Shopping?

As I mentioned last week, I started a class at the local community college. I had originally budgeted $1000, simply because I never took the time to calculate how much it was going to cost. It ended up being under well under $400 for books and class.

Strangely, when I told various friends about this relative bargain, everyone seemed to have the same response: "Shopping!"

The thought never occurred to me. The money I didn't spend went back into my savings account. I acknowledge that this is boring and pedestrian. I acquired no new items of clothing or electronics. I didn't buy a new instrument. I didn't buy new kitchen utensils. No new shoes or bow ties. No new DVDs.

Part of this sober and uninteresting reaction is that I do live on a fixed income. It's not a smart idea for me to go around spending money now that I might need to spend later. It was actually a surprise to me that I had never even considered shopping with it, because that does seem like a perfectly normal thing that a person might do.

It may be closing in on time to buy some new shirts, though. More and more of my shirts have small holes, and that's no way to look in public. Time to hurry up wait for Target or Kohl's to have a sale!