My largest purchases

Well, I talked a bit yesterday about some of the purchases i'd like to make whilst in Britain and Paris. Those are some pricey purchases, I suppose, although they are not the most expensive purchase i've ever made.

I took a year off between High School and College in order to work full time and earn some money. I think I probably pulled off about $16,000 that year in savings. I had never before earned that kind of money, and it was a little overwhelming, but fortunatly my urge to hoard it all came into play and I ended up keeping most of it. Until just recently, I was debt-free. I've done all the classes required for my degree, now all I have to do is the two semester-long work terms. I will have to use my line of credit to pay for them, but fortunatly I am making money while working so I won't have to carry that debt for very long.

While in my first year at college I bought my laptop and a brand new camera. The laptop was around $1,800 and my camera ran me a little over $800. Both are still with me, although the laptop is comming close to kicking it hard. My camera survived my last trek to Europe as well as many a road trip. It's comming with me again, and I hope to use it for many many years. The laptop doesn't turn on very well anymore, which, I think, bothers me more than anything else that could go wrong with it. The fact that it works just fine when I can get it on frustrates me because the little on/off switch would probably cost more to replace than the computer is worth. But, it's like, I have a perfectly good computer that just won't turn on. It's like a brand new car that won't start. Arrgh. Sometimes it turns on just fine, other times I have to press down on the switch while pushing random parts of the keyboard to get it on. It's actually rather comical watching me try to get this machine running.

Both of those purchases I count as necessary. My laptop has become an extension of myself in both school and personal life. I am also an avid photographer and can't go anywhere on a trip without taking it along - I couldn't travel without it! Both of those i'm very pleased with.

My biggest non-necessary purchase EVER in my life was a Chanel purse off Ebay. I bought it, i'd say about 7 mos ago. It cost me around $450 dollars I think, once I added in tax and shipping, etc. Some would argue that it was a good purchase because the purse is sold at retail for over $2,000 and it's a limited edition so the resale on it might prove beneficial. But I can't count on that, since it's a very odd non-typical Chanel purchase. I don't know if any of you are at all familiar with Chanel purses, mine is nicknamed the "2005 bag" although it was made in 2000. I'll find a picture and try to figure out how to add it in. It's a hard sided bag, burgundy tweed in an almost 'tear-drop' shape. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it on Ebay. I placed a max bid of $400 dollars and waited it out. Well, in the last second I was outbid and it ended up selling for over $600. I was saddenned but thought it was probably for the best and moved on. I still checked Ebay for other types of bags, but they were all priced far outside of my range. To make a long story short, whoever sold it had a second one and put it up for auction and I won it. I remember my boss at Subway gave me permission to use the register computer internet connection to check my auction because I was at work when the auction ended. The whole day I probably shook with excitement and nervousness. Of course, the Ebay bug catches on fast and I probably ended up bidding more than I could of affoarded. But I made it work, and I got it in the mail a week or so later.

I love the feeling of carrying a designer purse. Some people love bragging to people how much money they spent on it, I love the feeling of knowing that I got it for a steal compared to someone who paid full price. I once wandered into the Chanel store here in my city, the salespeople took one look at me (grubby jeans, tshirt and a backpack) and turned up their noses. With my purse I can walk in there and they treat me like a million bucks... suckers. Not that I'll ever buy anything from them out of spite, I enjoy walking in there, having them turn up their noses, then flashing them the bag and having them fall over themselves. I am mean like that, but it's fun sometimes.

That's really my only large-scale impulse purchase. And I think it'll do me for a long time. I'm more focused now on saving money for something big like a car or a home.

I'll continue my car vs. home debate later when i'm bored...most likely in a couple of hours.

So what have I got?

Well, I figured that since this is a financial blog per se, I should let you all know where I keep the mountain (or pile, or puddle, more likely) of cash that i'm sitting on.
TD Chequing Account: $965.26
ING Savings Account: $256.64
USA Savings: $902
AmEx: $0
Mastercard: $0
VISA: $0

That's where I stand. My cheqing account is at a high I haven't seen in a couple of months - I was pleased when I broke the thousand-dollar range, however, that has falled again. When I was at my previous job (working till, mostly), I collected American change and bills from the register. The change I bought at face value, and much of the bills I also bought at face value. $ is the amount that I have collected since fall of 2004. Unfortunately, I have given my notice at that job to pursure more Justice-related careers so I won't have that luxury anymore. But it's served me well: Now all I have to do it wait for the Canadian dollar to drop again so that US stuff will be worth something.

Something else you should know about me: I'm terrified of debt. Absolutely terrified. Once a check I wrote for my AmEx put my chequing account into something like 75 overdraft and I freaked out. I didn't sleep well, I couldn't eat. I couldn't spend a single penny until I knew that my account was in the positives again. Of course, it bounced back within days, but for those few days I was a wreck. This has served me well in the past but I will have to get over it for the future. In the past this has kept me from overspending or overcharging my multiple credit cards. In the future when debt may be neccesary I will have to face it and learn to deal with it.

For this very reason I took a year off between High School and college to work full time and earn some money. I earned $15000 some-odd dollars - more than enough to cover the first couple years - and I've worked part-time ever since then. I've been fortunate enough to have an amazing boss. She let me work the hours and the days that I wanted/needed to and gave me appropriate time off when I needed it. I also was lucky enough to live at home with parents that didn't ask for rent or grocery money. My only expense was my cell phone which (still) runs me about $40/month. I took a trip to Europe last spring with a class and that ran me about $4000 and the trip this spring is looking to run me about $2000. I like to live by the mantra that I need to travel while i'm still young and unmarried and un-childrened. Not that you can't travel when you are all those things, but I am very selfish (and I think that it's good for me) and like to do things my way and for me - especially when I am paying for it.

Seeing as $1800 some-odd dollars are due in tuition at the end of April, I am forced to either borrow money from my dad or from my sister to cover for it. I am leaving on 3 weeks vacation (most of which is already paid) to Europe and want to save every available dollar for conversion to British Pound. I dislike the idea of borrowing from my little sister, because it's the concept behind that. She's my little sister, and she has more money than me. It's not a big deal since she only spent one year in college and has worked full time for a year now, but it's the concept. I could borrow the money from my dad, but then he'd most likely charge me interest seeing as he'd be taking it directly off of his line of credit. But, i'd better decide soon.

I actually applied for a TD CanadaTrust student line of credit and they turned me down. That made sense to me seeing as I have no assets. No car, no house, no nothing. However, they still turned me down when my mother and I applied together. I got pissed off, and, as stubborn as I am, I am not going to call them and see if we can come to some arrangement. I am just going to seek alternatives and refuse to let them have any of my money. Suckers. I'm not bitter at all. No. Of course not.

This post ended up being a lot longer than I had originally planned. But I hope it was of interest to you. Stay tuned for more fun, finance-related nonsense!