When you come into money over and above what you expected, say over by $1000, is it hard to reign in the happy spending?

Nah, it goes directly into savings or an investment account. I’m more concerned about having money down the road than replacing stuff that still works or isn’t necessary.

I want, want, want. Just like little children at Christmas. Time to grow up.

Geez people. Haven’t you ever had to wait and wait and wait to get something? Or are you able to get whatever you want whenever you want it?

Pay down any debt, and then save it, unless you already have savings and can afford to blow the money. $1000 is honestly not a lot.

I’m averse to spending money in general. I have to not only want it, but need it and find a bargain as well. I didn’t have trouble spending money on others, like my kids, but I rarely gave in to sudden splurges. I’m a tightwad.

@Dutchess_III I choose to wait to save up enough money to get the things I need as well as want. The parents started teaching me about financial responsibility at a young age. They also taught me that waiting to purchase something of quality, albeit expensive, and will be used is better than frittering away any money left over after the bills are paid.

@Sunny2 I am too. I hate spending money too, but we probably spent about $200 of it. I spent $30 at Goodwill, $15 of it on a few new, nice shirts, a couple of skirts, some cool shoes, all for work, and $15 went for a new-to-me comforter for the bed. Our old one was getting kind of funky because the dogs sleep with us, so I wasn’t about to buy a brand new one. Normally I would shy away from paying $30 for ANYTHING at Goodwill!

I bought a $20 water misting hose for a family function last week…it was such a hit that I bought one for each of my 3 kids on Friday. We also picked up stuff at garage sales for the grandkids. They will LOVE their stuff!

I got some things at Walmart that I’d been putting off. So it was a good day.

@Pied_Pfeffer I agree with your parents. We’ve just found it harder than hell to save anything. We both contribute to retirement funds, and I invest a little each month out of my check to investments, but every time I try to open a savings account, something hits, like new tires for the car, or car repairs and it’s gone again. I just started my job 2.5 years ago, and spent the first year and a half paying off debts from when we had the shop. Things will start looking much better in the next few months, as we get more debt paid down.

@Dutchess_III Good for you! I won’t worry about you running out and buying 10 pairs of shoes with 4” heels and making a down payment on a diamond bracelet.

LOL!!!! Not hardly! WTH would I do with a diamond bracelet, anyway?! I did buy some hoop earrings at GW though. :)

I’m such a tightwad that I’ve been putting off buying Jim Croce’s “Photographs and Memories” CD for about 3 weeks, until last Friday’s bonus. (Perhaps I wouldn’t have if I had known that I could get it for $.01 + 2.95 shipping AND I still had $5 on the Amazon gift card my husband got me for Christmas…)

I picked up the coolest, really long broom skirt at GW, along with 3 brand new hippie shirts (with the store tags still on them) and, speaking of shoes, a pair of clogs decorated with sparklies. I’m groovy, oh so groovy! ;)

It’s nice to take a little of the unexpected money and spend it on something you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and then put the rest in savings. If this ever happens to me, of course, I’ll be paying bills with it, dang it.

Jim Croce is definitely worth it :)

Love his music. He died way too soon.

@augustlan The majority of the stuff I got I would have gotten eventually because I needed them…the bed spread for one, and make up for another. I’ve been needing new eyeliner and mascara for months, but they are SO freaking expensive. No, my grandson didn’t need a Spiderman sleeping bag ($1.00) but I bet he loves it! My two bigger grandsons didn’t need a couple of official soccer shirts left over from the inventory at the HS, but they sure like them. :)

@Buttonstc Yes, he did. :( Have I told you that I played “Don’t Mess Around With Jim” for my students….When I brought it up I didn’t realize that they had never even HEARD of Jim Croce…but they allowed as how he was “pretty good.” Then they asked to listen to it a second time, and they allowed as how he was actually REALLY good. Wow. Just wait till I drop that CD on their clueless heads!!!

If they’ve never heard of “Bad bad Leroy Brown” that is definitely a crime. But maybe they have heard of Leroy but didn’t recognize he was the product of Jim’s genius.

But my favorite of his is “Photographs and Memories”
He wasn’t just a great musician, he was uniquely gifted as a poet, completely apart from the music.

There were few like him. Dylan and Denver spring to mind immediately, but the list of his equals is a pretty short list indeed.

Absolutely. My students asked if he was playing the guitar himself. I said, “Yes. And he wrote all of his own music.” At that point they allowed as he was ”...really REALLY REALLY good!”

Can’t wait to get that CD!!!

BTW

I just remembered this. I saw a really good documentary (short, only an hour) about his life. There were interviews with his wife and family. It was beautifully done. I’m assuming you’ve seen it?

I think it was on PBS and I’m wondering if schools can get free copies? It was very well done and would give your students a great overview of his life and talent.

And this was all before Autotune :)

Kids today have little exposure to what real music was like back in the day of acoustic guitar rather than electric.

Now I’m sounding like an old fogey. But I really miss the music of the sixties.

Not an old fogey! After 1970 it seems like any lack of talent was “made up for” electronically. I haven’t seen it, but I will sure look for the documentary.

Well, it takes a good deal more than a one thousand bonus, and when it comes, we spend it on the house, for like replacing the ceiling in the kitchen and painting the walls or something like that.

Oh. It looks so great, too! I have no idea how many years we’ve been living with these giant holes in our ceiling, covered over by paper. Finally, we have an adult ceiling! And soon the walls will be painted! And all we need are some new cabinets and… and… and… no, I can’t go there. But ceiling and walls are truly amazing!

Until the kids are out of college, it’s hard to justify much of anything, not no matter how much of a windfall we get. I don’t care if we were to win millions in a lottery. Have you seen what college costs these days?

Got you on that @wundayatta. My happy-feet spending spree was not in the hundreds and thousands of dollars that so many are, for some reason, assuming.

Need help with your ceiling? Rick and I can do that. But you have to make sure the underlying problem (upstairs bathroom ) is fixed first.

Hah. The underlying problem is that the supporting wall in the middle of the kitchen no longer exists. But the ceiling has already been replaced with sheetrock (it was plaster). It looks beautiful. And the other underlying problem was the installation of new lighting (years ago) that required some wires get run, which required holes in the plaster. Which we learned to love. Ha ha.

Oh Lawd! Well, post pics @wundayatta! Oh Lawd! What a mess!

My plaster kitchen ceiling is a mess. Two huge hunks of it have come down, one just the other day. Scared the shit out of me! One day we will have an adult ceiling, too. I hope.

Paid my State Tax bill off! W00T!!