Far be it from me to tell you how to spend your money, but you’ve been complaining the past few weeks that you’ve had no money to pay your bills, buy in food, whatever.

Now that you have got money you’ve spent it on an iPod? Would it not have made more sense to spend the money on paying off bills and then put the rest in your bank account for if the unfortunate happens and you don’t get the job you’re being interviewed for?

All the more ridiculous that you bought an iPod of all things, when there are far cheaper specimens on the market that would do exactly the same thing.

Good luck with the interview.

Jem Shut the hell up £32 was not going to pay any of the bills that we owe I said that Sarah could buy it not that it is up to me how Sarah spends her money.

Give Sarah a break. I mean, it’s 60$. And she’s been stressed. I’d say 60$ is a pretty nice price for maybe a *little bit* of happiness. Jem, you should really shout at me, I recently bought a new 250$ iPod and a 130$ cell phone, because I was stupid enough to leave a can of pop with a knife in my bag. Now THAT was stupid.

Sean, she’s right I’m afraid. Do you have an elementary grasp of maths? Then let’s begin.

£32 wouldn’t have paid any bills. OUTRIGHT. I hear this idiot argument all the damn time from people saying “I’m broke” etc.

My response is to get a spreadsheet and enter into that all your incoming money like wages, and outgoing costs like rent etc. Then put in EVERYTHING that you spend money on..net, shopping, gadgets etc.

If the money IN is LESS than the money OUT, economise. If you have bills to pay, economise. Downgrade your net/find a cheaper ISP, buy aldi/cheapo food, pull in your spending and put a little buy every week to pay the debts off before they get too big and you lose all hope of recovery.

That £32 was on a gadget. You have computers that play MP3s. You don’t NEED £32’s worth of iPod..it could have been £32 of power/gas/bill pay/food. You can’t live on music, you can’t eat an iPod, nor can you keep warm with it.

and Stress? What type of idiotic excuse is that? Going to pieces solves nothing - PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER and DEAL WITH IT.

People always say that Jem and I are “well off, so we’re lucky”. It’s called accounting for every penny, and stretching every penny out. I buy nothing without debating it really hard, and thinking “Do I actually NEED this..?” I fix up anything I find if it serves the same purpose and use it instead, or if I do need to buy something, I buy the cheapest possible unit that can fulfil the requirements.

I have a 1gb MP3/WMA player with radio..it’s a generic stick, no brand name, no poncy label..£15, and it’s 4 years old now. Still works great. I have all the functions of an iPod, at a fraction of the cost.

The bottom line is: If you can’t afford it and have things to pay off, do without it and get rid of the bills. Don’t make excuses and buy crap because you feel like it. That only leads to one place.

@Sean: what idiotic logic.

Let’s say you have a £100 bill. You pay off £32. Oh look, you only have to pay back £68 when you have money next.

Of course, there’s always the alternate option. You have a £100 bill. You buy a cheap equivalent no-brand mp3 player that does the same thing for £7 (cheapest I found with a quick google search). You then have £25 to pay off that bill, leaving you with £75 to pay off when you have money next.

Both giving you more ‘flexible’ money in the future, and less pressure on your back from the bill companies.

Let’s go back to the beginning… you have a £100 bill. You pay off nothing, instead choosing to spend that £32 on tat. Oh look, you still have the full £100 to pay back next time you have money. Does that even begin to sound like the logical choice?

Like I said, far be it from me to tell Sarah how to spend her money, but there’s a reason why I’m not in debt and never have been. Good money management is more important to the long term stability of a relationship, than a fucking iPod.

And sure, I’ll shut the hell up (now)… but next time Sarah complains about her money situation and/or lack of job, I’ll be sure to invite her to do the same. Fair, no?

Regardless of whether or not I agree with Jem/Karl, I still do not see how it is any of their business.

I have a friend, whom I’ll call X, whose job was rocky (as in, company possibly going under, bills being unpaid) who had to put their student loans into deferment because they weren’t able to pay them. X recently decided to buy an iPhone.

Do I agree with this? Hell no. It makes absolutely no sense to me and I don’t understand it - surely that money could have gone toward X’s rent or loan payment? But did I say anything? Hell no. I love this friend to bits but it is SO not my place to tell my friends what to do with their money. I’m honestly appalled that someone would think it was.

Welcome back to the dark side, retrograde apple user, Aren’t the cookies delicious?

We all have been raised different ways as far as learning money management is concerned.

Still, it’s never our place to tell other people about their choices of money budgeting.

Lesson learned: just don’t mention financial situation/status/etc. in the blog and you wouldn’t have to hear comments in the open

That said, good luck with your interview.

I plan on getting one of those. I just recently got a job where I am allowed to listen to music and my old ass CD player is too big, too heavy and the batteries die after just a few hours of playing music. I always wondered what the big deal was about the iPods and such but now that I have reverted to the “old style” CD player, I can see what the rage is. They’re easily portable, weight almost nothing and the batteries last a hell of a lot longer.

Wow. Now I have no idea who you are (if I remember my surfing route correctly I think you were the top commenter on someone’s blog I got to from allthingskawaii.net) but since nobody else said it and everyone wanted to bitch at you for spending you’re money (by everyone I suppose I mean Jem and Karl):

I’M HAPPY THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO BUY YOURSELF SOMETHING YOU WANTED TO HAVE! I’m positive that being able to go throughout your house behind your broom is much less boring now!

And to everyone else:

At least she’s not me… When I decided that I wanted to make my music portable I bought a Zune (because Apples are for losers ;D) AND when the radio transmitter didn’t work because my car’s antenna was too far away, I spend $300 on a stereo for my car with an AUX jack to plug it in.

Everyone values things differently, sooo what if she wanted to get an iPod so badly that she took the money she earned herself to buy it. And saying that you’ve never had monetary problems, come ON everyone’s been in a pinch before.

The bottom line is MONEY IS NOTHING UNLESS YOU SPEND IT. And if you buy something that you value, then it’s money well spent, regardless of what it is that you bought. As long as you love it.

Now, I don’t know how you value friendships, but I hate it when my so-called friends snob their noses right in the middle of my business.

I know of three subjects that you should never try to change a friend’s mind about:

1. Where their money goes (Notice that it’s number one?)
2. How they view politics
3. What religion they follow

Ugh, and I know, it’s never a strangers business to stick their big fat nose into other peoples’ friendships. Sorry. I was just a little outraged that your friends couldn’t just be happy for you. No matter how much bitching you did about money to them… A simple, “Cool, nice gadget, glad you could afford it.” would’ve been perfect.