people's money priorities

So another one of those "LOL can someone good at budgeting help us" alleged-clueless-rich-person thing is making the rounds. (I say "alleged" because I'm pretty convinced it's a hoax designed to raise outrage among those who have less). Supposedly a couple who live in Kansas City, have no kids, make a combined income of $500,000.....but are going broke.

LOL yeah.

Allegedly,they spend $10,000 a month on a mortgage, which, unless they're in a literal castle, I don't think fits for KC. (I don't know: I've never been there, and also I don't have a mortgage on my *own* house - between a little inheritance from grandparents left over, a gift from my dad, and some money I had saved up, I was able to buy a small, older house needing some repairs outright, do many of the repairs myself...and not have a mortgage payment to be concerned with).

And they spend $3000 a month on food as a couple....which seems high to me, I don't know. Some months I spend a tenth of that and I feel like that's more than I "should" be spending. (Many months, especially if I'm not going to restaurants and not eating much meat, it's closer to $200....)

(And much hay was made on Twitter about the $400 a month "party supplies" thing. I admit I'm literal minded and also innocent, and I forgot they didn't have kids, so I was actually imagining paper plates and pinatas and party hats....I think the conclusion was that was a euphemism for booze...)

But anyway. How anyone spends their money isn't really my business, unless they're regularly going into debt and then hitting me up for loans, or if they're a family member I'm expected to support by cutting back on my own spending.

In some ways I'm pretty frugal. I tend to agree with the sentiment that there's nothing you can buy that feels better than not carrying a heavy load of debt feels. (I am very fortunate in that I have no debt, currently. I was able to make it through my education without loans, largely by being able to live with my parents through graduate school and working as a TA, which paid my tuition and got me a tiny stipend).

But there are things I spend money on (as the last post shows). Craft supplies are a big one, though really, I should be working down what I *have* already, both for financial and storage reasons. And books, though at this point it's kind of the same, I have a LOT of books.

And there are things I don't: I could probably save myself a lot of time and some physical agony by hiring a lawn service instead of mowing the lawn myself. But then again: you have to do a long-term contract with places here, and some of them want to spray chemicals (I don't care if my lawn is a little weedy; it's never bad in high summer because the St. Augustine crowds the other stuff out, and I don't like risking poisoning the beneficial insects or birds). Same with a cleaning person....

though also, I admit I have the sense of "this is your mess, this is your area, you should take care of it yourself" and I also dislike the fact - which some friends have told me of - that at least with some lawn services, when you need them to come out, you have to call several times to schedule and ugh, I would rather just mow my small lawn myself than have to use the phone...

If I weren't physically able to do it (and that may become a thing in the future, I suppose) that's one matter. But if I can, I feel kind of like I should.

And new furniture or new household "things" or even stuff like renovating the kitchen....with furniture, especially, I get attached to the stuff I have and would rather not have to replace it. I replace stuff when it breaks or wears out, but I know people who get bored of their furniture and sell or donate it so they can buy new....I think the last "new" furniture I bought was the recliner chair, and that was because the overstuffed chair I bought in 2000 was wearing out and breaking down, and when the furniture place dropped the new chair off they took the old one for recycling/disposal. (I kept the big ottoman though because it was still in good shape). And yeah, I think I would like to have a redone kitchen, with fancier newer cupboards and more functional flooring than the silly white ceramic tile (gets slick when damp, and shows every speck of dirt) but the idea of managing the logistics of it shuts me down (I know someone who had her kitchen redone and because the contractor was slow, she was without a functional kitchen for eight months and I cannot even imagine that).

(Heh. What I would spend money on? Someone to run the logistics for me. Someone to call the contractor and chew on him for not getting the work done to schedule, or to call the lawn service back and tell them to get out here and mow the lawn because they're three days late...)

But honestly, if I had a lot of money I felt free about spending? The biggest thing I'd buy (provided I could either make room in my house, or have new construction done to expand part of the house, or have a climate-controlled shed built for it out back, or rent studio space, or whatever) would be a longarm quilting machine (and lessons in how to use it). The fancy ones are upward of $10,000 but I would want one you could either do free hand or "pantographs" (printed patterns, like the old templates for hand quilting but you can get almost ANYTHING in a pantograph - flowers, stars, animal shapes, you can have a lot of fun doing themed quilting)

But yeah. That's my one big spendy "want" right now - not a fancy car, not fancy jewelry, not even a fancy vacation somewhere....