Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Come Back, Money!

Money is running through my fingers like water at the moment--it's the move. Gassing up my parents' Volvo, with which we're running stuff out to Brooklyn. We're going to need a U-Haul on Saturday. We bought a perfect little side table at a flea market last Sunday ($200, and the first piece of non-particleboard furniture I own). Plus, the apartment is in such a state that we're eating out and ordering basically all the time right now. I'm making an IKEA shopping list that's rapidly heading towards $300, and we're going to need a new dining room set (the one we've been using was so broken and haphazard that it served more as a surface for putting stuff than an actual dining table, and we're not planning on taking it with us), and gah.

But the new apartment is going to be great. Seriously. And I'm willing to spend a few hundred bucks to get into it and get it set up--I'm sort of thinking of it as spending my stimulus check, even though I haven't gotten my stimulus check yet (note to self: and never will, if you don't fill out a mail forwarding form). There's definitely a cost to living a little bit more like a grownup, and I think I'm willing to spring for that cost at the moment.

(I'm also going to need to shell out to fix my computer: both the battery and the power cord are well and truly dead.)

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Come on englishmajor. There is tons of free furniture on craigs list I just checked out the new york area and you can find loads of great stuff. My rule of spending real money on furniture and other durable goods is that they should at least maintain there value. Antiques, etc. IKEA stuff will not do that. (They do have some cool stuff though). When you buy things like that though it really needs to go into the entertainment budget because you know that you can live without it.

I am not saying you should not have enjoy at least a few nice things to make life livable but for every $100 that you spend you are missing out on $1 a month for the rest of your life. 1% per month return. So stay focused don't go over budget and retire young and relaxed. It will happen if you work hard.

SavingDiva said...

Good luck with your shopping trip! I'm going to be in the same boat when I move in August!

ekingout said...

I'm in the same spot right now. It hurts!

As Steve mentioned, craigslist is a great place to find solid furniture (as long as you are able-bodied and have a car). I recently saw a nice kitchen table set for $100.

ashley said...

I know just what you mean- the pull towards wanting a really nicely decorated place and the fear of spending way too much.

Another tip: (although you probably already know) yard sales sometimes are a great place to find furniture, too.

Anonymous said...

Will they forward the stimulus check?
Some government checks don't get forwarded.
Just wondering.
I have mail forwarding also.

Anonymous said...

I recently moved and set up our mail to be forwarded to our new house. Our stimulus check was direct deposited, but we got a thing in the mail stating that we would be getting the stimulus check and the amount it would be. That got mailed to our old address and not forwarded by the post office. The people who live at our old place sent it along to us with some other mail (all government stuff) that hadn't gotten forwarded.

Maybe contact the IRS?

PiggyBankBlues said...

i'm sure you know this, but you can fill out a change of address form online now.

good luck moving. i feel for you though, it's always a bank drain...

English Major said...

Holy shit, piggybankblues--I totally did not know that, and it is more than worth $1 to have my address forwarding done online. Thanks!

And thanks also, onthehomefront, for your experience--I'll see if I can alert the IRS.

MoneyMaus said...

Hope all is going well with the move! I'll be doing that in August, in the opposite corner of the country however ;)