Miasmatic Review

A fool and their money...

Damn, I hate when I do something stupid, especially when it involves money. I was raised with the financial belief, “Do NOT spend money you don’t have.” Sometimes it’s necessary, such as in an emergency or if you are buy a house. Heck, I’ll even allow cars. Not everyone can pay for a new $18,000.00 car out of pocket. Other then a handful of situations, you just don’t spend money you don’t have.

Many of my employees at work have already spent their tax returns, and they haven’t even filed yet. They figure they are going to get a large return so they went out and bought new TVs, computers and other items on credit planning on paying it off when they get their tax refunds. The problem is that a couple of them are going to be paying on these for a while because unless they are getting $10,000 back from the Feds, they aren’t going to cover what they’ve already spent. ($6,000 TV, $1,300 Computer, $1000,00 Home Theater plus the other little things they are putting on their credit cards saying, “I’ll pay it off when my refund comes in”) And yes there are at least three people that work for my company that is in this situation.

Me, I don’t do that. I try not using my credit cards to pay for anything unless I pay it off by the end of the month. If I don’t have the money, I’ll wait to have to pay for something. That is until last summer. We had just gotten new windows put in the house and I was going to install a window air conditioner that didn’t fit. We ended up looking at getting Central Air put into the house. You may recall the escapade regarding the electricity and contractors.

I was able to get the electrical done in the house, and paid for it out right. However the Central Air I thought was going to have to wait until this year. That was until I found a place that would finance, one year no interest, same as cash. I was still hesitant, but as much as I like to see Ktreva all hot and sweaty, she doesn’t like to be that way. So I caved in and financed the damn AC with the intent to pay it off before the year was up. “When we get our tax return….”

All was well. I kept saying, when we get our tax return, we’d pay off the loan. No finance charge, no hidden fees, nothing! We’re good to go! Had our taxes done, found out we were going to be getting a bit more back then anticipated. NICE! That’ll help cover the cost for the Packer tickets and then some… if I make it. We got the money and all of a sudden it’s like I didn’t remember my own philosophy. I got spend happy. New cell phone, new clothes, new shoes, buying trinkets and eating out… then I sat down to pay off the lawn and realized I had over spent, by a lot. Not horribly, but enough to put a crimp in my plans. Yes, I’m still getting the loan paid off, but now I’ve got to scrape up the difference for the Packer tickets. I had the money easily, I just couldn’t control myself. It really pisses me off.

I just can’t believe I did that.