This may sound like a stupid statement to some, but I’m sure there are plenty who emphasize as well. Sometimes I get so caught up in saving and working towards my financial goals that I feel guilty when I spend money, even when I’ve budgeted for it. This is hypocritical since I try to teach people to budget for things and then use that money to pay for them.
At work, we have a client who has more money than he’ll ever need. He loves to go fly fishing and he recently took a trip to Asheville, which is one of his favorite places to do so. In Asheville, he took a guided fly fishing trip which cost $300 and he absolutely loved it. He was tempted to do another one but didn’t because of the cost.
I was honestly a little sad when he told me this story because, although he doesn’t see it this way, spending that $300 on something that he loves wouldn’t have the slightest impact on his financial well-being. That would have been $300 well spent because he would have gotten so much enjoyment out of it. Heck, he could have spent $30,000 on fly fishing trips and it wouldn’t have negatively impacted his financial plan.
But, I can’t blame him. I felt this same way often on vacation last week. Even though I’ve budgeted for it and had money readily available to spend specifically on vacation, I still felt guilty about spending that money.
I love seafood and I wanted to take advantage of having some quality, fresh seafood while on the east coast. However, good seafood is really expensive (at least according to my bank account). Every time I sat down in a restaurant and looked at a menu I was torn between ordering what I really wanted and trying to save money. In the end, I tried to keep a balance – I ordered some very expensive entrées at some restaurants when I really wanted them, but I made sure to keep spending in mind most of the time to make sure that I’d be able to continue enjoying my vacation without blowing through my budget.
While on vacation you probably spend more money during the week than you normally would – maybe you drive more to see things, you probably eat out more than usual, you may have to pay tolls and/or parking if you’re driving, you’ll probably pay for excursions and things to do to keep you entertained since you’re not working all day. These expenses add up quickly and each swipe of the credit card hurts a little more for people like our client and me. But it shouldn’t. We’ve budgeted for it and the money is there – specifically for these expenses.
In the future, I’m going to try to be more focused on having fun and enjoying my vacation rather than focusing so much on how much I’m spending. I’ve budgeted for it. I know that the money is there, and it’s been set aside specifically for these expenses. As long as I’m mindful and limit large expenses to a couple of times, rather than all of the time, everything should work out well. I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy my vacation, because I had an amazing time, but I think that I can improve in this area.
