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Instant gratification or delayed gratification?

March 19th, 2007 at 09:18 pm

DH and I have been in Texas for the past 10 days, and were taken to a rodeo and concert in Houston. A relative's company owns a box at the stadium, and we were invited to join in on the festivities. It was pretty interresting to say the least. All food and drinks were free, we were waited on, and there was even a private bathroom with a bouquet of beautiful roses on a table. Then, it was back to reality when the evening ended.

While there, we walked around the fairgrounds, and I watched people who looked like they could not afford to be spending money at the carnival and concession stands, spend like there was no tomorrow. The prices were outrageous. Lemonade and ice cream cones were $5.50 each, a turkey leg was $7.50, t-shirts averaged $18.00 each, and some of the booths were selling baby onesies for $40.00 each! Every booth had a crowd waiting to spend.
I wondered if I have gotten too frugal, because I could not bring myself to spend on these things. Maybe I need to loosen up and not worry about the cost of things and just have fun, and worry about the expense later, like everyone else seemed to do. I looked at extremely young couples with babies and toddlers, spending money like crazy. This area has a very high population of minorities who don't make much money, and they seemed to be in the majority at the carnival. I worry about what effect this kind of spending has on them, but then I think maybe they just want to have fun, for a while, and not care about the expense. It is kind of sad, though, that those who can least afford to squander money at a carnival seem to be the ones who spend the most.

While visiting relatives, I was also bummed that a dad talked his twenty year old daughter into buying a brand new Mustang and financing it for SEVEN years.
Her payments are over $300.00 a month. She is a college student, and works part time, earning about six hundred a month! What was he thinking? If she put that money into a mutual fund every month for seven years, and never added another dime, she could have a tidy sum when she retires.
Why do so many people live for the moment?
Are they fools, or are we, the ones who worry so much about saving for the future?

3 Responses to “Instant gratification or delayed gratification?”

  1. daylily Says:
    1174340347

    Hopefully that carnival is only held once a year. That may explain the spending.

  2. Ima saver Says:
    1174342367

    They are the fools, believe me. I went to a gambling place once in Mississippi. My husband and I had free drinks, dancing and played the slots. We had a great time and lost $2 worth of nickels each. Then we quit. I saw people that looked like they worked for minium wage, just throwing in their money, $3 a clip!! They didn'tlook happy either.

  3. AtomicMelanie Says:
    1174347652

    I am totally with you on this one. We're living in a "Buy Now, Pay Later" society. The other day, a credit card offer arrived in the mail for our daughter who is in NINTH GRADE! No, thank you. It's programmed into us from all sides. We're taught to believe that if we are nobody unless we have "stuff."

    I'd rather not have the "stuff" and live without being afraid of who is on the other end of the telephone every time it rings.

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