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Day 50: huh
Monday, 11 May 2020 01:56 pmAnother vaguely benign side-effect of lockdown is that really I don't have occasion to spend a lot of money: no petrol costs, lots of things aren't deliverable, even something about the two-week pattern to my grocery shopping, as opposed to my normal weekly shop, seems to make me buy less. (Theory: I only have three shopping bags, and limited carrying capacity in my arms and/or freezer). At any rate, I am left with money over at the end of every month to a far greater extent than ever before.
Except... huh. Today I was paying my dentist and footling around in my online account, and did a random spot check to make sure all the stop orders are going out properly, and suddenly noticed I hadn't paid my car finance instalment. Or last month. Or the month before. Or, in fact, since... August, which was a slightly smaller than usual payment, because, it transpires, it was the final one, I have paid it off completely. The Beastie is now mine mine all mine, not even faintly owned by the bank. This slightly significant milestone apparently drifted past me in August entirely unnoticed, except for a vaguely self-congratulatory and, it turns out, entirely erroneous sense that I've been a bit thriftier than usual over the last nine months.
I cannot sufficiently stress how much of a luxury it is to have enough of an income that acquiring an additional two thousand rand a month is really here nor there enough to the point that I didn't notice. I mentally classify this in the same student-poverty-inspired Happy category as not having to mentally tot up the grocery total as you're shopping to make sure you have enough funds to pay for it all. Sometimes I wave my card at the machine without actually looking at the total, and have to dig out the slip later to double check I didn't accidentally buy the Koh-I-Noor or a tiger or a small island nation while not paying attention.
Thesis: money's not that important to me, really. Fortunately I am Lawful Good so have to make sure all legit bills are paid and debt not racked up, and also Inherently Risk Averse and don't spend it madly on general principles. And now I don't owe anyone money at all anywhere, given as how I accidentally paid off my credit card with a 50 rand overpay last month.
Random corollary to thesis: man oh man am I grateful that my parents paid for my undergrad and bursaries paid for the postgrad. One of the things currently preventing me from madly acquiring a Switch and Animal Crossing (apart from above-mentioned financial conservatism and the fact that gaming stores possibly aren't delivering) is the fact that you apparently spend most of the game trying to pay off debt. It's bad for the soul.
Except... huh. Today I was paying my dentist and footling around in my online account, and did a random spot check to make sure all the stop orders are going out properly, and suddenly noticed I hadn't paid my car finance instalment. Or last month. Or the month before. Or, in fact, since... August, which was a slightly smaller than usual payment, because, it transpires, it was the final one, I have paid it off completely. The Beastie is now mine mine all mine, not even faintly owned by the bank. This slightly significant milestone apparently drifted past me in August entirely unnoticed, except for a vaguely self-congratulatory and, it turns out, entirely erroneous sense that I've been a bit thriftier than usual over the last nine months.
I cannot sufficiently stress how much of a luxury it is to have enough of an income that acquiring an additional two thousand rand a month is really here nor there enough to the point that I didn't notice. I mentally classify this in the same student-poverty-inspired Happy category as not having to mentally tot up the grocery total as you're shopping to make sure you have enough funds to pay for it all. Sometimes I wave my card at the machine without actually looking at the total, and have to dig out the slip later to double check I didn't accidentally buy the Koh-I-Noor or a tiger or a small island nation while not paying attention.
Thesis: money's not that important to me, really. Fortunately I am Lawful Good so have to make sure all legit bills are paid and debt not racked up, and also Inherently Risk Averse and don't spend it madly on general principles. And now I don't owe anyone money at all anywhere, given as how I accidentally paid off my credit card with a 50 rand overpay last month.
Random corollary to thesis: man oh man am I grateful that my parents paid for my undergrad and bursaries paid for the postgrad. One of the things currently preventing me from madly acquiring a Switch and Animal Crossing (apart from above-mentioned financial conservatism and the fact that gaming stores possibly aren't delivering) is the fact that you apparently spend most of the game trying to pay off debt. It's bad for the soul.
