What it means to be a 'consumer'

I've been thinking about the word 'consumer'...as in, "The average American consumer spends $12 per year on toothpaste."
What does it mean to be a consumer? Let's look at the word 'consume'.

www.dictionary.com defines consume below:

1. to destroy or expend by use; use up.
2. to eat or drink up; devour.
3. to destroy, as by decomposition or burning: Fire consumed the forest.
4. to spend (money, time, etc.) wastefully.
5. to absorb; engross: consumed with curiosity.
–verb (used without object)

So, if consume means to destroy, devour, or spend wastefully...then a consumer is someone who destroys, devours, or spends wastefully. Think about where your money goes. Track a day in the life of YOU as a CONSUMER. What are you consuming? Vending machine sodas and snacks? Fast food? Magazines? Car payment? Cable? Cell phone? Starbucks? Commuting Gas? Why? So you can go back to work tomorrow, to earn more money, so you can consume more? When I started to see my spending in that context (that every time I make a purchase I should look at it in terms of how long my husband had to work to earn that $, I decide whether it truly is worth it.)

When you start to control your spending and pay attention to where that money is going, suddenly you don't feel such a need to CONSUME so much.

I challenge you to spend one week charting every single time you spend money. Write down what you purchased, how much you spent, and when you made the purchase. (include all bills you paid that week) At the end of the week, total that bill. Calculate how long you had to work to earn that money? Was it worth the work? Only you can answer that.

I'm to a point now where I am even tracking our electric usage and finding ways to cut back to lower that bill. I am consuming less electricity to save money. What could you consume less of for the sake of your financial security?

$300 to CC

I just paid $300 to my credit card!! Yay! I will get my first check from test proctoring in the next week or so, and I am thrilled to be putting that money toward this debt. Yippee!!

Progress

This week was my first one with the new job. It's going great! I finished my magazine deliveries the end of March, and will be putting that $ toward the credit card this week!!! I LOVE that I am able to make a difference in our family finances by doing just a few hours of work each week.

:-)

NEW JOB

Yeah!! I found a GREAT JOB that I will be able to do part-time, mostly evening/weekend, as a test proctor. I am waiting on my test administrator certificate to come in, and as soon as it does, I will begin administering. I'm hoping next week for sure. This job literally came to me. I had been searching Career Builder, I had accepted that the best thing I would find was going to be the waitress job, and then my friend heard about this test proctor position and told me about it over the weekend. I called the school first thing Monday morning, and by that afternoon, I had the job! I have been so blessed to have come across this one. Thank you to my mom for her prayers.