Thanks for sharing your experiences! I am definitely going to make more of an effort to record all my spending. I was also lucky in not having any debt from undergrad but now that I'm in a professional program I have had to take on more to pay for the exorbitant tuition we get charged. There's almost a culture of acceptance around it too, where (unless your parents are paying for everything - mine are not paying for anything) you're expected to have significant debt after graduation. I think I'm at that point where my purchasing habits and income have stayed the same, but expenses have gone way up due to school.. I know it's inevitable that I'll be paying back debt for a while after I graduate anyway.. which makes it harder to be strict with myself. That attitude needs to be nipped in the bud though..
SKIP! Put it toward your Disney trip. As others have said, you can probably find a similar colour at a lower price point. :nods: * * * No makeup purchases in February for me, either! :cheer: I will be purchasing a blush this month, however (blush is one of my "in moderation" products; a reminder that my low-buy is based on product type). I had a bit of a time deciding between NARS Sex Fantasy, MAC Well Dressed, and Hourglass Ethereal Glow -- all pale pinks, all at various price points. After a little back-and-forth with myself I've decided I'm going to order Sex Fantasy. Not because it's LE, but because I think it'll suit me better, plus I like NARS' blush formula a lot, and also because I'm planning to buy the Ethereal Light powder later this year anyway.
Yayyy!
I completely agree with you. There is a culture of acceptance that debt is inevitable and normal and that it's just fine. It's not an attitude that was there even 20 years ago and it's dangerous. There's obviously a difference between good debt (education that will lead to higher income potential) and bad debt (consumer), but at the end of the day, it's still an impediment for moving on to the next phase of your life. Young adults are being crippled by debt loads; if you each owe $50k, how are you supposed to save for a house, start a family, etc? I know not everyone wants those things, but it's delaying them for almost a decade for those who do. It's taking more than a decade for people to get out from under student loans.You can thank @elegant-one for that, she was the one who recommended the 159 to me! Haha.Glad you loved the application with it, it definitely changed my life when it comes to more pigmented blushes like NARS, etc. on my pale skin.
Thanks for sharing your experiences! I am definitely going to make more of an effort to record all my spending. I was also lucky in not having any debt from undergrad but now that I'm in a professional program I have had to take on more to pay for the exorbitant tuition we get charged. There's almost a culture of acceptance around it too, where (unless your parents are paying for everything - mine are not paying for anything) you're expected to have significant debt after graduation. I think I'm at that point where my purchasing habits and income have stayed the same, but expenses have gone way up due to school.. I know it's inevitable that I'll be paying back debt for a while after I graduate anyway.. which makes it harder to be strict with myself. That attitude needs to be nipped in the bud though..
Thank you for having the courage to share your numbers with us!
Very true Audrey, I forget sometimes that the acceptance of debt culture (especially consumer debt) is more widespread. My fiance and I decided years ago that children is not for us for a variety of reasons, so I feel less concerned about it than I would be otherwise (the "you'll change your mind" argument is not relevant for us, so no need to go there). BUT, we do want to travel together and I'm concerned that our debt will be a barrier to that. I'm going to be much more careful going forward. Thanks for all of your helpful advice! I wish I had more friends in the financial industry and less in the more frivolous career paths like medicine and law.I completely agree with you. There is a culture of acceptance that debt is inevitable and normal and that it's just fine. It's not an attitude that was there even 20 years ago and it's dangerous. There's obviously a difference between good debt (education that will lead to higher income potential) and bad debt (consumer), but at the end of the day, it's still an impediment for moving on to the next phase of your life. Young adults are being crippled by debt loads; if you each owe $50k, how are you supposed to save for a house, start a family, etc? I know not everyone wants those things, but it's delaying them for almost a decade for those who do. It's taking more than a decade for people to get out from under student loans.
I wish it was just tuition that's doing it, but it's not. It's people living well beyond their means. People get used to being able to spend the way they could when they had a part-time job and parents covered all expenses. The reality is that most won't have that kind of discretionary income again until they get to my age and the house is paid for, childcare expenses are gone, college savings are done, etc. It's really important for people to adjust their lifestyle to their income and expenses, but very few do. Many spend every penny they make and then some all the way along and never get over the hump and get to enjoy some debt-free, heavy savings years. There are vast numbers of people going into retirement now with mortgage and other debt. There's no happy ending coming for many of them. Getting old isn't fun regardless, but old and poor is much worse.
I cannot tell you how many times I've heard 'I wish I'd saved more and started earlier, I just didn't realize...' somber realizations from people. We've culturally shifted away from being debt-averse to being debt-accepting, and it's a troubling trend.
Most of you here are still very young (by my middle-aged standards) and it's nowhere near too late for you to shift course. Making and sticking to a budget (that includes fun money for things like makeup, but not at the expense of savings) is a habit that gets easier over time. No matter what your budget is for makeup (I had many years when mine was perhaps $100-150 mostly from gifts), there are still ways to make it stretch and have fun with it.
Total generalization, but docs are notorious for being poor money managers.Very true Audrey, I forget sometimes that the acceptance of debt culture (especially consumer debt) is more widespread. My fiance and I decided years ago that children is not for us for a variety of reasons, so I feel less concerned about it than I would be otherwise (the "you'll change your mind" argument is not relevant for us, so no need to go there). BUT, we do want to travel together and I'm concerned that our debt will be a barrier to that. I'm going to be much more careful going forward. Thanks for all of your helpful advice! I wish I had more friends in the financial industry and less in the more frivolous career paths like medicine and law.
Money sense and intelligence are not necessarily linked, unfortunately. It's amazing how many high income earners manage to amass significant debt.
Agreed! One of my friends has an obscene credit limit for his MD/PhD program.. I could never deal with the amount of debt he has. I look at it like people eating double the quantity of diet food and gaining weight.. you think you have more flexibility than you actually do. Plus there's the pressure to "keep up" with your peers.Total generalization, but docs are notorious for being poor money managers.
I honestly never loved my 239 until I (recently) started using is for cream products. I'm really tempted by brushes at the moment. I have been wanting another Sigma E25 (which is their 217 dupe), and today I got an email about the Jaclyn Hill brush box. She's not one of my favourite youtubers, but the selection in the box is fantastic. I should be able to give it a miss though.
So true.. the bigger picture is the consumerism treadmill that we're all on. And only a select few people are really benefiting from it.. Hint: it's not us!
Yeah, sadly it was always like this, overall be it a monarchy or democracy or whatever else it doesn't differ much
Power corrupts, lobbying is just a pretty word for corruption and large companies hire army of lawyers and accountants to be able to pay less taxes, often moving their headquarters to tax-havens and to make all this 'cheating' perfectly legal. Being a small business is much harder than being large business. And honestly, if the large companies don't change what their are doing and the gap between rich and poor will keep widening with middle class disappearing, it will affect them as well, because not many people would buy their stuff anymore. For example right now the alligator farms have hard times, because there just isn't enough people able to afford those expensive products. So don't feel disgusted that you purchase stuff from large companies, because in the end they either change their habits or are doomed to fall. (eg if they keep evading taxes, the national debt of countries keep increasing and may lead to what happened in Greece)
