Thursday, October 7, 2010

Splurging

Last week at work, everyone was like "So, what are you going to blow your first paycheque on?" which was not something I planned to do.  By the end of the week they had talked me into buying a DSLR camera, which is something that I have always thought I would like to have, but by the time I got home I decided to wait that one out for the time being.

I have never been a big spenda, no matter what Hammacher Schlemmer and their two million dollar submarines might think.  Even when I was a little kid I just kept all my money in a jar in my room.  Birthday money?  I saved it.  My grandparents always got annoyed when they'd ask me what I bought with the 20 dollars they sent me and I just said I saved it.  However by the time I actually started working summer jobs and stuff after high school, thanks to my savings and some graduating scholarships, I had a good chunk of money in the bank to "get ahead" with so that I was always able to not need to work much during school except during the summers.  This was obviously supplemented by living a pretty minimalist lifestyle in regards to buying a lot of stuff and going out, but it worked great for me and somehow all the way through university, even during this last full year of unemployment, I've never really had to stress out about money.  I was still able to buy most of the things I really wanted, go on a few vacations, etc. - I was just really good at figuring out how to stretch and save an approximate $12-15k/year income.

But now that I do have a real-live disposable income, I can't suddenly just change who I am and start spending left right and centre.  Will I eventually buy a DSLR?  Most likely, and probably sometime this year too.   But I remembered that I've had other things I've wanted to purchase for a while and haven't been able to afford, like printing off a bunch of pictures from Europe and getting a painting framed and making a charitable donation.  And I need to get an oil change in my car.  And buy some jeans.  So that will be my splurge, and no doubt some people may roll their eyes at these routine things being the way I "blow" part of my first paycheque, but I just can't bring myself to buy something just for the sake of buying it.  I definitely want that camera and I will buy it, but when I really feel like I want it, not just because I have the money to do so.

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