For those with salaries in the working world, this $1000 sum won’t seem like much. But I’m a student! And I managed to receive an unexpected $1000 recently as a gift. But a week later, it’s practically already gone. Here’s how I spent it:
(in approximate figures)
$300 – IKEA delivery of items for my apartment (bookcases, etc.)
$100 – to pay off some of my MasterCard
$100 – book supplies for my courses
$252 – other odds and ends for my apartment which I badly needed (eg., a new phone)
$85 – groceries and dinner from Whole Foods (ok, that’s sort of luxury)
$72 – miscellaneous professional improvement costs (this is deliberately vague)
This leaves about $100 left, which I think is about what I have left…
OK, so I haven’t quite spent the $1000 yet. Wait – I forgot:
$125 – new gym membership and new gym bag
I felt on top of the world last Saturday with all this cash. I thought about investing it, of course – that was my first instinct – but then with the almost automatically sinking values of shares, I thought it would be better to use the money for things that I know I need and will use right away, thus deriving benefit from them right away. I have to say I think it was the right decision, because I cleared away a lot of the things I needed to buy. Now I can concentrate on the next round of expenses at next pay, and soon many of my one-time costs will be taken care of and I can start to feel richer again:) … I hope…
What do you think of my list? Would you have made different decisions (that’s a bit rhetorical, obviously I know that literally speaking of course you would have, but… how does it sound from your point of view?)?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Ouch! I feel your pain!
It’s funny how sometimes with finance you’re not spending anything, and you wonder why people have a hard time saving their money.
And then something like that happens when you open your wallet to everybody! :)
I tend to yo-yo: putting alot into investing at one point, but then you have to be practical and realistic about what you need to live on, too: so you have to buy the things you need. But this was by no means a “binge” buy or something. It’s better to just purchase what you need all at once, to free up time when time is short.
You did the right thing, you have to treat yourself ever now and then. I just bought a Wii and I love it.