Today’s blog post is written by one of our customers, Wunmi.
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We all love to be satisfied, who doesn’t? I mean I love it when I jump into the shower after a long day of Lagos’s hustle ‘n’ bustle. Forbidden things always seem to taste the best! The first taste of that yummy ice cream is so perfect in your mouth…when you are meant to be on a diet. That feeling when you see a dress/watch/shoes you like and your brain goes “get it get it” and you just begin to fantasize about how good you will look in it. It feels good, yeah? It does!
Just before you go ahead to splurge your funds, do you know that in that very minute of you wanting to take care of yourself, you are more likely to make costly financial decisions. E.g You finally decide to order a meal from your favorite restaurant, your meal is very affordable, it is about NGN1,450 but the delivery fee is NGN1,500, in that moment you are heavily repeating this mantra to convince yourself that you are doing well “If I perish, I perish”, come closer, let me tell you something *whispers* you ain’t doing well come on!
That is not a good financial decision and this is what satisfying your guilty pleasure will do to you- cloud your ability to make responsible financial decisions.
There is no rule to satisfying your guilty pleasure but I am very sure that satisfying your guilty pleasure does not equate financial indiscipline.
It is called guilty pleasure for a reason because you most likely will feel guilty after that purchase, you then begin to contemplate if that was a good decision, we have all been there.
We’ve been sold the lie that you kill the fun of guilty pleasures when you think too hard about it. Uhn uhn, what’s worse and boring is having to question myself and beat myself up after that purchase.
You can enjoy a healthy guilty pleasure and it is not boring, this is why I am going to help you do better, I will share with you a checklist that you should always almost live by as a #PiggyVester, I have used this and it has helped me to avoid financial burn outs, are you ready? Let’s go!
1. Emergency Savings: Do you have a monthly budget dedicated for your emergency savings? I have a dedicated amount that I lock every month, I personally call it my “Should incase” money. To avoid stories that touch, I use the safelock feature on PiggyVest and I make it inaccessible for about 20 days, it always comes in at the right time. Most times, I lock it again for another 10 days because I don’t need it when it matures.
2. Plan for it: I always plan my “guilty pleasure” funds, it sounds weird but I love to keep track of my funds, so I set a particular percentage in my flex wallet dedicated just for this and whenever I am feeling stressed and I need a good meal, I just withdraw it. And of course, using the new feature, Labels, it has even made it easier! I just label my different guilty pleasures and allocate an amount to it.
3. Know thyself: Before you think I’m about to bore you on Socrates, chill out. I am not (not really). It is very good to know what you like, what satisfies you. For me, my guilty pleasures are buying new dresses and ordering meals from my favorite twitter chef! For now, those two can be satisfied within my budget. As my financial capacity increases, I am sure that I will have more. So, think about it now “what are your guilty pleasures?” and how often/rarely can you afford to satisfy it?
4. Strengthen your threshold to say “No”: The truth is, satisfying every guilty pleasure is not a healthy and responsible way of life. If you won’t eat junk food every time you feel like it, why should you spend money every time you feel like it. There is time for everything, learn to say no to people and to yourself. You don’t need to buy that pair of shoes, you have two new pairs you’re yet to wear, you don’t have to eat out every time, there is rice at home.
Finally, as a #PiggyVester, we will not deny you of a good time, but we are here to help you make better financial decisions and today’s advice is that you don’t have to satisfy every crave of guilty pleasure.
We will love to read from you, tell us in the comments section what your guilty pleasures are and what your approach will be towards satisfying this, going forward.
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