A Better Way To Spend That
First of all–hello, Queercents! It’s wonderful to meet you. Preparing my first post, scheduled to go up right at Thanksgiving, no less, was proving pretty daunting. How to adequately introduce myself, say something wise about
personal finance, and be classy about the holiday? Luckily, as I was brainstorming and stressing, the telephone rang: my darling roommate, who found her way to a Maryland liquor store on the way home from a conference.
roommate: Tell me how you feel about a handle of Tanqueray for 30 dollars.
me: A handle?
roommate: Of Tanqueray.
me: For 30 dollars?
roommate: Well, 33, but that’s still really good.
me: Yeah it is….
(Pause while my heart overflows.)
me: But there’s an entire bottle of gin still in our pantry. We–
roommate: You’re turning down a 30 dollar handle of Tanqueray?
me: I’m saying, maybe there are better ways to spend our money than buying all the booze we can possibly get our hands on.
roommate: I don’t know who I’m living with.
(We are both laughing, but it’s funny because it’s true.)
me: I think you’re just surprised that liquor is cheap in Maryland. But it’s always cheap in Maryland, so we can go to Maryland, or the city, and get cheap Tanqueray after I finish the gin in the pantry.
I live in a Virginia suburb of DC, and liquor in Virginia is controlled by the Alcoholic Beverage Commission–you can only buy it at ABC stores, so there’s no competition, on top of the steep taxes. But we work in the city, so we’re not bound to ABC stores like we were in college, far from any state lines. (Of course, we would never bring in more than one gallon.)
roommate: They also have this Crown Royal, which is pretty. It’s just… pretty–ohmygodbombayadvaouihgakd!
me: What?
roommate: Bombay Sapphire 22 dollars. Tell me you don’t want it.
me: ….The regular size?
roommate: Yes.
me: ….That is really….OHMYGOD there is an entire bottle of gin in the pantry if you buy Bombay Sapphire I will never ever drink the gin in the pantry!
You know those calculators that show you how 25 dollars now is worth like 480,000 in fifty years? A Melissa Ferrick ticket is still worth it, every time. (Or, you know, four days of Metro fares.) A seventeenth bottle of alcohol might not be the best choice.
I don’t know about wise or classy, but I can’t think of a better way to introduce myself. In my current financial life, I’m starting to pay off my student loans, saving to rebuild the emergency fund I drained while I was job-searching after graduation, and occasionally remembering that there are better ways to spend my money than buying all the booze I can possibly get my hands on. The above information about Virginia liquor is actually the only thing I know about tax law. Still, I’m doing my best.
I’m excited to get involved in the Queercents community as I figure it all out–from the price of gin to the price of 25 years of student loan interest. As I get started, I’d love to hear your thoughts and concerns about twentysomething finances. What is particularly challenging, or easier than you thought? What sorts of things are you interested in talking about?
Melissa: Welcome aboard! I think you’re both wise and classy for starting to pay off your student loans, replenishing your emergency fund and thinking twice before buying that extra bottle of gin. You already fit in here at Queercents!
Hi Melissa! As Nina says, wise decisions all around.
Making money is both easier and harder than I expected. It’s easier to make money, it’s harder to find a meaningful job. I’m going to be trying out a combination of part-time work and freelance which may be even harder than a boring job but I hope will be more meaningful and get me where I’m going.
I didn’t realize how much I’d be dealing with the money/meaning quandary.
I’m a very long way past being a twentysomething, but you’ve learned some lessons that will serve you well all your life. I often have discussions with my spouse in the form:
Spouse: We can save $120 by buying X now. It usually costs $360 and it is on sale for $240.
Me: We can save $240 dollars if we don’t buy it now. If we wait until the sale is over and THEN don’t buy it, we can save $360! I say we wait.
Haha, Larry, you have me and my roommate DOWN. She came back from the trip in question with like eight bottles of alcohol, and told me how much she’d SAVED.
Hi, Melissa!
I still don’t know how I managed to spend such a large proportion of meager income on alcohol while I was in school. If I spent the same amount on booze these days (in $, not even in %), you’d have to peel me off the floor every night.