National Selfie Day

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: KRISTILYN WILKINSON, USU ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR

​Happy National Selfie Day! Yes, this is a real thing, and yes, we want to celebrate it!  A quick google search will let you know that on this day you should take a selfie and post it on social media to celebrate you. Doesn’t celebrating you give you the perfect excuse to treat yourself? Yes, yes it does! But treat yourself to what? “Treat yourself” is a common phrase we hear in society today, and it is usually associated with the idea that you spend some time treating yourself to life’s little luxuries. You know the ones I’m talking about, a pedicure, a night out with the girls (before Covid-19), etc. Of course, the next question that naturally follows is where do I get the money to treat myself on these little luxuries?

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If you have followed Utah Money Moms for a while you have probably heard Amanda Christensen talk about the 1% fund. This is a separate account that you set up through your bank or credit union, and then automatically have 1% of your paycheck deposited into that account. If you are not able to direct deposit the money into that account, you can set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your 1% savings account. The key is to make it automatic. It is such a small amount of money that you won’t miss it, but a little saved here and there goes a long way! You can save this money for a variety of things, including to treat yourself! By preparing in advance for these splurges, you can incorporate them into your life AND not throw off your spending plan. This is what we call a win, win folks!

Another way to treat yourself without ruining your budget is to give yourself a personal allowance. Whether your personal allowance is $5.00 or $50.00 a month, when you give yourself permission to spend money on things that you love, you remove the element of deprivation that is just waiting to make you throw in the towel on your spending plan…like that time you decided to completely give up sugar and you made it two days and then ate your weight in sugar. Oh wait, was that just me? I think you get the point.

Paying yourself IS a way of treating yourself. How many of us spend our lives working to pay the government (in taxes), the landlord, the credit card company, the car dealership, etc., and never set aside money for ourselves?  I hope that if you don’t currently have a 1% fund, or a personal allowance, you will make it a priority to start one. You owe it to yourself!

In the meantime, here is a list of 10 no-cost activities you can do to treat yourself today:

• Take a walk and listen to a podcast
• Soak in the bathtub
• Do your favorite form of exercise (there are so many free workout videos on youtube)
• Snuggle up with a favorite book
• Write in your journal
• Do a guided mediation
• Make your favorite dessert (insert triple chocolate cake)
• Watch a movie
• Call/visit a friend
• Turn on your favorite music and sing and dance around the house​

KristiLyn teaches Family Finance at USU as an adjunct instructor. As a young child her idea of playing "house" involved making budgets for her dolls.  When she gets a break from keeping her young children alive her two favorite things are books and chocolate.