When we built our house one million years ago, we both clammed up during our meeting with the electrician. He told us that we had a few places in the house that needed more recessed lighting, and he thought we could have more outdoor outlets. In 2011, we both made about half of what we make right now, and we had just GUTTED our savings account to build a house, were expecting our third baby, and could not sell our condo that we purchased at the height of the housing bubble, so we were preparing to pay a new mortgage, plus most of an old mortgage offset by a renter. We absolutely WOULD NOT spend one more cent on the house, WHICH IS WHY WE HAVE DIMMER SWITCHES THAT TURN NOTHING ON, GIANT HOLIDAY LIGHT EXTENSION CORDS, and TWO REALLY REALLY DARK CORNERS that are not actually conducive to lamps, it turn out.
But this a common spending habit with us-- we will be extravagant about some things and then completely cheap about other things-- usually things that are inexpensive to begin AND ALSO would be great additions to our lives. What a terrible combo! Like, all those lights and outlets would have cost less than a thousand dollars and are WAY MORE EXPENSIVE NOW.
I was thinking about this today when I got an ad for a really cool magnetic bobby pin holder that would solve SO MANY dance bag problems and thought immediately I will not spend eleven more dollars on dance. Even though I will spend MORE THAN THAT replacing lost hair pins every week of the season, probably. And dance is so pricey, WHO EVEN CARE about $11? It makes no sense.
I asked Ben if he could think of an example of this habit, and he said OUTLETS, but we do it all the time with vacation planning (that one more stop that breaks the camel's back), grocery shopping ($600 for the cart but ABSOLUTELY NOT on that $7 bottle of salad dressing).
Am I alone on this? Do you ever cheap out on the silly details?
SPEAKING OF HAIRPINS!
Dorothy has to have a mid ballet bun (mid like height, not mid like result because as you can see, this bun is AWESOME) for her lyrical dance this year, and we are not supposed to use a donut, which is the only way I have ever done a ballet bun. But I watched a video and NAILED IT (with the use of 10000 hairpins now scattered everywhere with no magnet dish to contain them).
But did Dorothy also have to have a center part with that mid ballet bun? Because that bun right there plus a center part may be the death of me.
ReplyDeleteYES SHE DID. The MID and the CENTER PART together are VERY TRICKY.
DeleteMy husband does this when repairing/upgrading our house. He put the cheapest medicine cabinet and lights in the bathroom; the edge of the mirror is sharp,the shelves always fall out, and the fixture is ugly. The upstairs bathroom , which he demoed down to the studs and rebuilt, got the awful towel racks that fall off the wall if you look at them wrong. It drives me nuts. Also vacations....
ReplyDeleteI will admit, he put extra outlets and lights in most of the rooms. His new garage has an outlet every four feet or so. And the lighting is good enough for surgery ( he repairs our cars, so surgery is apt.)
I do it with respect to Christmas presents.
ooooh I wish we had that kind of lighting!
DeleteI LOVE hearing about the random money quirks of others because we all have them. Personally, I had/still have this weird hang up about any associated 'extra' fee and would go to insane lengths to avoid them like it was some bizarre badge of honor, no matter how much easier they made my life. I'm finally getting over that because doing things like schlepping all your carry-on luggage through airports with two small kids is very dumb.
ReplyDeleteoooooh I am like that when it comes to paying for shipping.
DeleteWe would not do this because we always rationalize things per use. But we will NOT start big projects or make big decisions. That's why we currently have one car that is only sort of safe (no one wants to figure out what new car to buy, let alone go test drive), we never go on vacation (who is going to plan that?), and our bathroom renovation is stalled at the "maybe we should ask around about architects and contractors" stage. For heaven's sake.
ReplyDeleteAnalysis paralysis!
DeleteYes! This is exactly what we do. Once we're doing it we don't cheap out on stuff, but getting the project going is impossible.
