Friday, September 16, 2011

Money and Stuff I Don't Spend it On Like Purses

In human years I am 41. In money sense years I am approximately 11.


Actually, I might have had more sense about money at the age of 11, when my income was from a paper route and said income was spent on video games and Tootsie Roll Pops at 7-11 (it was a small and relatively unprofitable route).


I will come out and say that I am a complete and utter idiot when it comes to money. Here is what I know about it: I go to work and make some. Then I turn around and spend more than that on stuff I don't need. I have run out of it several times and have been embarrassingly bailed out by my mother more times than I care to count. I am pretty sure I owe her one million dollars, though she says I work some of it off by carting her around sometimes so maybe I owe her more like $999,900 at this point.


I have set out to make a budget a whole bunch of times. But I'm pretty sure that never happened. I can always tell you how much I pay in bills each month. There's no variable. It's the "other stuff" that trips me up.

So on the one hand, I eat out too much; mostly at work, sometimes going out with friends. I am not sure what my beer budget is, but it's pretty high compared to most households, I'd imagine.


I wind up spending a lot of money on grooming.
I ju
st got my hair done today and if I had the skills to do it myself or if I ever took my friend's advice and let her do it for me I would save A LOT of money. But I've been seeing Bernice for years and years and I'm a creature of habit and I like how she does my hair so there you go. I also can't use cheap shampoo (as much as I'd LOVE to) because of the kind of hair I have, so there's more money.



Don't even get me started on waxing. I gotta wax my brows. I can't not go and see Bev. Don't ask me about parts I get waxed that no one ever seems to see. It's pretty ridiculous.

And then there's stuff on which I refuse to spend money. Like purses.

I had this purse I LOVED and the only reason I a
m no longer carrying it is that I wore it out. It was from Target and made of fabric and it was a black and white floral pattern and it was so flipping cute. And it was $8.

That's right. $8. It was normally $10, but I got it on sale for $8 because I'm cool like that.


So in my pursuit to replace this purse with an almost exact replica, I searched high and low. Checked at Target every time I was there, no dice. Fi
nally found it on Etsy and it was $26. I went back and forth with myself about it. $26? But I really want another purse for $8. Here was a purse that was adorable, hand-made, machine-washable, and I loved it. Yet I was hemming and hawing about it being $26. This blew the mind of my dear friend, Stephanie, when this come up when I was hanging out with her, Spook, and Sarah. She could not believe I would trip off of something like that when I do spend money on other stuff. How much had I spent for this particular girls' night? How much would I spend for a sushi lunch (seriously, like $24 sometimes with tax and all that).


And it was hard to explain why I want a purse for
$8 and I want t-shirts that cost about the same and I why I don't even want to spend $30 on a pair of jeans and why I like to buy shoes at Payless. The only way it possibly makes sense is if I say it is wasted on me.


If you gave me a purse that cost $100 and a pair of jeans for the same amount I would look at you like you thought I was the Queen of West County. Why, these are garments and accessories made for royalty, I would say to you.

I TOTALLY don't begrudge anyone their fancy
pants or real jewelry (I'm pretty much a fakey fakerson when it comes to that, mainly because losing earrings is what I do), and I'd never pass judgment. Okay, that's not entirely true. If I knew someone who was kind of a douche and they had a pair of $200 jeans I might say, "Oh my gosh, that guy is such a flipping douche in his $200 jeans."


To many I realize I look like an idiot because I DO spend money and I have too much stuff but not so many nice things to show for what I spend. So this isn't about me being cheap, sheesh, I wish I were were. It's just that when it comes to some things I want to spend this many dollars and with other stuff I will spend more dollars.
I went to the book fair at the kid's school today and spent 40-plus dollars on books. We go to the library. Where we can check out books. For FREE. But the kid's a bookworm and she digs owning books. As in, "I get to keep this one? All the time??"


And buying books encourages bookworminess. Which encourages her to be smart. Which encourages her to be so involved in her studies when she is older that she pays no attention to boys whatsoever and she gets into an amazing college where she studies science and becomes a doctor and finds a cure for all the incurable diseases.

Okay, so I'm pushing it a little. But we will get a lot of use out of those books. And when she is done with them we will pass them on to her baby cousin, and who knows how many years they will be around. I could almost buy a fancy purse on sale at Macy's for what I spent on book fair books.


But I really wanted to get those books for her.


What do you spend money on that you shouldn't? Are there "fancy" things you just can't live without, places where you refuse to not splurge? How do you like to save money or stick to a budget?




