giving, shopping, loving this holiday season

today i was relaxed about shopping. after treating myself to a professional manicure after more than a year of doing it myself, i wanted to go watch a movie. j (spouse) met me back at the salon carrying a bag from Dick Smith. he bought a new firewire cable because, he said, the one we have is no longer working properly. so on our way to the cinema, we passed by Dick Smith again and he just told me that there is a 320gb hard drive for only $170. i thought that was cheap so i let him lead me into the store.

he showed me the item and saw that there was a 500gb item sitting next to 320gb. i told him that he bought the 80gb that we have now 2 years ago and buying 320gb does not mean he'll/we'll stop wanting/needing more back up space. he didn't flinch at the possibility that he was gonna get 500gb instead of 320gb. he only wanted the smaller one because it was cheaper and he said that he was trying to be frugal. i told him cheap and frugal are 2 different things, and said i'd rather we get 500gb and not buy another hard drive for 5 years! of course i tried go be techie sounding by asking if speed were compromised with bigger space, which he said it wasn't.

it cost us $280, a hundred plus more than he initially went in for. we used CC1 but i made the online payment of the same amount to the card this evening. i want debt down and i'm committed to it! we just used the card for thr FlyBuy points. we have quite the points already!

i reminded j that he was supposed to save for that hard drive, and at some point in our conversation we agreed that he wouldn't be receiving his next allowance in full. later i felt bad about it because it's christmas. it's my favorite holiday and it tends to creep up on me. i also got him a leather ipod touch case for $40 as a present. i felt i had to get that because he's not the type who really cares whether his gadgets get scratched or not. he is very accepting of the wear and tear realities of life, which can be frustrating if you're the opposite. i'm not so extreme like that.

all in all, though we spent about $400 today, i don't feel bad. maybe it's the season but also because we paid for everything in cash. we owed no debt today. we have more than enough to last us until our next pay day. our electricity and internet/phone/cable bills are already paid for way before their due dates! i think it's all good.