It All Adds Up

I'm trying to reconfigure how my husband thinks about money.

I have an all-in-my-head Fun Conversion Chart. It's a great way to figure out where you really want to spend your money. It goes like this:

My husband wanted to go to a monster truck rally today. First of all... haven't you heard that people die at those things?



Secondly, a monster truck rally? Really? I know we both grew up in a place where calling yourself a Redneck was like calling yourself a Human (it went without saying), but I draw the line at a monster truck rally.

Thirdly, that $15 admission fee, once put into my Fun Conversion Chart, should obviously not be spent on a monster truck rally. Here's how it works:
$15 isn't that much money (according to my husband, not to me), but, compare that monster truck ticket with other things you can buy with $15.
-five 12-packs of Mountain Dew
-an entire meal out
-two movie tickets
-3/4 tank of gas in my Civic
So, I asked him, would you rather go to a monster truck rally or go to a movie with me? More importantly, your cousin is visiting us this month from New York. So, $15 isn't that much, but if we save it now, we can take him to the movies and buy his ticket and popcorn. We can drive down to the beach and back five times.

It's difficult to wrap your head around at first, especially if you're in the but-it's-only category of thought. You know, you go to the dollar store and always come out with armloads of stuff because "it's only $1." That's my husband.

Fun Conversion takes forethought, planning, and the knowledge that the LCD TV we really want, can be bought one dollar at a time.