Found Money

Last week, I opened my mail to find a $200 check from my parents.  Talking to my mom this weekend, I learned that their tax return was larger than they were expecting, so they decided to share the wealth with their kids (I have four siblings, all older than me).  I am financially independent and my parents were very clear to draw that line in the sand the minute I graduated from college, with several steps leading up to it before then, but this is not the first time they’ve been generous with their money this way.

In the past, I’ve treated these unexpected gifts in one of two ways.  Either it just happened to come at a time where I was really struggling, so it was the bit I needed to make it through.  Lucky, lucky me.

Or, I would treat it like found money.  That’s code for buy whatever you want.  My parents like the idea of their gifts being spent this way–as a treat to us.  But, of course, that assumes we’re doing all the smart things they taught us, like paying off credit cards in full every month.  I would take it as an excuse to forget about my debt and head to Ulta for some shiny, pretty things.

In fact, I did go to Ulta this weekend for the first time in more than six months and all the things inside were even shinier and prettier than I remembered.  But, I left an hour later with nothing but a desperately-needed hair cut (I got it done at Ulta, because their salon was having a deal).

As I was driving home, I wasn’t particularly proud of my restraint.  I knew going in that I wasn’t going to buy anything and while there was a short moment of extreme temptation, it wasn’t much of a struggle to stick to that.  But, later I thought about that unexpected $200 now sitting in my bank account and just how easily I could have justified spending it, even just a little bit of it, as a special treat.  It was one of those moments where I thought, six months ago I would have made the stupid decision here.

What that $200 has done is help me stay exactly on track with my plan.  After some unexpected March expenses (and some I should have expected, but didn’t adequately account for), I was about $150 off track and where I would have normally readjusted the plan (something you have to do often when you budget so tightly), I’ve now begun April right on track to finish this journey mid-December.