All or nothing: my windfall philosophy
October 14, 2010
I was just contemplating my windfall philosophy and the fact that I don’t think I can do the “do 1 nice thing for yourself and save the rest” that so many people recommend as a compromise. While I have incredible self control in most anything else, if I start spending a little chunk of money from a larger chunk, that always primes the mental spending pump and gets me thinking about e-ve-r-y-thing else that I want.
Then I was surprised with a small bonus from my organization to thank me for my hard work and key participation in a major project these past months. Now, I had absolutely no expectation of any such thing because I work for an organization that’s not known for paying market rates or year-end bonuses, much less merit bonuses.
But it’s too late. I’ve started to think about the things I want like the delightful OMG Books t-shirt:
Comic books
Secret Six, Volume 3: Danse Macabre
Usagi Yojimbo,Volumes everything after 2
Lone Wolf and Cub, Volumes everything after 13
Furniture
New bed
Bookshelves
Desk
Travel
A big 2-week trip to some combination of Greece/Italy/Cambodia/India/Vietnam/Laos/Singapore/somewhere else next year
An unlimited SDCC with RUTH this year!!
*ahem* Didn’t I tell you, “if you give a mouse a cookie”? Anyway, clearly I ran out of bonus money way up the list. And so this is why I’m stashing the whole of the check away and not getting myself one single solitary thing. I’m a lot happier when I just hoard the money and have it when I decide there’s something I really truly want. Life’s a lot more organized that way.
Well, I like the #SDCC item on the list!!! 😉 (and that’s definitely where some of my Cthulhu $$ is going!)
I vote for the trip. Maybe that’s because I don’t know what SDCC means. By the way, our HR person told us that we can now use flex accts for PARENTAL expenses. I know this was an issue for you earlier. Perhaps the rules have also changed at your place of employ.
I say put some money towards your trip. You’re technically saving it. 😛
I vote for travel as well, though if you have pieces of furniture you’re pretty sure you would keep for always, that’s not a bad buy either. Fortunately, I love ‘old’ stuff and don’t mind the ‘destressed’ look! The only thing I tend to buy now in the way of furniture is book shelves, and I’m gradually getting more disciplined about getting rid of books I don’t read any more.
@Ruth: I’m incredibly excited for Con, but I have got to save more money for it if PiC and I are planning to spend trip money earlier in the year.
@FS: SDCC = San Diego Comic Con. I go every year.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll investigate whether our FSA has changed their requirements, that would make a big difference in the dental bills.
@Serendipity: 🙂 That’s saving to spend, but that money has to come from somewhere.
@Shelley: I’m still on the fence about which pieces and when since I feel claustrophobic amid too much furniture. I don’t have ANY bookshelves, though, so I look forward to getting some soon.
YES! I am going to link back to the post anytime I want to save all of my money to preempt any comments about “not being any fun,” “not living my life,” etc. And I’ll print out little pieces of paper with this post’s URL to hand to people IRL who may want to encourage me to spend the money instead. 😉