Today I have a couple of seemingly unrelated money stories, but I hope to tie them together in the end.
I have mentioned a few times that my wife is the breadwinner in our family. A couple of weeks ago, she had found that she had a fair amount of extra money at the end of the month, despite some of her spending habits. After dinner one evening she told me about this surprise money and that she transferred it to our new house account. Since it was a fair amount of money, I was quite excited. In a seemingly unrelated note, she mentioned how she needed a watch battery and a pair of running shoes. She then asked me for permission to a gift certificate that we got our wedding to buy new shoes at Sears. I explained that it’s perfectly fine and a bit of a silly question after transferring so much money into our house fund.
Last week, I came upon a small windfall. A windfall is probably overstating it. I immediately thought of what I might spend it on. We’ve had our eye on a replacement TV for the bedroom. It been partially broken for about 6 months. The case is cracked pretty bad from dropping it in a move, but the picture is fine. I’ve been thinking about how nice a LCD flat panel would look in place of the old tube.
I didn’t end up buying the fancy television though. Instead, I flashed back to my wife’s thought about the shoes at Sears. She rationalized the shoe purchase as a reward for saving money for the new home – even though I didn’t intentionally try to draw that connection. Taking her lead, I used the extra bonus to pay off about half the amount remaining on my home equity line of credit. As for my “shoes”, I think I’m going to pick up a wine decanter funnel, so that my Two Buck Chuck, will taste better. I like to think that Plonkee would be proud of that decision.
Lazy: As a gadget guy, I totally understand the urge to get the LCD but I think you are just trying to rationalize your decision to buy the LCD by comparing it to a pair of running shoes because of the price difference.
I think that sometimes, it’s quite hard to say whether or not it makes sense for you because we don’t know your exact financial circumstances but if the crack in your TV really bothers you (and it will the more you think about it), I think it is fine to replace it as long as you can comfortably afford it.
If you think about it, drinking less “two buck chuck”s will pay for the LCD in no time! :)
I’m actually just planning what to do with my own windfall at the moment, so this post comes at a good time. And yes, I am proud.
It turns out that we don’t use that television very much, so I don’t think it will bother me much. It hasn’t grown to bother me in the last 6 months. Though we could comfortable afford a new one, I’d like to stretch this one for as long as possible and invest the money. I really want to get out of the rat race and perhaps this plays a small part of 500,000 piece puzzle.
Resisting the urge to buy is always the best path. That having been said, making yourself miserable when you don’t absolutely have to is not going to be mentally healthy in the long run…
Good Point. I always find it hard to save money when I receive a bonus or windfall like you said. But, when you have an outstanding debt, its better to think of it just a free payment towards those debt. If you begin to think of what you can do with it in terms or purchasing more stuff, you will always find yourself in a hole of debt. The current conditions in the market have focused my attention to hording cash and paying down debt as quickly as possible. Always a safe bet.
Lazy: Good luck with that. We are all trying to do the same!