How Attached Are You To Your Paradigm?

About a year ago, I got into a discussion on FaceBook with someone who was complaining about the way her bank was treating her. Also, she didn’t have this, and she didn’t have that etc. So I made some suggestions-like close your bank account if… you don’t like the fees-Don’t want to carry a lot of cash? Carry traveler’s checks (they spend like cash and are replaceable if stolen, and the fee to buy them is a LOT less than bank fees can be.)

Car payment $300 a month? Buy a car off of Craig’s list for $300 (that’s what I did and she lasted me 4 years). Shop at dollar tree, join freecycle. Don’t have a washer? Don’t want to pay for laundry? Trade babysitting for laundry privilages (that’s what I do). Pre-paid debit cards, to purchase online, Join a food program like SHARE where you trade community service for food packages (I tutored highschool kids in Biology for that). Get movies from the library or watch series on Hulu- the episodes generally come out a week behind.
Sound ideas, or so I thought.
She said she wouldn’t drive a “crappy car” or bother with traveler’s checks, no time for service as SHE was working. Only trailer trash shopped at Dollar Tree, she would absolutely NOT wait a week to see her favorite shows and be behind all her friends and there was no way SHE was going to “take care of anyone else’s brat for free”. Then she called me a beggar and unfriended me.
No big loss- to me. ;)

Many of our money troubles are caused by the economy to be sure, but moreso than that, many are caused by our reluctance to change. The point is, money is more than just a currency, it’s a paradigm. And it’s a paradigm that’s awfully hard to slip.