Friday, August 18, 2006

Seven Year Itch?

Do you think the desire to spend money comes in waves? Kind of like the bible story of the Pharaoh's dream, where there are seven fat cows, then seven skinny cows, and the seven good ears of corn and the seven dry ears of corn-- it symbolizes seven years of plenty, and then seven years of famine. If you have seven years of saving, will you then have seven years of spending, or vice versa?
In the past weeks there have been some slight signs of progress with my condo-- still no TCO, but that is the only missing piece at this point, and inspections have been happening. (The DOB website is my new addiction.) I feel like it's getting really close... so the itch I have right now is the itch to spend money decorating and making my new home my own. Yesterday I spent almost $20 on assorted magazines so I could clip out some ideas. I keep making notes about furniture I might like to buy. I need to go back to all my budgeting and reassess how much I can spend on getting the place into shape-- at one point I think I had said I would allow myself $5000. That won't go all that far, but it's not like I really need all that much: just a couch, curtains, bed frame and a few other odds and ends, at a minimum. But I could go far beyond that minimum!
The first time I became a homeowner was actually more than 7 years ago, but I had the same feeling at that time. That home was more of a fixer-upper, and I was really into making drawings and plans and collecting books and magazines with decorating ideas. Some of what I wanted to do became a reality, but a lot of other projects never came to fruition. This time, I am moving into a place that will be brand new-- I won't need to fix anything for a while, but there may be little things that I want to change. While looking through one of the magazines I bought, I was admiring a floor in a darker stain, and started to wonder if I should have my floors refinished before I move in! This just goes to show that magazines are EVIL! They make you want to spend money. Or at least that is the effect they seem to have on me when I am in this nest-building state of mind. But I also think it is because of this long dry spell I've had.
For the past almost 7 years, I have been focused on building up my bank accounts and trying to save money. I allowed myself some luxuries in terms of travel, eating out and fun activities, but I bought hardly anything for my home, knowing that I was sort of in a holding pattern until I had a "real" home. Now that I am about to own that real home, it's like a dam is about to burst! At the closing, I'll let loose one flood of money. Then after I move in, there will be another gushing stream of spending. And then... I'll have to hire a little Dutch boy to keep his finger in, uh, my checkbook!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you don't get a lot of comments on this one -- then nobody is reading you :)

Anonymous said...

I had the same issue when we moved into our house.
So tempting to spend, spend, spend.
We resisted (this too shall pass).
A little too well.
Ten years later and there's still only primer on some of the walls.