Monday, November 12, 2007

$38 $103 Closer to a Wheel

The issue of whether or not I can afford a wheel is complicated by the fact that I have savings, but I never feel I'm allowed to spend my savings. It's money I earned back in undergrad working as a coop student. I saved it to pay for my education (there's still some paying left to do), and because I like to have a cushion for when I don't have money. Now, although technically now is a time when I don't have much of an income, I *am* living at home (at the moment, and thus have negligible expenses), and a wheel is a "frivolous" expense. It isn't something like food or rent or bills. But I need to balance "needs" with having a nice life... one has to enjoy oneself too. So... is a wheel something I can buy, or something I can't? I've been debating this.

I think I may allow myself to get a wheel if I can "earn" some portion of it. (I haven't yet decided what that portion is.) I have had mad-money in the past year (enumeration, folklorama work), but I think I pretty much spent each of those.

Checking... wait a minute! I still have some cash in my folklorama envelope!!! (My aunt paid me in cash, and I would transfer some to my wallet every time I made a credit card purchase that was "frivolous"... I can't remember if I did additional transfers to my wallet beyond that, though.) I had originally considered putting all of the folklorama money towards a wheel, but then I bought stuff on etsy, etc, and I figured I wouldn't be buying a wheel because I couldn't try one out. I'm pretty sure I paid for this spinning class with my folklorama money too. (That would explain why I let myself spend so much on the class!)

Okay... now I'm really rambling. My point is, I'm not going to let myself use just savings. Last Friday I earned $38 teaching a review session. Now I found $65 from my Folklorama stash. That's $103 towards the purchase of a wheel. I think I have to get at least half way before I let myself buy a wheel. However, this is a pretty good start. :)

I'm on my way to a wheel. Yay!

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