Spiky, spiky spending

I was thinking lately about a daydream/daymare scenario I used to have when I was a kid (doubtless fueled by all that SF reading)... the one in which I'm in a bunker or spacecraft, sometimes all alone, and surrounded by all the supplies I could need for the next X years but with no way to get anything else. Well, I looked around my house yesterday and realized I'm nearly in that situation. Not with respect to food, of course... but I have do have clothes, dishes, a stack of books I haven't read and hundreds more I would enjoy re-reading, yarn enough to knit for maybe a year or so before running out, video games I haven't played or have barely played that could keep me entertained for many hours apiece, exercise equipment (minimal, but I could stay fit at home if I HAD to), a computer that alone offers hundreds of possibilities. Huh. I practically have my bunker.

With thoughts like that in my head, I was going through my old email today and found something I thought would be dry as dust: my credit card's year-end summary from 2008. To be really clear, this is not remotely a complete picture of my finances and does not include any expenses that are joint with my husband; it's basically my discretionary spending.

Here's my timeline for the year. Wow! Look how spiky this is! And what a weird little story it told me, when I looked in more detail at the months that were further away from the mean. (Original chart was just for 2008; I added January '09 in with Photoshop.)



The purchase of the elliptical machine sets the scale for the year a bit falsely, because that was a joint expense, but even without that, doesn't it look to you like I'm on an every-3-months kind of spending cycle? Something is going on that I don't recognize, because that graph doesn't look anything like the graph of my happiness for the year. You can even see from my labeling that I spent extra money, and also didn't spend money, for reasons that both positive and negative. (As a side note, June was my lowest month, and I made TONS of purchases in that time period. Small ones, in the Merchandise category. This is apparently the way to have a low credit card bill while not feeling deprived.)

2009 is going to look a little different. I'm starting off my year trying to live on 40% of my salary for a little while as 60% goes into retirement savings, which isn't a budget I can actually balance without cramping my husband's style too. So I've been writing down the things I want to buy instead of buying them, and actually enjoying the break from consumerism; as I said, I haven't run out of books, so all is well. Maybe I'll start doing this "virtual bunker" thing every year. That said, it really isn't sustainable (my sneakers have holes in the toes!) and the graph says I'm overdue for a spending spree in March. How odd... that's right when I'm expecting an extra check. :)

I shall spend it on sneakers and Starbucks.