<$Tuesday, April 15, 2008$>
Prioritizing opportunities for joy
| Last night I gleefully handed over $70 so that Husband and I can attend this. I was going to blog today about how I didn't flinch away from it or regret it for an instant because this is something that belongs in the "Totally Worth It" file. And then this morning I dropped $500 on car repairs. Sigh. I still don't regret buying the tickets, and I doubt knowing I'd need costly emergency car repairs beforehand would have made a difference. Some things, generally things that aren't STUFF, that aren't tangible and don't take up space in your home, but experiences that thrill you -- and yes, meeting my favorite author-slash-mentor-slash literary hero is pretty dang thrilling to me -- and fill up your memories with good times. This is why I don't regret having maxed out my Discover card to help pay for our honeymoon, even though I'm still paying for it a year and a half later. Some things really are Totally Worth It. Worth scaling back in other areas for a while, worth extra hours at the office, worth shelling out the money without even batting an eye. It's easy to forget that in the quest to be frugal and debt-free. Of course, routine car maintenance is also Totally Worth It, if it keeps you from having to plunder your emergency fund for emergency repairs (actually, we have been keeping up with car maintenance pretty well, and this fanbelt wackiness isn't something we could have prevented. I'm just sayin'). But this is exactly the sort of thing emergency funds are for, so I'll try not to fret too much about it. Labels: emergency fund, spending |
