Saving money
21-May-06
I have lost my old ability to save money. It happened sometime around when I started having enough to spend instead of save. I used to save money really well. I had an envelope I kept in my lock-box. The envelope had “Fantasy fund” written on it, because the first thing I saved for was a harp. Every time I got some extra money (usually bribes “gifts” from my aunt), I would put it into the envelope. When I had about $150 saved up, I went to Muis Dreamsinger during the last weekend of RenFaire and asked if I could buy the harp I wanted ($250), and send the rest of the money later. He agreed, and I paid it all off by mid-January, using the money I got from Christmas (and, of course, the Thanksgiving bribe). I ended up buying my dulcimer the same way, as well as ’s dulcimer.
I still have the lock-box somewhere. The lock is kind of broken on it, but it served its purpose. What was important about it was that I could take out the money and tangibly touch it. Although I dislike carrying cash with me, for safety reasons, I do think there is a value to having cold, hard cash to touch and acknowledge and count. I know there’s a humorous image of the miser, counting his gold, and yet, there is a definite value to being able to physically count your money. When it’s all 0’s and 1’s, and your only tangible representation of it is a plastic card, it’s hard to look at that card and be able to say “I have $250 in there.”
I’m a materialistic person, in that I like things. I like having toys to play with, and I think a life without things would be rather dull (though not as dull as a life without other people!). I’m a gadget head, a gamer, a hobbyist of so many varieties, it makes my head spin. I don’t necessarily do these things because I have a passion for the activities, so much as I have a passion for playing with new things. I’m also an idea-oriented person, so I like learning new things, but I learn best, like most people, by touching and doing.
This thought brought to you by last week’s Toastmaster meeting, in which one of the Table Topics speeches was “how do you save money?”