Stop spending, you dipstick! (Wherein I pit myself)

The BBQ Pit
1

I don’t know if it’s just coincidence, or the long winter evenings, or whatever, but I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of money buying nonessential stuff lately. And it’s annoying me, because I want to be fiscally responsible.

Two weeks ago, I get informed by my boss that I need to start boning up on satellite communications. Here’s a textbook that’s highly recommended, so I hie myself down to Amazon and order a copy. Call it an investment in my career or something.

Last week, my inkjet printer starts to flake out on me. I replace the ink cartridge and clean the heads, but the darn thing still leaves blue streaks across my printouts. Considering I got it for free and it’s lasted five years, I cave in to consumerism and buy a new printer ($90 after rebate), which is currently on a UPS train somewhere in the midwest.

Earlier that week, while doing some late-night browsing, I find that a new comics collection I’ve been following has been released without my knowledge. Couldn’t even find it on Amazon, but here it is already. Lacking a suitable supply of new reading fodder, I indulge myself, throwing in a $40 RPG rulebook in the process.

Two nights ago, I found out that the fob for my car alarm has gone missing. No choice but to replace it, right? Another $20 there.

My son is starting to learn how to handle money, so he’ll need something to hold it in. One tyke’s wallet, coming up.

Ooooh, an iPod shuffle, just two weeks for delivery… no, I must refuse!

Ah, a copy of Shaolin Soccer – No, no!

Hey, Astro City: Local Heroes was released last-- No!

…and on and on it goes. I’ve drawn the line in the sand, and I plan to hold it, but I can feel my will weakening even as I type. For the love of Visa, stop buying all this stuff!

Or at least take a sabbatical until April, willay?

2

Most of that stuff doesn’t seem too ridiculous.

Did you buy the iPod? Cuz if not, I’d say you’re doing OK.

3

I bought it, then I cancelled the order a week later.

The rapid-fire frenzy of recent buying and near-buying still bugs me, though.

4

Boy do I know the feeling. And those little things add up fast, as I found out the hard way late November. I am seriously kicking myself for being irresponsible last September. And i don’t even need online shopping–between Ghost in the Shell DVDs at HMV (I pretty much had a breakdown upon seeing those and knowing I couldn’t afford them–I want them sooo bad) and the candystore downtown, it’s all I can do to keep my debit card in my wallet somedays.So I’ll throw myself into the pitting–I probably deserve it more than you do (Hell, I won’t make it until April at this rate without a bail-out from the 'rents).

Anyways, keep fighting the good fight, even if you slip once in a while. It’s better to not have things you want than to not have money for things you need.

5

I don’t think I can count, without exceeding the number of digits I posess, the number of times I have walked into Home Depot with the intention of buying, say, a $0.79 screw, or a $1.99 cam lock, and walked out with two orders of magnitude more expensive bundles of merchandise that I needed for, at most, one home project that I might do in the indeterminate future. I set foot in that big freaking box and the crack they mix with the sawdust begins to erode my self-restraint.

6

Tell me about it.

I just moved into my first home, so I have a combination of rjung’s “whipping out the plastic every 10 minutes” and the Home Depot (or Lowes, in my case…) fixation. Welcome mats, hoses, shovels and other sundry digging tools, packing supplies, mats, caulk, caulking guns, a shitload of tools. Last week it was $700 worth of treated wood posts and horse wire, this next week it’s gonna be $450 for a tractor guy and a load of gravel to repair my drive way and re-grade part of my lot. Oh, and I need new locks for the workship, stairs or an entrance ramp for it, shelving for the garage, and furniture. Scads of furniture. I could barely fill my 2 bedroom apartment before I moved, and now the place looks pathetically desolate. My nightstand is a plastic storage unit from Target. Thank God Ikea is opening a store in Frisco. Oh, and shit to hang on the walls so it doesn’t look like a god damn monastery. And come spring I’ll need to buy something to mow the lot I’m on.

When does it end? :frowning:

7

Tell me about it. I’ve been free and loose with the purchasing of Ennio Morricone CDs. It’s like swimming upstream because he’s done something like 500 scores (though some of them are repeats, I think), and there’s no way I can collect them all. But I love his work.

Also had to get some stuff for the new Mac Mini. A new USB hub. New mouse for another computer. They had a great deal on DVD-Rs, so I went for that. And then I see that they have a DVD for Doctor Finlay, and what can I do? I have to have it.

It’s got to stop!

8

Count me in to the overspending group.

Two different versions of “Company”, although I already have the 1995 Roundabout version.

Several books that I don’t need from Amazon.

I’ve got a new Bare Minerals addiction (makeup), so I’ve been buying brushes and eye glimmer samples off of eBay.

