Spending Some Money On Myself Feels Good.
As many of you know, my birthday was just a few weeks ago. And although I am 36 years old, I am still considered a baby in our extended family, as we have many people in their late 80’s and 90’s still chugging along. Because of this, I still get cards with money in them like I did when I was 15! Believe me, I get crap about it from friends but who am I to complain? Most years I try to put that money towards good use - paying off a credit card, investing it for retirement, etc - but this year is different. I am going to spend my birthday money on myself.
Because we don’t have credit card debt anymore, my medical bills are mostly paid off, and I have been doing my best to put money aside for the future, I have decided to spend $250 on things that I have wanted for a little while, but did not have the money laying around to pick them up. First up, a Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder for making web videos. Between family members wanting to see home videos of us from afar, to starting to videoblog projects and adventures over at my other site, this small efficient video camera will come in handy. When you are done shooting with it, you just plug it into a USB port on the computer and it spits out a YouTube-formatted video (or whatever format you want). Pretty cool.
The other thing I looking into is the new set-top box from Netflix and Roku that streams my Netflix movies right to my TV, for no additional cost on top of my monthly service. Sure, it’s not perfect yet, and not every title is available, but I just logged into my Netflix account and saw that 9 movies in my regular queue would be available for instantaneous viewing. I am sure we could get double the amount of movies in every month with this box, taking full advantage of our subscription.
While neither of us spend money on ourselves too often, it sure does feel nice to be able to do it once in a while. And with birthday money, it’s almost guilt-free! Do you ever come into some money that you spend on yourself guilt-free? If so, let us all know about it!
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9 Comments so far
That Netflix box sounds like an excellent addition. Easier than running out to the video store and than waiting. Simpler for everyone, too.
And I think the biggest problem I’d have with Netflix is getting my money’s worth…which this will allow you to do, especially if it lasts.
Happy birthday again!
Yea, I think I am going to order it and see how it works…
I’ve seen some other bloggers using the Flip cam, it looks cool! I’ll look forward to seeing some videos once you get it!
I will definitely do a review when I get it, should be here early next week!
It might sound lame, but lately the money that I spend “for myself” *is* my investing money. I guess I’m still just too excited about my investing strategies to be interested in buying other things? If I get extra money these days, I sock it away - I have a line-up of the next investments to make. Just waiting for the cash.
There are actually some necessities that I should be buying, that some would have bought by now, but I’ve been holding off. Maybe this isn’t a strategy, but I’m sure it won’t last. But I do feel that I’ve made progress with my thinking about investment in last year and now I’m feeling excited about it again. Does anyone else go through phases like that?
Mind you, I don’t have children or even car or house payments to deal with right now… just a heck of alot of tuition, loan and credit card payments, though…
First off happy belated birthday! Money and gift cards I think are fab gifts if given by the right store. Small rewards is something I think everyone that is frugal has to do. Why save if no reward, even it is tiny.
Netflix box, I am thinking about getting this too. Hubby wont stay on the puter that long to watch a movie, but he does like to watch movies a lot.
Happy belated Birthday!!! I think it’s great that you are spending
money on yourself especially after keeping your nose to the grindstone
and getting rid of your credit card debt. Not many people can say that.
It’s always a good idea to celebrate your milestones. This is a form of rewarding
yourself for being diligent and forcused with your finances.
It’s great to see a post like this that’s positive once in a while. Seems like everyone else is in debt or spending foolishly.
I had a similar post recently about spending my birthday money on a GPS. Something I wouldn’t have bought otherwise, but since i had the birthday money I splurged. Why not?