Recently my youngest daughter and I were traveling to a nearby town to do some shopping. A few months ago the oldest and I went, and now it was her turn. Don’t get too horribly excited, we were shopping at Sam’s Club primarily. We did manage to get a couple of trips to Barnes and Noble.
Yes, I said a couple. Yes, we were only in town for a couple of hours. You see, I wasn’t going to purchase anything in the store because, well, because I review books and get them for free. And I have 4 I am in the process of reading right now. Then we left, and I glanced to the left and saw this:
Oh yes. It was marked down to $6.something. I skimmed through it, decided to think on it while we were doing the rest of our shopping. I waffled back and forth. I was going to buy it. I wasn’t going to buy it. I definitely was going to buy it. I definitely was not going to buy it. I most assuredly was definitely going to buy it. I most assuredly was definitely not going to buy it. And then I walked out of the store.
Yes. Dave Ramsey has ruined my life. Impulsive little purchaser that I am, I can no longer just on impulsive buy a $6.something cookbook. While at Sam’s Club I made my final decision, if I managed to somehow spend less than I thought I was, I would go back and buy this little gem. I thought I was assured to spend over my “If I spend this amount or less, I will get the book” so I told my Beanie what I was thinking.
She gleefully giggled as the cashier told me my total, and loudly proclaimed for all in the store to hear, “Yay, Momma! Now you can go get that cookbook and make us some GOOD food.”
Lord, love that child.
I kept my word, we went back and bought the cookbook. I have yet to make my family any “GOOD” food. But I did manage to save an additional 10% by using my Barnes and Noble membership card. Shoot. I even decided to spring for on-our-way-home-mochas.
My mocha…oh my word! We all know I don’t (normally) eat anything containing refined, white sugar, so it has been a long while since I have eaten chocolate pudding, but that, my friends, is exactly what my decaf, sugar-free, iced mocha tasted like.
Which really just means it tasted like a little slice of heaven. And it’s a good thing too. Because my mocha fund has been cut off for a few weeks. Except! I found money in my purse I didn’t know I had. Always a good thing, except when it comes to coffee money. I never know when to spend it. I’d love to have spent it yesterday. I know I’ll want to spend it today. But what if tomorrow or next week I REALLY need a sugar-free, iced, decaf, skim milk coffee drink?
Such is the quandary of my life.
virginiagarrett.com 
This topic is very timely for me as my husband and I just settled on the new car we’re going to purchase last night! Though we have some valid reasons for purchasing new instead of used, and we’ve done all our homework and secured a great price, I’ve still been feeling a little uncomfortable because technically we could save about 5k if we bought used. But at the end of the day, buying new makes sense for us for a variety of reasons, some you can prove with a formula on paper and some you can’t. For example, the car we’re purchasing will primarily be my husband’s commuter car. He is on the road (in Bay Area traffic) for about 2.5 hours a day. He’s a total car guy, and has been driving my 100k mile Jeep for the last few years without a word of complaint, even though I know he’d love something more comfortable with better gas mileage. So I’m happy to pay 5k more over the life of the car (which we’ll keep at least 7-8 years) to make him happy, safe and comfortable. Isn’t that why we’re being responsible with our money 99% of the time?
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