Okay, it’s not what you think…It’s just in the past couple of days, the semester has ended and I go to school in New York, so…shopping!
In particular, I went shopping for myself today. I figure, since my exams are through, and I don’t celebrate Christmas, I should get something, right? I ended up buying about 80 dollars worth of books at the university bookstore…and a CD at Tower Records.
It’s not that I can’t afford it. I’ve got plenty of money in the account, which I probably won’t be using again for another month. It’s just I feel guilty about splurging and spending money on myself. I don’t know why, though. Some part of me is screaming, “No! Don’t spend anything, save it all for later.” And I guess part of me is feeling bad for spending money when the stereotypical college student is scraping the barrel…should I be buying hardcovers, HARDCOVERS, of all things?
Personally, I’m confused by the question. You’re asking for a reason to buy books? Is this some kind of self-affirmation thing like “How do I justify my breathing?”
Books are. We buy. Such is the order of this universe.
I’ve been laid off my job at AT&T, then had to give up my apartment and moved around a bit and looking for a new job, and in short (too late) too busy to check the SDMB for quite a few months there.
If you want, my e-mail is available below, send me a link to that thread and I’ll check it out.
I hope you aren’t supposed to feel guilty. Otherwise, I’ll have to endure extreme guilt over my end-of-semester CD shopping spree (final ticket, $70). Though we celebrate Christmas, my family doesn’t do much in the way of gifts, so I figure I won’t be receiving, but I can spend the money I’d otherwise spend on gifts on myself. The best part is everyone gets what they want this way!
I’ve been trying to convince everyone I know to do this. If everybody just spent all that Christmas money on one really cool thing for themselves, rather than a bunch of stupid small things for everyone else, EVERY Christmas would be a hell of a lot more fun.
I’m not 100% on this policy…I still buy gifts for other people…but only people I actually like and want to buy for. I have absolutely no guilt about skipping certain relatives who just annoy me all year long. (My brother, for one. For years he never got me anything–or something really stupid–and I always went out of my way to get him something cool anyway. I’m over it now.)
And the money I save, I spend on myself. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME.
You remind me of this guy. I originally read about him in a recent issue of People (that’s right… I live for trashy magazines!), where he was quoted as saying something like, “I feel bad buying things for myself when there are others in need,” or something like that.
And I don’t blame you for the guilt, Zoggie. But I agree with Crunchy–you gotta indulge yourself every now and then.
Just, if you’re going to give away millions of bucks to assuage the guilt, may I be the first in line?
We don’t celebrate Christmas either…being Muslim (well…non-practicing), kids get money on Eid, so I got seventy bucks a couple weeks back. Of course, I spent more than that, but I could afford it.
So while there are a lot of people with a lot less than me, there are also going to be those with a lot more.
Hey-- does anyone actually want to know what stuff I got?