I’m a huge Parks and Rec fan. I’ve watched the entire series back and forth at least 5 times. If you’re looking for a quick laugh, I’d totally recommend just checking out youtube for Ron Swanson clips. But in this post, Donna Meagle and Tom Haverford take the spotlight. 

These two characters are famous for coming up with “Treat yo’ self Day.” This is the one day in which Donna and Tom don’t think about the negative aspects in life or about how money is a problem (they both start out as government workers in…you guessed it the parks & rec department...so they aren’t rich). It’s a day to splurge and just enjoy. You know...be happy not guilty?

Now when I first watched it, all that went through my mind was “wow they’re wasting a lot of money.” But after my 5th time watching the series, I realized what I was really feeling was “wow I wish I could do that!” Just not care and go online and buy that snazzy extra slim express shirt I’ve been eyeing for over a year. *Cue the sassy vietnamese dude saying ‘Treat yo’ self.’ 

Well by the end of the show, Donna and Tom reveal that after leaving the Parks & Rec department, they become successful entrepreneurs who are crazy stinking rich. Spooky how that all worked out.

Once you accept the fact that it’s okay to spend money on things you hold valuable, you’re ready for the secret to buying whatever you want without feeling guilty: pay yourself first. 

When you spend money, you’re paying someone else. Sometimes, you instantly regret these purchases because they aren’t valuable or only provide a brief moment of happiness. Next thing you know, you’re in this spiral of sadness, depression, blissful ignorance, or a mix of the three as the thought that you should’ve saved that money crosses your mind. 

But if you pay yourself first, you’ll really see how much money is left over to spend on stuff and be less likely to buy something of little valuable, thereby preventing yourself from this flurry of unwelcomed emotions. 

What I mean by paying yourself first is hiding money from your worst enemy: you. 

We’ve all heard of those stories where someone will just keep tossing money into a shoebox underneath their mattress and then a year later find $10,000 out of nowhere. Instead of a shoebox, you should think about opening multiple bank accounts and a retirement account so some of that money can get tucked away to grow with interest over time. 

Let your money do the work for you so do this first! Have an account dedicated to being your “shoebox” and another one dedicated for “Treat Yo’ Self” days. Just like how you never miss that 7% in FICA taxes that gets automatically taken out of your paycheck each month, set up automatic transfers to allocate the exact amount you want to save and spend each month into separate accounts! 

This can be done either directly in your HR paycheck preferences or by your bank account. Some people think that having multiple accounts is a little excessive, but for me, once I set it up, I never think about it. I have $500 pulled out of my paycheck every month and deposited directly to my Roth IRA so I can hit that $6,000 contribution limit by the end of 2020. 

I’ve got several bank accounts set aside for my emergency fund, living expenses (rent, insurance, taxes, utilities), and discretionary spending. I have my paychecks automatically deposit $1,800 into the living expenses account, $100 into the emergency fund, 10% into a ‘christmas gifts’ account, 5% into a brokerage account to buy stocks, and whatever’s left over goes into my discretionary spending account. 

I’m super neurotic, so I do all this and track my spending in a budget to try and find different places to cut spending. But if you want to keep it simple, just stick with 3 accounts and have your paycheck deposit into them in that order: one for savings, one for life expenses, and one for discretionary spending. 

Then you don’t need a budget anymore. You can just set up automatic payments in your life expenses account, so you don’t incur late fees. If you don’t like to pick stocks, just have your retirement account throw everything into an index fund. And then spend money from your discretionary spending account using a debit card. Make sure your account is separate from the other ones and you set it to deny transactions if you have insufficient funds instead of letting it overdraft. This is for the extreme case if you know you’re not disciplined with money.

Now you don’t have to feel bad about keeping a budget or tracking your spending because that 2 hours setting everything up already took care of it! If you’re really disciplined, feel free to use credit cards! I’m all about getting cash back and credit card rewards! But to prevent yourself from getting into credit card debt, maybe call your credit card and have them set a credit limit and restrictions on overspending. If you’ve got a pretty predictable income, you’ll know exactly what that credit limit should be. 

Nobody likes the embarrassment of having someone tell them their card was denied. Doing this will make you pay a bit more attention to what you can be spending on without incurring more bad debt. Who knows, you might even become more motivated to find other streams of income to buy those Gucci loafers you’ve been eyeing. 

At the end of the day, you’ve already set money aside for savings to grow, so now you can “Treat Yo’ Self” with whatever’s in that discretionary account. We’ll talk about how the psychology of this works in another post, but for now, WOOHOO! You’ve just taken one step further to being a Yuffie by uncovering the secret to buying whatever you want guilt free! 

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