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The easiest way to save money is to cut back on discretionary spending -- sodas from the machine at work, a magazine at the supermarket checkout counter, a latte from the corner Starbucks.
Most personal finance advisers suggest keeping track of wayward spending by jotting down in a notebook every time you buy something non-essential, which, of course, is just the kind of well-meaning advice that is easier to think about than to do.
Amy Borkowsky, a New York comic, discovered a different way to keep track of her financial life. She dug out a dozen years of American Express bills. "While I was too busy to keep a diary, it turned out American Express had kept one for me," she writes in Statements: True Tales of Life, Love, and Credit Card Bills.
Her stories give a snapshot of her single-woman spending habits from 1987 to 1999. Pithy entries make this trot down memory lane an easy, self-deprecating summer read. But beneath the soft surface, there are some lessons to be learned about how fickle spending habits can be.
The lust to accumulate enough airline miles for free round-trip tickets is what sets her free to present her plastic for a $6.22 pair of panties from Victoria's Secret and $2,988 for a powder-pink leather couch.
She slides her card for cosmetics and allergy shots, and to fork out $43.88 to send Valentine's roses to herself -- which she hopes will make an ex-boyfriend jealous when he sees them. It doesn't.
Dining out is a colossal chunk of her monthly spending, from take-out Chinese cuisine to posh dinners at Tavern on the Green. She dives for checks: Technically, she's treating her friends to dinner at hip New York restaurants. But they hand her the cash for their share, and she pockets the miles. "I charged enough group meals to earn the title of 1995 Northeast Division Check Diving Champion," she writes.
To see her statements' tally for cosmetic purchases and hair salon cuts, colors and $23.95 blow-dries is absurd, but many women are likely to nod knowingly, and, perhaps, sheepishly. We've been sucked into the beauty culture, and it costs a pretty penny.
Her dealings with men and money are amusing. She's convinced that spending $3.75 to have chicken soup delivered to an ailing boyfriend was enough to scare him away. Stereo shopping with an audiophile boyfriend is sublimely ridiculous. Borkowsky slides her Amex to the tune of $3,212.10. The next day, she calls and cancels it. He's "shell shocked."
This is a pattern. She's an indecisive shopper at times. She buys an item, or schedules a trip, then returns it, or cancels. We all do that. We buy on a whim and realize the folly of our ways, hopefully before it's too late. Hence the perennial personal finance wisdom: Wait a few days before making any major buying decisions. Do you really need it, or do you merely want it at the moment?
When viewed en masse, bill after bill, it's simple to see how the author and other mortals spend without thinking, and how many painless ways there are to save dollars a day. That can add up to some real bucks over time, particularly if you invest it.
Her chapter, "The Cost of Children" is sure to bring a smile to anyone without kids. "It seems like every other year or so, the newsmagazines run a cover story on how much parents will need to raise a child," she writes. "So far as I know, nobody has published a study about how much you'll have to shell out once your friends start having kids." Then she reveals a list of what she has spent on gifts for her married friends' children. For example: Bloomingdales, $19.49, newborn apparel; Macy's, $31.39, toddlers wear; FAO Schwarz, $34.64, toys/hobbies/games.
"What I resent is the friends I haven't spoken to in years who send out announcements that seem to be official requests for gifts," she snips. Yep.
This book clearly catalogs indulgences, but underneath, there is a reality check that readers will identify with. One question lingers: Did she ever get a free airline ticket?
Though Borkowsky never answers that in her book, she did have this final word to say in an e-mail: "I'm saving most of my miles. I haven't done a final tally of total (money) spent, but I estimate that with all the things I charged to look good for the guys who didn't work out -- the hair salon charges, clothes for dates, singles trips and Match.com dues -- by the time I ever do get married, I should have more than enough airlines miles for the honeymoon (and a few anniversary trips)."
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