Poverty? Or Priorities?

I saw the best Facbook status the other day. A father was excited to go on vacation with his family, and made the comment that he may not be saving enough for retirement or a rainy day, but he and his family were making memories together. I LOVE THAT!! I'm not going to judge someone who's HONEST. He DIDN'T say, 'I don't have enough money to save for retirement.' It was his priority to take his earnings and spend it on a family vacation. Something tells me that man is providing perfectly well for his loved ones.

This post started me on a 'soapbox' blog post, so bear with me. I gotta write these every now and then!

Have you ever known someone who is always saying, 'we can't afford that' or, 'we don't have enough money?' We all do; in fact, that's probably us from time to time. Ok, next question: do those same people ALSO give equal time to statements like, 'we're going on a cruise!' or, 'I just bought a sports car!'

Yeah. That's a head scratcher.

Are these people that vapid that they can't see the ridiculous nature of their statements? They aren't poor; they spend according to their priorities.

Yesterday, I wrote about going to the mall, and being honest in our reasons for doing so. Today, I write about being honest and saying what we mean: we spend on what we consider important.

For an unfortunate majority of people, important expenditures are designer purses and sunglasses, vacations, frequent restaurant meals, etc. They do NOT consider paying bills important. Hence, the 'we have no money, but we're sporting the cutest 7 For All Mankind jeans' statements.

In the spirit of being honest, I must confess that once upon a time, I was pretty immature in my consumer habits. It was more important to buy clothes and jewelry than it was to make car payments. Fortunately, life conspired to grow me up a bit, and I realized it's fiscally prudent to make sure you have everything paid bill wise before you head out to party. Thankfully, that realization hit before I had children. They need to be your financial priority.

Are you all going 'DUH' right now?

I may be preaching to the choir. You are reading a blog post on a Facebook page about thrifting, after all. We may be kindred spirits. Or, this could be a huge revelation of Biblical proportions. Pay rent before I go see a movie? REALLY?

I guess what I seek is the kind of transparency we long for in our government: 'We want to balance the budget, but sometimes it's just so daggone fun to overspend on toilet seats for the Pentagon.'

Is it unrealistic to hope that someday soon, I will log onto Facebook and see statuses such as, 'I should have bought health insurance, but I hit Tiffany's instead?' Probably.

A girl can dream.