Money and What To Do With It

Dear State of New Jersey,

Thank you so much for giving me back $800 of my own money that I already paid for property tax but which you gave back to me to make me feel good about the government here. Ha!

Sincerely,
Becs

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Seriously. I have $800 in my pocket. Szzzz...can you hear the sizzle of burning fabric?

What can I do with it? So many things...

1. As planned, because I cannot yet get new carpeting in the living room, buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner and a Hoover steam cleaner. That will eat up most of the money.

2. Put it against the home equity loan.

3. Put it in savings.

4. Buy new clothes. This one is very, very hard. First, this means conceding defeat over the mysterious belly that has grown over the last couple of (post-menopausal??) years. It means buying new fat clothes. Then again, I am down to three pairs of black pants for work and two pairs of jeans and a tiny, tiny, tiny selection of shirts. And the jeans don't fit right somehow. Not too small, just not right. I would stretch this out over a period of some months since I know well enough by now that buying something to be daring vs. buying something I lurve that fits, is beautiful (by my standards) and comfy.

5. Take two cats to the vet for a dental visit. (Dylan and Katy or Boris...or Gus. I dunno.)

6. A long weekend away. But where? I'm thinking either DC in early November or Boston, but doubt it would be either. Just because. I am a terrible travel agent for myself. If you can arrange something that works, let me know, because I just suck at it.

7. Replacing the dishes I bought a couple of years ago. Because a) they are not microwavable and I'm tired of eating out of plastic, b) E was a strong influence in the purchase and c) they really weren't what I wanted to begin with. Or actually, I wanted the beautiful dishes and I also wanted the practical ones. Why the 'for nice'? Well for all the dinner parties I have, of course.

8. Hire Joe the Contractor to come in and do some things that are long overdue for Ma Maisonette. Such as putting lights in the laundry room so I can actually see what I'm doing. Replacing the basement ceiling and fixing it so the cats can't take refuge there any more. Change out a variety of electrical outlets that have never worked. It's a long list.

9. Spend 6 days in New York. Not all together. I don't think I could handle it. But I would probably end up spending about $120 / day to get over there and do things like go to the Metropolitan Museum.

10. Give it away. If I did, it would go to the local mission of the Missionaries of Charity. Or the Salvation Army.

11. Buy a couch. I could probably get a good one on sale or from IKEA.

12. Buy a recliner. I would kill the first cat who touched a paw to it.

13. Maybe buy some real furniture! Yeah! Like a real grownup!

14. Try to figure out how many times I've thought, I don't want to think about that now, I'll think about that tomorrow when I go home to Tara, and see what can be rectified.

15. Piano lessons for 3/4 of a year.

16. The NJ Aikido Club for 3/4 of a year. (I'm getting old. I want to learn how to fall.)

17. Get my car detailed and get a new set of tires. The ones that came with it are crap.

18. .. I'm sure there must be something else. I just can't think of it at the moment. Maybe I'm not as greedy as I think I am.