Spending Money

 As a soon to be college student, I recently experienced something amazing. That something was high school graduation.

 Not only was graduation fun – I didn’t fall, I was one of over a hundred girls with a cellphone on side of their bra and a car key on the other, and we did a rollercoaster at the end – but I also received lots of warm gifts from friends and family.

 I mention this now because I have spent the better part of the summer so far visiting family. The second weekend in June was Feinberg Family Reunion weekend, which was both really fun (I haven’t seen many of them in four years and had a blast; I also got to meet new cousins) and a chance to remind people that I had graduated high school, in case they didn’t remember. Actually, there wasn’t much reminding going on, because people had brought cards to give me. I had conveniently forgotten to order graduation announcements, made up for it by creating my own (late), and then forgot to send them at all.

 But no matter! For sisters Jayne and Amy had graduated at nearly the same time (from college and high school, respectively) and thus family all around had been talking about it for weeks!

The reason this is amazing is because for the first time I’ve found myself tempted to spend money I had been given. All through high school I wore jeans and t-shirts. Sometimes nice shirts and I mixed it up with some nice outfits. I don’t dress poorly. But I can be lazy, and when I wear skirts and dress nicely Monday through Thursday and then get asked on Friday “how come you always wear jeans,” it's a bit of a let down and it makes it seem less important to bother sitting properly those first four days of the week. Why bother explaining that none of my shorts are long enough for school or that I didn’t feel like dealing with a dress all day when  I could be having more entertaining conversations?

Plus, I’ll admit it, I’ve always liked sitting on the desks. And often, you just can’t do that in a skirt.

 But now I have money. And more importantly, I have gift cards. Cash and checks I deposited in my bank account. Jewelry I of course keep in a safe place, particularly pieces formerly belonging to other family members. But gift cards? Gift cards have to be spent. In fact, if you don’t spend them, many deteriorate. And that is a colossal waste of good shopping money.

  I’ve actually never been a big shopper. I enjoy looking at clothes and I enjoy having nice clothes and it finally hit me that I should probably do my shopping for myself. Because as convenient as it is to let my mom pick all of my clothes out (and she has excellent taste) nothing does as much to ensure that something actually fits as trying it on in the store. Particularly since my mom likes to buy things big.

 And yet I also know that if I want a TV for my dorm room, I’d better buy it because Tornado TV, which lived through a tornado that destroyed my aunt’s house and then several years of dorm living with my sister, now has a been green blob making its way across the screen. I know that there are dorm things I’m going to want, even if I don’t need them. I also know that I can probably talk my parents into some of those things, but that’s a different story.

 I also really like shoes.

 As someone who has stockpiled money for years (I only recently stopped stashing it around my room and started putting it in the bank), knowing that there are things I need and things I want to buy is a fairly new experience. I’m loathe to take money out of the bank for spending purposes and it seems trite to blow years of babysitting money and graduation money on new clothes. Advice columns tell you to save graduation money, to invest it, to bury it and come back for it late, and all manner of other not-spending-it uses.

  Of course, if I don’t want to spend my life being asked “how come you always wear jeans” it might be a good investment. And really – gift cards have to be spent.

What did you/are you spending graduation money on? Have you ever received holiday or special occasion money and regretted your spending?