Uh-oh...the wings and fries cost more than the cash I had in my pocket...which could only mean one thing, I'd have to charge it. This, of course, leads to the unavoidable conversation at the end of the month.
"Honey, could you check the credit card bill? I was looking it over and saw a charge for Jocks and Jills. Was that yours?"
"Yes, that was mine," I reply surreptitiously.
"I thought you weren't going to eat out anymore."
"I know, but it was my first week back to work and I hadn't seen the guys in weeks."
"You know we're on a budget."
"I know."
"I felt guilty about spending two dollars on a bean burrito at the mall, and you spent 15 dollars on one meal?"
"I know. I'm sorry."
"You could have taken Katelyn and me out for lunch for that much!"
"I know. I'm sorry."
"We need to have a talk."
"What? No! Please, I'll stop wasting money! It was just the one time!"
"Every month I see charges like this, we need to sit down and have a budget meeting."
And so it goes....
The roots go back deep. Back to the days of our forefathers, when the family institution acted as an engine of discipline, and frivolity was looked down upon. The Puritan ethic prevailed: work, work, work, save, save, save.
Then came the Great Depression. People learned to do things for themselves, not spend money on useless items, not throw anything away, etc. Waste not want not. A penny saved is a penny earned. For those whose parents or grandparents grew up in that time, the lessons were heavily ingrained. For some it's worse than others. You have a 25 year old tv, if you ever replace it, you keep the old one in the basement. If you build something, you keep all the leftover screws. If you break a lamp, you keep it just in case you can fix it someday, or someone else needs it. That is what my wife grew up with, and the values she learned.
Then you have the other side of this coin. Years ago my parents had a fire that partially burned a building on their property. They got $15,000 in insurance money. Did they use it to repair the building? No. Replace items destroyed in the fire? No. They had a good old time for a few months and then were broke again, only now they had a burned out building on their property.
The progeny of these two sides of the coin marry, and the result is the dialogue quoted above. So the question becomes, do I make a new years resolution to try and spend less? Do I work hard to be thrifty like my wife? Do I really try and make an effort to manage my finances more responsibly?.....or do I run over to OfficeMax and get that new dvd burner I've been wanting?
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2 comments:
Go get the dvd burner, eat out and go do something that you will regret spending the money on. A dancer friend told me a story of how when she goes to Naples or Ft. Myers she meets many old guys who pay her big bucks to sit with them for an hour or two, lonely old men with plenty of money to spend on dancers,...Two sides to this coin , you can scrimp and save and bide your time until retirement,..or you can enjoy some of it now, and only sneak out once a month when your old...point being your old, you won't remember all those expensive meals, the toys and gizmos, the little frivilous things but, maybe you 'll be a happier person now and a less regretful person later....
Reminds me of a quick story. My wife and I visited Maine a few years back, and as we walked the streets of some quaint village we came across an ice cream store. Other people were sitting around enjoying themselves eating little ice cream cones. We stepped in to get ourselves a treat, but noticed that we could get a little pint of ice cream from the freezer for cheaper than a cone, so we did it. Well the darn thing was too frozen to eat, so we didn't sit in the cafe eating a cone, we just walked around with this little frozen pint of ice cream. Later in the car we poked at it with little plastic spoons.
I guess the point is: Big purchases come rarely in life, a car, a house, a new pc, a boat. Big events also, like marriage, birth of a child, graduations, etc. But the little things happen all the time. The little purchases like an ice cream cone that might make you happy.... So save up for big purchases, wait for those, take your time on them. But don't pass up the little things that might cost an extra dollar here or two fifty there. Enjoy life's little moments and little pleasures, instead of foregoing them in hopes of the big events.
And the dvd burner is purchased and installed.
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