Skip the little treats and soon it amounts to a lot

This weekend are you toning down your spending and trying to make up for the money you paid out over the holiday that led up to National Day? I'm sure that much money went on having a good time that, if you're a parent in particular, I bet you're quietly grateful the schools are back in full swing and that your pockets will be spared an onslaught for a while.
I hope you had lots of fun, but it is remarkable how people believe that spending money is the way to do that.
Let's go over a quick napkin calculation of how much money of you spent: if you're a family of two adults and two young children, and you ate out, say, three times over the weekend, with juices and dessert, that ends up costing several hundred dirhams. Yes, it depends on where you went, but three meals at Dh50 each (assuming children's menus plus snacks at other times of the day, in fact, it probably works out at more than Dh50 each, but let's stick with that) - then that's 50 x 4 x 3 = Dh600 - this is in fact a very conservative guesstimate.
And then say you did at least two activities, like go to the movies, and another thing that could be a big treat like a visit to a water park or similar - then we're talking all in about Dh1,500 to Dh2,000 over the weekend. Or it could be a lot more: many used the time off as an opportunity to go somewhere for a short break - the hotels were booked solid in the country, and the airports were extra busy.
So all in, a good chunk of money went out.
Many feel and live believing this is "prosperity" - but I look around and see people whose bubble will burst if they don't wake up to their economic realities and change their habits soon.
Yes, all we have is "now", and regardless of the future what we have right now is one big party. There are fancy restaurants everywhere and they're packed. In fact, most places are full to the brim with people doing things, enjoying themselves, and all the while spend, spend, spending.
You'd think these places would be frequented by people who can afford them. But they're not.
And that's today's word: afford.
What's your definition?
Mine is: zero bad debt - more specifically: no balance owed on your credit card, or any other type of card, no car loan, and no personal loan or overdraft.
Your life's essentials covered, including health and life insurance, savings policies up to date for your children if you have any, and your retirement plan looking nice and healthy, not to mention your emergency fund: six to nine months of life's expenses covered.
If you don't have that, then what are you doing spending to the tune of thousands of dirhams on a long weekend?
Of course we all want to have fun and do something special, and you can without parting ways with that sort of money. But we'll talk about that another time. Today, I'd like us to get a real feel for what our spending habits translate to in terms of hard cash.
Let's look at that long weekend financial outlay. Assume it happens twice a year. That could be Dh4,000 - work out what yours is.
That's Dh40,000 in 10 years - or Dh46,685.83 if you assume compound interest at 1 per cent each year, and that you start off with Dh4,000 in the bank. That's affordable by many. But quite a lot of people tend to go out every weekend, and if we're to assume "just" Dh600 was spent once a week, that translates into Dh364,149.45 in just 10 years. Now that's serious money.
So tell me, are you 10 years into your working life with more than Dh365,000 in positive net worth to your name? If not then what are you doing going out and spending at fancy restaurants - or anywhere else that costs that much?
If you've been doing this for the past 10 years then put very simply it means that you spent more on going out than the combined value of everything else you own in your life.
Now put your hand on your heart and tell me that there's nothing you'd do with Dh364,149.45 if it was to pop into your life right now.
Nima Abu Wardeh is the founder of the personal finance website www.cashy.me. You can contact her at nima@cashy.me