Sims 2 University expansion pack on pre-order at Amazon.

Way too much yummy organic freshly made food at the local health food store.

What’s REALLY going to be an issue is when we move into our new house where the Rite Aid is a half-block from it. I have a drugstore fetish and can easily spend $50 on CRAP in the drugstore. I’m going to have to ask them to not let me spend money but once a week.

And the funny thing is, I’m not broke yet.

E.

9

I can’t get out of Target w/o spending $60. doesn’t matter what I went in for…

Sometimes we bleed money–and it can get scarey. I no longer use a credit card for any but the most dire purchases–car repair, for example. We are almost out of debt (relatively speaking) but those impulses can come along—oy.

I hear ya. count me in on the pitting (although what we all really need is a “godd job!” for avoiding more splurging, IMO).

10

That’s because you’re a liberal. If only you’d be a smart guy and join the GOP, everything would be fine. Then you’d be Fiscally Responsible.

-Joe, has to spend money due to his War on Hot Fudge Sundaes

11

This thread just prompted me to open up my latest credit card bill.

You suck.

12

I can’t get out of Taret without spending $100. :rolleyes: I don’t let myself go anymore unless I have a list.

All my life I wanted to get to a place where I could spend a hundred bucks and it wouldn’t be a huge deal. So I went back to school, got a good degree and a good job and a hundred isn’t that huge a deal anymore. But I gotta learn that if I splurge more than once a month, I’m shooting myself in the head. It’s like I have two states: I have money so I can spend freely or I’m broke so I have to eat ramen…

13

You mean I can buy $80 billion worth of stuff and send the bill to you? Neeters! :smiley:

14

Sure!

You just need to check the box that says “Don’t bill me till 2009.”

You can get lots of magazines that way.

-Joe, has now destroyed 75% of the HFS’s command structure

15

Then there’s Costco, where you can go in with a list of:

Parmesan cheese
Tide
men’s socks

And you come out with:

Lobster tail
Brita filter pitcher
Big framed print of a bistro in France
Frozen pot stickers
Beef jerky
Bouquet of flowers
45-pound box of Miracle Gro
Viactiv calcium chews

– plus the items on your original list, a hot dog and a soda. Just shoot me.

16

Well, I just got back from vacation and my ancient 400 Mhz laptop wasn’t up to the task of processing the pictures from my new digital camera. So I ordered a new 17" Apple laptop. What was that about stopping spending, you were saying?

It’s gonna be an ugly day when the next credit card bill arrives.

17

I would, but I ran out of bullets, and while I was on my way to the sopting goods store to buy some I stopped into HMV and the candy store. By the time I got there, I couldn’t afford the bullets.

18

And when you get home, be yelled at because you forgot the dog food! Grr!

19

I think we need a COMPETITION, a la that Seinfeld episode. Call it, oh, MasterCard of your Domain. See who can go the longest without doing any spending outside of true necessities.
Rules. Hmmm. Okay, some spending has to be allowed.

Okay spending:

  1. You can pay ‘regular’ bills, like your rent/mortgage, utilities, installments on your (previously run up) debts.

  2. You can do your ‘usual’ grocery shopping.

  3. You can buy the same type and amount of ‘daily consumables’ you always do: the daily newspaper, that 3 pm candy bar from the vending machine, the morning doughnut, yes, even the triple latte yadda yadda yadda.

  4. You can spend money you are forced into by circumstances: you can fill your gas tank, buy new wipers if your old ones rip, you can buy assigned course books and other study supplies.

  5. You can visit doctors and such, and buy medicines/supplies they supply.

But THAT’S IT. You can only spend money on the the things on that list (or whatever we agree should be added.)

Things you cannot buy include, but are not limited to:

  1. Hobby stuff. No new collectible items, no supplies, no suddenly wonderful looking tools.

  2. No entertainment supplies: no CDs, DVDs, books, magazines, movie tickets, theater tix, sports tix, lottery tix, no computer games, no online pay gaming, etc.

  3. No ‘gizmos’ electronic or otherwise. No special gardening tools, no new computer crap, no home theater or stereo accessories, no kitchen appliances or gadgets.

  4. No home furnishings. No new sheets/pillows/vases/decorative knickknacks/etc.

  5. No clothing! (Possible exemption: items required by work dress codes, but only if you run ‘out’ of whatever it is, not just ‘That’s a nice looking blue sweater, and I’m sure I’ll wear it to work sometime.’)
    Hmmm. What else, what else? I feel I am missing some big categories of ‘non-necessary’ money frittering…

20

You forgot eating out, and didn’t specify books under entertainment.