hey big spender!

I recently read how one of my favorite personal finance bloggers spent over 800 on a fancy tech gadget. I was taken aback. This is someone who is carefull about grocery shopping, clothes shopping, and anything else involving money. There are charts and diagrams on the blog tracking where dollars are spent and where choices have been made to cut back in order to save. However, part of the reason she is so careful is so she can afford what she really likes: travel and technology. And it's her money, right? She earned it fair and square.

Well, I took it as encouragement and decided to purchase something I thought would enhance life immensely. After weeks of debate, my husband and I decided to buy a treadmill. We shopped around a lot and agreed to buy as nice a treadmill as we could possibly afford. We ended up spending just under a thousand including delivery and assembly and so far, hubby is delighted.

As for me, there is the mild feeling of buyers' remorse. It's a lot larger than I anticipated. I looked at it in the store, ran on it, and on a few others. But I never considered that we would have this huge hulking shape in our home. The cats are a little afraid of it, and the noise is quite a lot when hubby decides to take off sprinting as part of his work out. But I'm still glad we purchased it. We needed something. With days being shorter, and the cold weather coming, I won't be one for much time outdoors. That means the pounds I already put on won't be going anywhere, and I'll probably add more! So, this week so far, I worked out about three days. I'm proud of myself for that.

I am trying not to overdo it on the treadmill. I have to take exercise in small doses so I don't discourage myself with soreness and aches and pains. Also, if something feels like a chore, I just don't want to do it. So I'm trying not to make it into a "thing".

In other spend-y news, I just got my car repaired to the tune of $1700. Not seventeen dollars. Seventeen hundred dollars. The car needed lots of work. It's eight years old, going on nine and I wasn't one for much servicing beyond oil changes and tire rotations. When you do the math, it amounts to about $212 annually. I'll have to start giving it regular tuneups. I did replace the batteries and tires prior so it's not as if I've been doing nothing. But looking at the big picture, yeah, I've been doing nothing. I hope, in the warmer weather, to learn how to do oil changes myself. It can't be that hard. But the other stuff I'll leave to the experts, for now.