Stimulus

I have a scumbag confession to make. When people were given $950 as part of a plan to stimulate the economy, I didn't spend it. Well, not right away at least, it got spent eventually. Most probably at KFC or other restaurants. $950 buys you a lot of fried chicken!

I had a plan to buy a new TV, as we had one in the living room, but it was shared with the whole family, and I felt bad whenever I fell asleep in front of the TV watching something, but nobody had the heart to wake me up. It also made it tough to watch TV, as I was on night shift at that time, and I didn't want to make too much noise.

However, being the frugal person that I am, I wanted to make sure I was making the right choice, and I set about researching all the TVs that were available at the time, and I had short listed quite a few, but when I went to the store to see them in person, I would find something that didn't seem quite right, and would hold off on making the purchase. I figured that if I kept looking, the right TV would be available. I've still never bought a TV for myself.

I do feel bad about it, even now, and that's probably one of the other contributing factors to my decision to try and spend $400 a month - even though it's not quite the same. MrFodder are eating at nicer restaurants (Nando's or Sofia's is no longer our go-to place for fine dining! Actually, I lie, we both still consider Sofia's fine dining). Graham keeps telling me that I should stop living like a university student, but I kinda feel like other than eating out, the things that I enjoy doing don't really cost all that much money.

In contrast, there's OCD. We were supposed to meet up for dinner with D after the Dota 2 match, but every time we've tried to meet, he doesn't have enough money to eat out (it's about $30-50 per person at this restaurant). I asked him where all his money goes, and he said that it pretty much goes to food and games. That sounds like me! Well, and alcohol, and football, which I don't spend money on, and I'm starting to think that's where the bulk of it is. I have no desire to become a St. Kilda supporter though, so I'll give that one a miss.

There are only 5 months left in the year, and I'll probably start doing my Christmas shopping in October, so that's some money that I need to put away. I'm just starting to feel a little exhausted from spending money, as weird as that is to say. Counting down the months!