# Free Money! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355 "2002-09-06T22:30:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/1 "2002-09-06T22:30:06Z")
Okay, now that I’ve got your attention… Suppose someone offered to give you $1,000, but only if you promised to spend it completely self-indulgently (i.e, can’t pay bills, can’t give it to charity). How would you spend it? I’m thinking… fireworks. My sister lives in this great old house on a hill overlooking farmland – I’d talk them (her and her husband) into giving a party for all their friends and all my friends, and spend the grand on a fireworks display that we could all watch from the huge wraparound porch. What would you do? ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/2 "2002-09-06T22:56:48Z")
Books. And I’d probably also upgrade my computer and maybe buy a couple of computer games. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/3 "2002-09-06T23:17:12Z")
Wine ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/4 "2002-09-06T23:46:30Z")
Books, DVDs, and computer upgrades. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/5 "2002-09-07T00:24:34Z")
> [@](#): > > self-indulgently More travel, of course! 🙂 The fireworks sounds cool, but that’s a sharing thing, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/6 "2002-09-07T01:08:22Z")
Health care. A really good check-up. Any left over and I would buy socks. ---
**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/7 "2002-09-07T01:25:47Z")
I’d go to a relaxation retreat and be pampered relentlessly until I resembled a small, pink puddle of goo. ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/8 "2002-09-07T01:35:55Z")
More diving equipment. I need a really good BC to fit a BIG fella like me… and they’re hard to find. ---
**Author:** ![J.J\_Snider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f1d935/32.png) [@J.J\_Snider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J.J_Snider)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/9 "2002-09-07T01:58:10Z")
eBaY, eBaY and more eBaY! I could spend a million dollars on ebay! ---
**Author:** ![TheOnlySaneOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@TheOnlySaneOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheOnlySaneOne)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/10 "2002-09-07T02:05:26Z")
A nice sword would be the first on the list of ‘Things that I would get if I had $1000’. The sword would be followed closely by a laptop with wireless net, books, new clothes, and other such frivalries. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/11 "2002-09-07T02:32:24Z")
**Violet** – I meant self-indulgent as opposed to say, health insurance and socks. (That was a joke, was it not, Booker?) You could have a party or take your honey to Paris for the weekend or hire an amusement park for all your friends for the night or whatever – the idea is that it be just flat-out blowing the money. ---
**Author:** ![bobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@bobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/12 "2002-09-07T03:05:01Z")
only a grand?!? You can’t really do much with a grand… but I’ll answer the OP. a) save the money until january and take a ski week in colorado b) beer… lots and lots of beer with a few of my favorite friends at a nearby pool hall. c) a nice cue stick d) an IDE disk based disk array that I can cable to my primary file server via either firewire or scsi (for those wondering why IDE based… i don’t need the performance of scsi in the actual array, and ide disks are cheap… so I can deal with the low performance/quality of IDE within the array, given that the backplane will still deliver reasonable data through put… and then I can replace the crappy and cheap IDE disks for a hundred or so each… It’s not like that array is going to serve a farm or anything, it’s just for my personal storage, so speed isn’t an issue… huge storage, low cost, NICE) e) big BBQ for a lot of my friends f) Sun Blade workstation… just so I can compare to my old Sun Sparc workstation g) components for me to cook an absolutely wonderful meal for my wife and myself ok… so I guess I could have some fun with a free $1k… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/13 "2002-09-07T04:09:52Z")
Does buying 1000 lottery tickets count? ---
**Author:** ![stolatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@stolatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolatt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/14 "2002-09-07T10:14:28Z")
Shoes that don’t pnich and sweaters that don’t look ratty after the third wearing. I’m tired of bargain clothes. I’d spend a few hundred on a nice meal and an overnight stay at a hotel on the water. ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/15 "2002-09-07T10:19:57Z")
plane tickets ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/16 "2002-09-07T10:36:04Z")
Hmm… hard one… upgrading my comp (need more memory badly) and a couple of games… a day at the spa (some have package deals) a few new outfits a nice dinner and a stay at a hotel… unfortunately it’d be by myself as I have no sweety right now. Or I could just go to England to visit James, or Kentucky to visit Chazz… ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/17 "2002-09-07T18:33:55Z")
NASCAR diecast. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_The\_Diver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Buck\_The\_Diver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_The_Diver)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/18 "2002-09-07T18:36:15Z")
Two weeks of diving in Akumal, Mexico. Or a down payment on my dream trip to Truk Lagoon. * * * You just THOUGHT you had sigs turned off! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/19 "2002-09-07T19:24:18Z")
I would put it towards a hot tub. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355/20 "2002-09-07T19:38:08Z")
Hmmm…Not sure…A train ticket to southern Spain? Or a train ticket to Budapest? Or a train ticket and a boat ride to Morroco? Or a boat ride to Ireland? Or a train ticket to Istambul? Not sure…there are too many choices… But make sure to put me on your guest list for the big firework! I just love fireworks… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-money/127355.md?page=2)