Yes, we’re talking about Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Happiness Project, again. Two days in a row! Oh wait, there will be more tomorrow.
Rubin has a whole chapter/month dedicated to money, where she talks about having it, spending it, and finding joy in it. She sites examples from her blog regarding a little girl receiving an art set she saved for something “special” but by the time she got to it, her parents had given it away because she never used it. Rubin even sites in a blog post not wanting to use examples from her life, because what is she uses all the “good” ones up?
Spending out isn’t necessarily about spending, but rather, enjoying what you have, upgrading what you need to, taking joy in abundance, and giving without expecting to receive.
I have an example from my own life that I want to share.
For Valentine’s Day last year, my partner gave me a beautiful box of “Leo” tea. I am big into astrology, and this meant a lot to me. She had also taken this loose leaf tea and individually bagged it, because I preferred bagged tea at the time.
I had barely had 3 cups over the course of the rest of the year because I was “saving” it. For when, I don’t know. But I was saving this tea. Towards the end of the year, November or so, I opened the box to have a cup, and it was filled with bugs crawling all over the tea bags, and I had to throw it all away. I had lost the whole box of tea because I was saving it for when I really missed my partner, and in the process, lost all the tea.
While my partner replaced the tea, I now have a cup every week or so. Because it is special enough to just have. It’s my way of “spending out.”
How do you “spend out”? I’m going to link Rubin’s original blog post here for you to go peruse.
Mehek Writes 