one that reconciles the bank statements, Diana is really the heart of our financial well-being in terms of domestic expense. That's not surprising, since before she met me she lived comfortably in her own house and made things work. She doesn't go overboard with comparative shopping and coupons, but she knows where to buy food across Target, Publix, Aldi and BJ's. Heck, she even allows the BJ's to lapse until we really need another crate of mac-n-cheese for Simon. Her ability to control the cost of Simon's clothes, and even some toys, has been remarkable over the years.
I suppose the most important thing is that we've never reverted to that idea that, "Well, we can just put that on the credit card and we'll figure out how to pay for it later." I did that for almost 15 years, and it was a financially miserable experience. That's the mistake that's hardest to overcome.
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