DeleteWe have finally gotten MOST of our 1970's beige outlet switches changed. We did so many big (expensive) renos in the last few years, but it took forever to spend a couple hundred bucks to switch out some terrible lights and update the plugs and switches. I guess they weren't broken, but they were subpar. I think some of it for me is less the money and more the mental fortitude that doing anything around the house involves. DECISIONS! Phone calls to hire someone. Gah. I hate it. I really wish I could magic fairy everything I'd like to do around my house.
ReplyDeleteSO MANY DECISIONS
DeleteOh gosh. I so wish we'd spent the extra money to put a full-fledged room under our addition vs another crawl space. But, the contractor didn't run that past us as an option until the 11th hour. I thought the addition was going on a slab, didn't know they were digging. We so could've used another bedroom in the basement. Ugh. But, like you- we weren't going to spend another dime on the addition. Not sure this counts, but recruiters are hounding us to let them help Curly to the tune of $1,800. Coach is deadset against it. Part of me is like, YEAH, BUT WE ARE BUSY AND THIS SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF WORK AND IF SHE GETS A SCHOLARSHIP . . . WOULDN'T IT BE WORTH IT? OMG - I just cleaned out the old Irish dancing cabinet and we have like 4 donuts floating around. They were used under wigs and the little girls are very interested in designing a hairdo with them. ;)
ReplyDeleteI DO think those recruiters help-- especially with all the promotion stuff that kids need to do to get d1 scholarships
DeleteI remember after my sister's wedding, standing in the shower incredibly drunk removing bobby pins for what seemed like four hours (then finding my even more drunk husband sprawled all the way across the hotel bed we were supposed to sleep on, so having to clean off the other bed for myself).
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any specific examples, but I know what you mean. I would try to rein this behaviour in with my husband - like, we spent way too much for Disney on Ice tickets, we are not going to deny the kids a drink and a snack now because they are stupidly expensive, if we were logical about spending we would not be here. Eve is the most sensible about money of all of us - hates spending money and even if she really wants something won't buy it if she doesn't 'need' it.
oh my gosh! after my SIL's wedding, we sat in the hot tub in our room and pulled pins out my hair FOREVER
Delete(Buy the magnetic bobby pin holder...you could put paperclips in it on your desk at work once you don't have any kids in dance, and it will be both a sweet reminder of the dance years, and of your smart money decisions.)
ReplyDeletegood call!!
DeleteWell, I know exactly what you mean but I can't think of any examples because I'm so in awe over that bun. Thank God my daughter didn't do dance because there's no way I could handle it.
ReplyDeleteso many youtube tutorials
DeleteOMG SAME. I try to remind myself that it's not the $2 and $3 dollar "splurges" that got me so stretched. But at the same time, you can't look at past Sarah's decisions through current Sarah's eyes. I know when we bought our last house we were SO POOR that a thousand dollars doing anything was laughable. And so I still have my shitty countertops and dishwasher and country-goose-blue bedroom. I'm currently trying to curb those little bits and pieces though by thinking "is this solving a problem that I didn't know I had until I saw this?" So if the bobby pins always drive you nuts, then the holder is great. But if you've never been annoyed by them before, then maybe less so? I agree with everyone though that the bun is perfection and you should just shellac her head and call it. Also do you know about french bobby pins? They've changed my (admittedly not dance saavy) life.
ReplyDeletealso still have my shitty countertops and vinyl floors in the bathrooms.
DeleteThat bun is a thing of beauty!
ReplyDeleteI can't think of anything I'm cheap about but I'm sure there are plenty of things I can point to. But gah, I just really like spending money to make my life better/easier!
thanks!
DeleteYou know that book during the mommy wars _I Don't Know How She Does It?" I CONSTANTLY think that when I'm reading your posts!! That bun is a thing of beauty!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, on the money note--
I 'll make the fam eat $3-worth of veggies that were about to be wasted by spending $$ on tasty add ons but leave my gardening tools outside all winter to rust (as my kid kindly pointed out this morning).
HAHAHAHA-- excellent example!
DeleteI love that bun!!! I want that bun!! Alas, I have zero volume to make that kind of creation.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind spending on our month in France but I would fight with my husband over getting takeout... I am a sad, sad kind of person.