Monday, August 1, 2016

En opsparings-historie med en drejning - A Savings Story with a Twist

For mange år siden da mine penge var mindre (meget mindre - jeg var eneforsørger), faldt jeg for et armbånd. Et dyrt armbånd. Jeg ønskede mig det så meget, at jeg klippede et billede ud og satte det op på min opslagstavle.

Det var for dyrt til, at jeg ville være bekendt at skrive det på en ønskeseddel, men jeg satte mig for, at jeg ville have det.

Jeg bestemte, at hver gang jeg ville give mig selv en lille 'belønning', eller når jeg impulsivt faldt for noget, ville jeg i stedet gå hjem og lægge beløbet for det tænkte køb i en krukke. Der kom faktisk hurtigt et pænt beløb i krukken, men grundet omstændighederne måtte jeg somme tider dykke ned i den og hente penge op (små drenges fødder gror fantastisk hurtigt og altid i ryk!), og det var faktisk rigtig rart at have den reservefond. Men jeg blev ved!

Jeg blev ved i 3½ år!

Måneden før at der ville være penge nok til armbåndet, kunne jeg ikke lade være med at gå ind at prøve det. Det havde jeg ikke gjort før. Det fandtes i 3 tykkelser. Jeg ville have det tungeste. Men da jeg fik det på armen, kunne jeg godt se, at mit håndled ikke var kraftigt nok, så jeg fik midterstørrelse på, og pludselig tænkte jeg:

"Hvad hulen har du gang i, Ninna?"

Der sad jeg med et hunde-dyrt armbånd (som var meget smukt) og fandt ud af, at jeg slet ikke ønskede mig det mere. Det, der havde holdt opsparingen ved lige, var selve sporten i opsparingen. Det var gået fra et ønske til at blive en retning at gå. En vane. Jeg havde mistet målet i processen!

Da jeg stod udenfor forretningen, begyndte jeg at grine, og da jeg kom hjem, sagde jeg til min søn:

"Vi skal til Paris!"

Vi tog til Paris en uge, tænkte ikke et øjeblik på penge... jo lidt, men vi var ikke vant til at strø om os med pengene, så det føltes vildt ikke at overveje en kaffe/is på cafe eller en sjov plakat købt ved Seinen.

Og det var så godt at komme hjem og stadig have penge på kontoen. Det kan man godt blive lidt afhængig af at have en stødpude-sum.

Men det lærte mig to ting:
  1. Ikke at miste målet af sigte og hele tiden overveje, hvor jeg er på vej hen.
  2. Og at jeg altid kan få, hvad jeg ønsker mig. Måske ikke lige her og nu, og måske ikke alt hvad jeg ønsker mig. Men jeg kan få det, jeg for alvor ønsker mig.
Nu er jeg der, hvor jeg bare ønsker, at alle omkring mig er raske og glade, og at jeg selv er det samme.
For så kan man alt!


Ikke omtalte armbånd, men et som jeg har fået af mindste favoritperson. Det er meget værdifuldt for mig.
Not the talked about bracelet, but one given to me by smallest favorite person. A very valuable piece to me.


Many years ago, when my money was 'smaller' (a lot smaller - I am a single parent), I fell in love with a bracelet. An expensive bracelet. I wanted it so much, that I found a photo, cut it out and put it on my moodboard.

It was so expensive, that I would be embarrassed to put it on a wish list for Christmas, but I decided, that I was going to get it.

I decided, that every time I wanted to give myself a little 'treat', or when I by impulse would fall for something, I would go home a put the amount for the imagined purchase in a jar. It very soon became a nice amount, but due to circumstances I sometimes had to dive into the jar and pick up some money (little boys' feet grow enormously fast and always over short periods!), and it was nice to have a buffer sum. But I kept going!

I kept going for 3½ years!

The month before I would have had enough money for the bracelet, I couldn't resist going to try it on. I hadn't done that before. It came in 3 sizes, and I wanted the heaviest. But when I saw it on my arm, I could see that it was too heavy for me. My wrist as too slim, so I tried the medium one, and all of a sudden, I thought:

What the h... are you doing, Ninna?!

I sat there with a skyhigh expensive bracelet (which was very beautiful) on my arm and realized, that I didn't want it anymore. What had kept the savings going was the sport of saving. This project had gone from a wish to a direction to walk in. A habit. I had lost sight of the goal in the process!

When I came outside the shop, I started laughing, and when I came home, I said to my son:

"We are going on going to Paris!".

We went to Paris for a week, and we didn't think about the money we spent... well, maybe a little, but we weren't used to throw money around, so it felt quite wild not to think about buying a coffee/an ice cream in a cafe or a fun poster down by the Seine.

But I learned two things:
  1. Not to loose sight of the goal, and have focus on the direction,
  2. that I can get anything I want. Maybe not right here and now, and maybe not everything I want. But what I really want.
But all I really want now is that everyone around me is healthy and happy, and that I am, too. Because then you can to anything!

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