Skip to main content

What do you spend your money on?


It struck me recently that we have relatively low-key cars, my husband and I, even though we both work, and could probably spend our money on something a bit more flashy. But we don't choose to spend our money on that. By my reckoning, we spend our money to buy time and experiences.

We buy time by spending money to have someone clean our house and mow the lawn so we don't have to spend the weekend doing it. We get back time that we can take the kids to the movies (or just be lazy if we choose).

We also spend our money on experiences - each year we spend a weekend with each of our kids alone, so they have special time with a parent and then alternate (one year I will have one kid, the next year the other). We don't have to do anything fancy - it just has to be alone and special (like going to the movies, Chuck E Cheese, ice cream or a park). But it could be fancy - like Seaworld! Or a family vacation - maybe camping.

We are blessed to be able to afford to do that.

I always wonder if we did have more money, what would we be spending it on? Maybe a fancier house? Recently I happened across an MTV special, counting down the "priciest pads" - Wayne Newton's house has crystal bannisters on the stairs. My mouth was gaping looking at that. Of course everybody has to make his/her own choices, but that special did make me think about what else could that money have done and what we use our money for.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I wish...

This post is my one rant to looking back (I've been told by my doctors not to), but I've justified it to myself by deciding if it makes one person make a different choice, then that's fine with me.  So now that I know what I know, what do I wish? I wish I understood that when a mammogram comes back negative, it does not necessarily mean that they examined all the tissue and they were able to see clearly that nothing was there (a true negative). It could also mean, they've looked and they cannot distinguish normal from tumour tissue (inconclusive).  So ladies, when the radiologist tells you "Ma'am you've got dense breasts", know that it means they can't see a darned thing. If you think something is going wrong, press for an alternative diagnostic tool or monitor yourself more closely in the coming months knowing that the mammogram you just had that said negative, really said, "We don't know".  Oh..and enlist the aid of a specialist ...
5 comments
Read more

Job Search2: Networking etiquette..

On which I have a few ideas.  As my husband keeps telling me, I won't get a job by spending hours in front of the computer submitting applications to online job postings.  The best use of any job-seeker's time is spent talking to friends and acquaintances and letting them know that you are looking for a job and what your skills and interests are. So here is what I found tricky about networking: How hard to push?  Working parents are busy, so if I asked a friend, who is a working parent, about a position I had seen at their company, do I ask a second time? How soon after? And what if there is another position - do I talk about that too?  If that friend is very enthusiastic about getting more information for me on a post then I hear nothing, what then?  Is it realistic to think they'll get back to me?  I find it difficult to broach the topic again.  I might ask a second time but for me there is no third time. What do I trade in return? In the net...
4 comments
Read more

Fitness Photo Shoot

Fitness after stage III breast cancer Plank on ball in silhouette Why a fitness shoot? I am not a fitness model, nor am I ripped like one, but I wanted to do a fitness shoot for a few different reasons: 1. As a reminder of how far I have come At the 5-year anniversary of my diagnosis of stage III breast cancer, it seemed a good time to remind myself how far I have come since I went through the trauma of diagnosis and treatment. That no matter how low I felt at the time, I came through it. Not all my sisters made it and many are still struggling today (shout out to my IV-leagers - those living with stage IV,  EVERY DAY). 2. As a reminder of how much the body can do It is a moment for me to acknowledge that while there are things I still cannot do, there are things I could not do when I first started lifting weights, that I can do now and THAT is amazing to me. When I first started weight lifting maybe I could do shoulder presses with 7.5 lbs, now I can do more t...
16 comments
Read more