Overcoming a Lifetime of Compulsive Spending

[Raggamuffin]

Remember that an addiction can't just be erased. It has to be replaced with something.

If I can turn it on it's head and be addicted to saving money - I think that'd work more in my favour. It'd certainly help justify all those hours spent calculating and recalculating my finances.

Ed

 

[Fino]

If I can turn it on it's head and be addicted to saving money - I think that'd work more in my favour. It'd certainly help justify all those hours spent calculating and recalculating my finances.

Ed

You'd have to find a way for saving money to have a dopamine effect the way buying things does.

 

[Stuart1975]

If I can turn it on it's head and be addicted to saving money - I think that'd work more in my favour. It'd certainly help justify all those hours spent calculating and recalculating my finances.

Ed

Ha good post/thread. Was toying with getting a new Focus ST. Finished paying for a car a year ago which is still a nice car, I do 50-60 miles a week so I think I’ll keep it. You’ve made me listen to my sensible head. Main plan is to own a canal boat by the time I’m sixty cheers.

 

[Progster]

The one main effect I use in Audacity to successfully clean things up is the "repair" function. Where you must zoom in to the max as this feature won't work otherwise. And it's a tedious process depending on the number of audible glitches you hear and see on the waveform as you must "repair" them one at a time, carefully highlighting the area you want to subdue or eliminate.

Thanks, I will investigate this option. It might work a lot better than the method I've been using, which was to use the pencil to flatten out all the spikes caused by the clicks and pops. The problem is that I can't always identify where the unwanted noise actually is - in quieter passages it's usually obvious, but in the passages with music it isn't so obvious and I can't find it.

I rip to FLAC rather than mp3, as it is lossless and helps maintain audio fidelity. Clicks and pops might be more obvious than with mp3, but not as much as with full WAV definition, so it's a good compromise.

I've been using noise reduction for the first second or so in the space at the end and beginning of each song, that works well. I haven't tried fading.

I think that I just have to accept that some surface noise goes with the territory with vinyl records, especially with older ones, though a good pressing of a well-maintained one can have a truly amazing sound.

Anyway, back to topic:

If I can turn it on it's head and be addicted to saving money - I think that'd work more in my favour. It'd certainly help justify all those hours spent calculating and recalculating my finances.

I get a certain amount of pleasure, or 'kick' out of statistics - watching numbers rising, or falling, depending on the context. It gives me huge satisfaction to see my balance go up, and any debt I may have go down. It gives me a feeling of having made progress and that helps to keep things in check (excuse the pun).

 

[Raggamuffin]

I agree that seeing debt go down is pleasurable. I just need to stick by my guns and not waste money. With enough resistance to these cravings I imagine it'll be like giving up drink or weed - eventually I'll get to a point where common sense will prevail.

I had a Fiesta ST I bought new, 6 years ago. I must admit I'd never buy a new car again. It lost £9000 in value in just over 12 months. I'm sticking with my sensible car for the foreseeable.

Ed

 

[Crossbreed]

@Raggamuffin , using the strategy that we were taught in high school [single, joint bank account], my wife & I lost track of our finances and went bankrupt in 2004.

Since then, I have adopted the Envelope System,* cleared all of my debts but mortgage and attained a credit score of 800+.

*The basic plan is cash-based, but I set up a banking version.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I set up all my bills to go out on the 1st. So the day after payday I know exactly what I have left.

I then take out in cash what is due for food and fuel. Then what's left that isn't put into savings is my own spare money.

I like that I know exactly what I have left within 48 hours of each pay day. Of course, I already knew what I had left, as the weeks before the pay arrived, I'd probably made 20 duplicate spreadsheets calculating the same finances.

Ed