What Do You Do With Your Extra Money?

21 October 2008 No Comment

Money by tw collins

The Economy

Over the past several weeks, the economy has been at the forefront of the news. The stock market has been hit hard. Lending institutions have failed. The government has passed this new bill that was supposed to stabilize the economy. The election is probably going to hinge on this topic.

Through all of this, my husband and I have notice one thing. We haven’t been hurt as bad by this as others. Maybe it’s because we don’t have any stocks. Maybe it’s because we are still living paycheck to paycheck. Actually we’ve had extra cash. We’ve been paying extra on some bills. We’ve even put some into savings.

We’ve not made too many changes, yet.

We haven’t really made too many changes, yet. We are still digesting the budget lessons. We have cut back on the eating out. In preparation for the budget, we realized we eat out a lot!!!

A Multitude of Savings Philosophies

There is the philosophy out in the blogosphere that you should “sock” all extra money away into savings. Some say take the extra money and pay off as much debt as possible. The possibilities are endless. Some say if you save and save, then you become obsessed with saving and it becomes addictive. People who are addicted to saving actually feel bad when they spend money.

We’re still in the decision process. We have paid up a month on several bills. So the big question came up in our family….what do other people do when they have extra money? How do they “balance” the savings and spending?

What are your ideas?

Help us out…let us know what some of your ideas are. Do you save? Do you allot a small amount to each other to spend without conditions? Do you go on a shopping spree? Do you let it ride in your checking account?