I keep a personal finance diary (because when I know where the money goes to, I somehow feel more secure. Yup, I record every single expenditure and am a*al like that.) and there is a category called “Investments”. Instead of the sort of financial investments that I added to My Initiative180 recently, this category covers expenses such as dance classes, performance and conference tickets/entry fee, books etc.
How do I compare this category’s expenses to others? Well, they are normally more expensive than things such as groceries and transport, cheaper than shopping and socialise. Yet why do I sometimes come up with excuses that sound like this: “I can’t go to the dance class/performance because I have been spending too much”?
If investment is supposed to give you something back, which to me, sounds like a good thing, why would I feel so reluctant to spend money on it?
No, I don’t have a separate category for “Arts and culture”, so expenses for these activities come under this category. Have you realised? (I didn’t even realise until now… as I write.)
A few days ago, I joined the I Value The Arts campaign which advocates for arts funding in the recent financial cuts in public services.
Irony! Irony! In my life, I have chosen not to spend money for arts and culture because I have no money yet I go to the cinema four times a month… and I hope the government would not cut arts funding drastically?
Farooq once wrote an article for Dance UK News about why the arts should be funded entitled, “Investment, not subsidy.” I even used that for an assignment whilst at university, arguing for private funding for dance. My argument was so strong that I got a good grade for it.
But WHY, when my purse is tight, I decide to stop going to dance classes, stop attending dance performances?
(Part 1 because this post ended up being something else! Part 2 shall be my original idea… I hope!)