Friday, June 08, 2007

Delayed Gratification: New York Must Wait

We were going to New York for a mid-June wedding. (My sister-in-law's brother is getting married in Crown Heights.) But the realities of time, money & energy have prompted us to delay the trip. We'll miss the June family wedding, but we will go -- I hope --to New York in August.

By August:

1) I will have finished --G-d willing-- writing my non-fiction book and will have delivered the manuscript to the publisher (DPL Press) by the July 15 deadline. The book is due out in May of 2008.

2) I will have collected additional funds for a fun-filled week in Manhattan & Brooklyn

3) And by late summer, I will catch up on some book-keeping, bills and other tasks that I have let slide, while I've been busy writing.


Delayed gratification is a trick that works well for my money-saving drive. When I postpone spending, I carefully examine needs vs. wants vs. fantasies. The extra time also allows me to shop around for the best deals and prices. More importantly, when I wait, sometimes I opt to avoid certain expenses altogether.

I'm sorry about missing the June wedding. But that's the reality for now. We'll do New York later.



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3 comments:

Valerie Roberson said...

This post is very inspiring to me! I have a hard time with this--it's so much easier to do now and pay (the consequences) later. Good for you!! You rock :D

Anonymous said...

Yes, I respect your decision to say no. This is very hard to do with something so emotional as (1) family and (2) a wedding.

I have a similar dilemma. We committed to taking a big trip for Xmas because my husband's brother will move out of the country. The reality is that we really can't afford the trip but we also know that if we don't go that we won't see them again for 2-3 years. Is it worth going into deeper debt for something like that? I'm so torn....

Anonymous said...

I recently had to do this with a scheduled trip to Richmond, VA to see my best friend. I am still going to see her, but for a lesser amount of time. In my case, I couldn't "afford" to take the extra days off work since I just started a new job recently and only have 2 weeks off for the rest of the year. I am getting married in October so I was worried that the time would eat into our wedding/honeymoon time.