Two blogs in the same week...I'm on a roll here!

To the point: today was a very eye-opening day for me, money wise.

This morning we decided that a little colour would do our happy l'il home some good, so off to the paint store we went to get some supplies and, well, paint. I let the girlfriend pick out the colours (like I stood a chance of my opinion making a difference anyway). She picked some decent looking colours (yes...that's how we spell it in Canada) that had some stupid-ass names like "Dusty Sandstorm" or "Corina Bell" or something like that, got a decent paint tray, some rollers and brushes and a giant drop cloth. Done and done...we went to the cashier to pay and get our paints mixed. We went with the little-more-expensive-to-have latex paint with the teflon in it, 'cause having a kid can sometimes do wonders to your walls and its suppose to wipe messes off and repel crap better. So, six cans of paint plus all the crap that goes with it comes to a grand total of $550....give or take some change.

I actually paid less for my first car. How the hell does paint and supplies crack the $500 barrier?? Whatever, it would look good and clean easily, so I forked over the debit card and we left.

During the drive home, I started thinking about all the useless shit I have in my house that I would have to move or cover away while painting, and I came to the conclusion that I am a cash waster. We have two book cases full of DVDs and Tv-On-DVD box-sets (over 1200 movies alone), another two book cases filled with actual books (collecting vintage books is a hobby of mine), boxes upon boxes of 'stuff' we thought we needed or wanted, and a ton of old clothes and electronics stashed away in the basement. The wife even admitted to wasting cash "here and there" on products and cosmetics and other various shit she really didn't need or use. (She's the queen of buying clothes that never even have the tag cut off them before they find themselves stashed away in a basement box.)

Now, most of this trash was accumulated pre-daughter. I haven't bought a movie in a long time....I opt for the good ol' Pirate Bay method now...but I have been throwing my money away on things that are pretty un-necessary to our everyday living. Do we really need two different blenders? (That Magic Bullet infomercial got me but good.) Why do we have so many movies that we don't watch and probably never will? (A little over half the movies in the collection haven't even been watched yet.) I don't watch TV, but we pay for the all-out cable. We talk to about three people semi-monthly on the phone who live in the long-distance category, but we pay for unlimited long-distance telephone calling. We don't even bundle the services we have! Waste waste waste. I waste monney on shit I don't need; on shit that NOBODY needs, really.

So why do I do this? Like so many of you, I feel the need to accumulate stuff in order to feel like my life has some validation. Sort of a "Hey, look at me! I have this and that, and thus I am of importance!" Its kinda silly, and I'm only now starting to realize it. I wish I could travel back in time to go slap the shit out of my 22 year old self for dropping $200 at Sunrise Records to be the proud owner of the entire run of 'Saved By The Bell' on disc. I would kick my 24 year-old self in the dick for spending almost $600 on David Bowie tickets, and another $300 a week later for Oasis ones. I'd eye-poke my 26 year old self for buying that new $700 guitar I've played a total of three fucking times since bringing it home (more of an acoustic fan, really. What was I thinking?!?). Some of my dumbest purchases have been after my kid was born; you'd think I'd wise up once responsibility to another life kicks in.

So I'm making a pact with myself from now on. No more stupid purchases...unless it involves Liverpool merchandise....for a long time. I'll make grocery lists and stick to them, I'll pre-plan my outings to the hardware store or shopping centres, take a lunch to work instead of hitting a restaurant every day, shit like that. What I waste on smoking alone would probably put the kid through University. Maybe I'll start taking that money I normally would have pissed away on replica Stormtrooper blaster rifles or zombie merchandise and put it in a jar for the kid.

I know you've all made some pretty silly purchases in your day, so I don't feel totally alone in my stupidity. Its just a real sobering experience to see how much you've wasted and to calculate how much that crap really costs. There are a lot of people in my community who are just barely getting by, and here I am throwing my money away on shit that has no use or purpose. Its a very sobering realization indeed.

Thanks for reading,

-The Big Bad