How Do You Control What You Spend?

WINE TALK
21

As long as you can pay everything off, I see no problem at all.

22

If you give away all you have like the ancient Christians did, you wouldn’t be worrying about “spending”. Perhaps in this more secular age, you might insist on higher taxes for yourself to help the less fortunates out. [cheers.gif]

23

This is something we all battle - the “collector” and “acquirer” impulses layered onto our love of wine.

As with the diet and wine abstention threads, the discussions tend to be dominated by posters who claim to be doing super awesome managing it (“I made a strict budget and cut out all my mailing lists and have reduced my inventory by 200 bottles in the last year and feel so great”), but I expect far more of us blunder our way through buying too much and just try to stop short of serious financial and marital consequences. Oh well, it could be a lot worse.

24

This is a great question. I think I tried to ask it once, but don’t recall it going anywhere. However, to get at the heart of it all
when I try to review my cellar by looking at my annual budget I look for wines that I don’t have enough of (less than 6 bottles), areas in my cellar that I want to grow, producers that I buy year-in, year out, and great vintages (2015 Germany, 2010 Barolo, ect.). Every now and again there are wines that come out of left-field and shock me. There’s always a call to get more wine. However, balance demands that I maintain a budget. Do I go over-budget? Yes
from time to time. When I do, it comes out of other wants in my life. More wine = less travel. What are the things in your life that you take your money away from when you spend it all on wine? Is giving up new clothes, travel, vacation, ect. worth more wines in the cellar?

25

There are a shitload of Berzerkers who are in the upper end of the 1% of income, don’t forget that. Lots of law partners, doctors with private practices, heads of large business units, etc.

Trying to keep up with that lot is likely to get a middle manager like me homeless! That’s how I do it: don’t want to be homeless.

26

Real men run open-loop.

27

I buy the wine and my wife pays for the vacations. I may come out on top here. There are 4 wine drinkers in our household now and they do buy some daily drinkers. My purchases and consumption avg. $20/bottle +/- over the years I have been on CT. I buy few expensive wines, Cayuse and No Girls being the exception, passed on HP. There are plenty of $20-30 reds and $15-20 white/rosé wines than we enjoy, so opening a couple is no big deal. I also buy many on inventory reduction sales which gives the added bonus of previous tastings and a couple years more bottle age. I still buy more than I need. [cheers.gif]

28

As in all things in one’s financial life, you could set a budget at the beginning of the year and then try to stick to it.

29

Stop reading Wine Berserkers and similar sites. Or find a less expensive hobby (like Bourbon).

30

One practical suggestion I’ve heard and sometimes tried is the “cooling off period.” When you see an offer or something at retail or auction you want, set it aside and come back to it in a few days.

You will sometimes have come down off your rush of enthusiasm and realize you don’t need it. Or sometimes it’s gone by then, and days and months later, not having bought it won’t bother you in the slightest.

Just something to pass along.

31

I use CT to track my purchasing by quarter/year and it is often scary/shocking and leads me to buy less.

32

In all seriousness


Do you do the following:

  1. Save 15-20% of your gross income?
  2. Have 6+ months of liquidity?
  3. Have the proper protection (insurances)?
  4. If you have kids (and are so inclined), are you putting $ away for their education?
  5. Pay off your CC’s on a monthly basis (don’t carry a balance)?
  6. I’m assuming you’re paying your bills in a timely fashion.

If these things are being met, then buy whatever you want. If not, it’s time to rethink the buying habits.

For me personally, I still love wine, but it became much less important to me when I had kids and added saving for their education into my budget which meant that wine buying slowed down.

33

This exactly.

34

I agree with Ned!



ALERT THE MEDIA!!! [dance-clap.gif] [berserker.gif]

35

I simply have a monthly budget, no exceptions.

36

I do this. I currently have 18 tabs open with “carts” ready for purchase [wow.gif]

37

I’m a liberal arts college professor with a large family, so the level that most folks around here are able to spend on wine is far beyond what I will likely ever be able to. I have a monthly wine allowance (most of you would consider it pitiful). Staying within it is simple matter of being responsible for the sake of my wife and kids. If I go over because of some incredible limited time deal, then I have to be prepared to spend less the following month.

38

Kids, Mortgage, Cars, College (Have 2 Teenagers), Life Expenses, etc. are all factors.
And what’s our Checking/Savings Accounts are looking like when I go to take out the credit card.

39

Similarly, I just click the ‘Show’ Button next to ‘Total Estimated Value’ on CT to keep my buying in check these days.

40

I don’t buy much wine directly from the producer, so one of my gateways to spending are the constant emails I get from businesses across the country. One thing I found that helped my situation was to unsubscribe from a lot of them - there were probably 35-50 wine shops that I was receiving mail from that I hadn’t purchased from in years. \

Simply reducing the velocity of emails was a big help to me.