Easy Change

Christmas is right around the corner and this year, I am getting an early start with Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, others in my family are the same way. In fact, some family members have already bought entire shopping bags of toys for the little ones in my family. So, to avoid adding to the clutter, I've decided to give zeros for Christmas. Zeros (or zero coupon bonds, in other words, EE savings bonds that you can get at the bank where there is no interest paid out regularly...) are a great option if you have someone in your life that already has met a quota of reasonable amounts of toys/gifts for Christmas. Deals abound this year, that is certain. So shop around both online and in the brick-and-mortar stores and resist the urge to buy lots of items that people don't need just to fill up the space under the tree. In the end, I think that nearly any decent investment aimed at the long term (like a zero bond) is the best choice for the little kids in my life. There may be so...

So I am done with my shopping now, but I realize I spent about 100 dollars more than I wanted to. Some of it was on "incidentals" that were part of a fun day of shopping out with my mom. Other items were small, but somewhat pricey treats for myself that I couldn't pass up once I was in the mall. And finally, I just plain overspent on a couple of people. I am a soft-touch. What can I say? The nice thing is that all of this money was "extra" that was earned from side income and therefore this didn't go on credit cards and also did not impact my normal bills/income cycle for the month. I generally regard the secondary income as "play" money that I either save, spend, or invest and don't worry about it too much. However, it is difficult because I definitely sense that there is a bit of an issue with regard to emotions and shopping. I rationalized many of my purchases by reiterating that I was "making more so I could spend more". Or that...

Unfortunately, this year I feel a little bit under-prepared for the upcoming holiday season. I am still managing to generate some extra income so I am not so concerned about spending a decent amount. However, the problem is that I cannot figure out exactly what is "decent". I need to buy presents for a fairly short list of people, but I would really like things to be nice and well-thought-out. I generally try to make it easy for people to shop for me by creating/updating my amazon wish-list as my birthday and christmas roll-around. I encourage people to buy used items from reputable sellers because I have had very good experience with that before. For music, books, and dvds, it doesn't matter to me if they are used as long as they work. However, depending on the person, the might consider getting a "used" gift to be tacky. So I would check with people beforehand. I generally like it because that means I will get more of the stuff that I want rather than just on...