Priorities: Were we spend our money

I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day. It was all about what we put our money into after paying for our basic needs. And that got me thinking about what I do with my money as opposed to my friends.

I have a tendency to live with older not as nice things so that I can always have spending money for trivial things when they come up. For example, I drive an older car. A lot of my friends have new cars and trucks. Many of them quite nice. All of those cars are on payment plans. Which is not really a problem. I could afford the payments on a new car, I just would rather have the extra money for trivial and non-essential things.

So any time I'm out with people and they want to do something, I can always afford it. I don't have t ask, is it in my budget. Many of my friends cannot. Clothes, electronics, computers, are all things that I have but that aren't the best or the latest. All things that my friends spend their money on, but I make do with what I have. I wear last years fashions, use an older computer, have an older TV. My friends don't. They buy all the latest. They also have to watch their budgets a lot closer than I do, just to be able to pay all their bills. Of course, they have the benefit of having nicer stuff than I do, but I have the benefit of a freer budget.

I don't really think my method is better than theirs, it's just different. I end up spending as much money on trivial things as they did on their new cars, clothes and electronics. So I'm not really saving much more than they are, or using the money in a wiser way. Just differently.