5 comments:

missmillieca said...

i will be the first to post a comment. i totally live on a budget. and i LOVE to spend $ on nice clothes. i might not be the $200 jeans person, b/c that's just douchey, in and of itself, but i do like nice clothes. but i rarely buy them anymore. i used to. when i didn't have a mortgage. what else did i have to spend my money on? but now that i'm trying to be a grownup, i have to put things into proper perspective, which is what you are doing. if i buy a pair of jeggings at ross for $12.99, i just might have some $ for monday movie night and a beverage, after.

Kimberly Gallagher-Wright said...

Wow...well, I will always spend money on food, as in restaurant food. This was basically how I was 10K in debt at 19 years old...Thank you very much: Uncle Chungs! I am similar to you with respect to clothes...First and foremost, I like comfort. Comfort is less expensive than "designer jeans"...do people really say "designer jeans" anymore?? My poor husband will say "Please, go out and buy some clothes." Translation: "Sweetie, you look a little like a frumpy-ass". And more often that that, he will say "What year did you buy that?" To which, I'm usually offended. I have a few pieces (Jen, you know which ones they are) that originated from Expres circa 1988. But hey...I love them, and they hold up!

In my 40's now..I will spend real dollars on hair color (as in I get it done), and waxing...because really...I freakin' deserve it.

I'm a psycho budget person, I live on Quicken daily (maybe that is why my anxiety level is so high)...but it does make me feel more in control...and hey, I'm a control freak...so that makes sense. So, I see in great detail, where the deficits come from, and more often than not, I am the culprit. My husband takes his lunch to work everyday, whereas even when I'm working from home, you will catch me at Chipotle in Pinole...

So yea...it makes sense that food is what I will spend any amounts of money on...I love food...it comforts me, and gives me something to look forward to. Even on a diet, I still look forward to my 235 calorie salad from Chipotle...because it almost takes like a burrito...almost.

So...ok, this comment is very stream of consciousness...but bottom line...I love Quicken, mint.com and Chipotle...and I wear clothes from 1988 Express Fall Fasion line. :)

Kimberly Gallagher-Wright said...

oh yea...and I don't spell very well on my blog comments. :|

Tami (Teacher Goes Back to School) said...

if you can believe it, 15 years ago i felt like i was being sent to debtor's prison because i was being hounded by a dude named chuck from providian bank. i went to credit counseling - otherwise known as cut up your cards AND give you bad credit, but at least you aren't incurring more debt and 3 years later i was done with debt.

i got into the habit of saving first - 10% of whatever i was making was taken out of my check and put into a savings acct. if i didn't see it, i couldn't spend it. like on fancy striped t-shirts and burritos. and bourbon!

we bought the world's cheapest house and haven't moved. we went to a financial planner who scared me into buying tons of insurance and told me we'd have to work until we were dead or stop buying crap we didn't need.

i read your money or your life and get a financial life in your 20s and 30s and decided i didn't want to stress about money, so i had to get that shit under control.

oh, and i eat out once a week. i have a prepaid commit a crime with it cell phone, a 20 year old truck, i don't drink coffee and did i mention the world's least expensive house located squarely in hell? yeah.

in the last couple years i've stopped buying clothes because i've been hosting clothing swaps and i love me some trading/bartering - ie free yoga for working the desk (i'm funsa try this at my fancy gym too).

i spend the moneys on travel, adoption, massage, eyebrows, hair, glasses. you know, the important stuff.

financial priorities. just a titch wrote a financial post recently too. go check it out.

Jennifer Isa Workinprogress said...

That's what I'm talking about! Ross jeggings and some leftover money for movies! Makes perfect sense to me! And I'm talking about it but I STILL have no budget. Baby steps. Knowing I'm an idiot is half the battle. Now I have to fix it!

Spook, LMAO, 1988 EXPRESS FALL FASHION! Girl, you rock it, too. Yes, I'm with you on food and that is one place where my lazy ass could really save. Because when I put my mind to it, I can make some tasty low-fat vittles. I wish I were cooking for more than just myself since I LOVE leftovers but even I can wear myself out over certain things. About to cut and shred and freeze and cook a bunch of zucchini so I swear, just typing the blog and reading these comments might make next week a better week (and it is better when I'm dieting, that's for darn sure, but it's nowhere near perfect). I really need to look into that Quicken or whatever the hell else thing you do and SEE where my money goes because I DO NOT PAY ATTENTION AND THAT'S BAD.

Tams, I gotta remember you are my wingperson if I ever commit a crime. It is so good to have the person with the phone already lined up. Girl, you have it goin' on for reals and for true. And I will check out Just a Titch though I wonder if I read it because I swear I read something recently that had me go, "This is just like we were talking about on Saturday night!" So I'm sure that was it but I will look again!