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I was looking over my credit card statement a couple months ago and I noticed these two little pie charts on the side.  The little heading says, “How Does Your Spending Compare.”  One of graphs shows how I spend my money and the other shows how other cardholders spend their money.  They break it up into two categories:  “everyday” which consists of gas, groceries, and pharmaceuticals (basically the necessities), and “everything else,” which for me generally is restaurants, movies, music, books etc.

I’ve been thinking about those little pie charts an awful lot.  The average cardholder spends 18% on “everyday” purchases, and 82% on “everything else.”  My little pie chart shows that I spend 20% on “everyday” purchases and 80% on “everything else.”  My percentage is a measly 2% different than the other cardholders.

Before I saw this graph I’d been priding myself on getting out of debt, not spending more money than I have, and trying to save a little.  After I saw this little pie chart I’ve wanted to switch credit card companies so I wouldn’t have to be reminded every time I look at my statement at how I spend my money.  I’ve been told that you can tell a person’s priorities by the way they spend their money.  As much as I’ve thought that my priorities differ from most of the general population, where my money goes somehow reflects that my priorities might not be as different as I thought.

Now, I’m not saying that I can never buy myself something that I want or make the occasional impulse buy, but I have been taking a second look at what I view as important versus what is really essential. I really can see what I value by what I purchase. How different is your pie chart from everyone else?