Vice & Virtue

Getting out of debt is all about self denial, saving money and cutting back on unncessary expenditures. I'm always looking for ways to cut back but I still have my weak spots.

For instance I could save loads of money if I could live without:

Guilty Pleasure #1: Netflix $19.47/month
Whoever came up with Netflix is a genius. The worst thing in the world is going to a video rental store and having to spend hours browsing movies because whoever you are with can't make up their mind what movie they want to watch. Netflix is video store liberation. As great as Netflix is I really don't need it. I could be doing better things with myself like learning a new language or reading a book but its just so much fun to rent every episode of Sex and the City and spend an entire weekend catching up on the episodes that you missed.

Guilty Pleasure #2: Audiobooks $14.95/month
My iPod gets very hungry and demands audiobooks on a regular basis. Audiobooks make my life worth living when I commute to and from work. Such great literary classics such as "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "The Devil Wears Prada" may have saved my life by dulling the urge to commit road rage or from dozing off while driving on the freeway.

Guilty Pleasure #3: Tivo $12.99/month
TV with no commercials. Nuf said.

Although I have my guilty pleasures, I must say that I do deny myself plenty of things.

Sacrifice #1: Having my own place

This is the mother of all sacrifices. Living at home is like subjecting oneself to constant torture. Its the torture of having no space for any of your things. The torture of having to go through the doggie obstacle course because you are forced to live with 4 horse-sized dogs. And the torture of having no privacy. All of it is worth it though especially if you live in southern California and you can't even get a decent studio apartment for $700.

Sacrifice #2: Nice hair-cuts, manicures, pedicures, new clothes, make-up....
You can imagine how fugly I look!

Sacrifice #3: Eating Out
I hate eating my money. Imagine how much money we could save if we didn't have to eat. I have a love/hate relationship with food. Some of it is soooo good and yummy but we have to eat so often (3 times a day!) that it becomes a chore. I try to minimize the damage by packing a lunch every day to work and eating at home as often as possible.

So those are my little vices and virtues. What are some of yours?