One Million and Beyond

Dreaded January Bills

By Matt - Monday, January 7th, 2008

Are you one of those people who are dreading the bills that are coming in January? Did you overspend on Christmas and aren’t sure what to expect? I would guess that many of the people who come to this site are. Personally I know I overspent on Christmas by a fair bit but I am taking responsibility for this. I’m not dreading any credit card bills that might be coming in since I didn’t spend money on them. I am dreading the double payments on a couple of my bills though as I play catch up.

Regardless of how you put it overspending during the holidays is something that a great many of us do. I don’t remember the exact statistic of how long it takes the average person or family to pay off their Christmas bills but it’s a very long time. The worst part about the whole thing is that I know a lot of people will use this as an excuse for not having money in the early part of the year. Its not Christmases fault, it’s your own. No one put a gun to your head and forced you to spend thousands of dollars on gifts.

Taking Responsibility

If you are prone to overspending on Christmas or anything at least have the presence of mind to accept responsibility for this. If you know you do this and are likely to do it again then plan for it. Spending thousands of dollars at any time without knowing what’s coming is simply a recipe for never getting out of the debt hole. Credit card interest rates are scary to say the least; do you really want to pay them all that interest just so you can repeat the process?

Learn your Lesson

I don’t know if this is a general take on society or if it’s just me but I notice that a lot of people I know overspend on a regular basis and then are surprised when they end up living from paycheck to paycheck. Sadly I tend to do this myself (it’s a failing of mine). A definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again but expecting a different result. If you’re going to spend more money than you have or can afford you’ll be in debt. There is nothing that can be done about this other than learning your lesson and stopping doing something that’s pointless.

I’m going to get caught up on my bills this month by spending a lot less than I normally do. It might end up taking me a month or two to actually get caught up but I will. The difference this time is I know when my next round of big expenses is and I am already starting to plan for it so when it comes I don’t have to scramble to figure out how to pay for them.

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