I was in line at a coffee shop the other day with a financial planner. We started chatting with the barista, a fashionable gal who l guess is probably in her early to mid twenties. She was talking about how she was glad it was almost payday. Not because her rent was late. Certainly not because her piggy bank was hungry. Because she wanted to buy a pair of boots that cost nearly $500!

But what about the salt stains she’s going to get on those puppies or the fact that she must have worked a full week if not longer to buy a single pair of shoes?

I’m an opinionated sort but I’m also polite to strangers, so I managed to hold my tongue.

But I asked the planner what she thinks when she hears such remarks from people, including her clients. She said it’s like nails on a chalkboard. But she didn’t advise the barista, mostly because when it comes to spending, she says people often do what they want to do.

Who knows? This coffee peddler could be wealthy and making lattes for fun. And if she’ll be wearing those boots until the day she dies, I suppose the price could be right. I doubt it on both points.

What would you have done? Do you nod politely when people mention financial decisions that you think are foolish? Or are you one to speak your mind?

(And if you want to know how to make a boot and other cool origami out of money, check out this Tao of Making Money blog post).

In a moment of unity, Washington has tentatively reached agreement on a stimulus package that will put anywhere from $300 to $1,200 in our pockets. All workers would receive the $300, whether they ended up paying taxes or not. Those of us who paid income taxes and who have kids would receive up to $1,200.

If finalized, the money probably won’t arrive until long after the snow has melted. But if you’re like me, you’ve been thinking about what you’d do with that money since the talk of a stimulus package began.

I’ll probably save it. Frankly, I’m sick of our economy counting on me to overspend in order to grow.

But if I spend some of it, I’d probably buy some camping gear or maybe some plants for the garden.

What would you do with your mini-windfall? Pay existing bills? Buy something nice? Save it? And do you think the government can really afford to give us this money?

I received a lot of feedback about my story earlier this week about people who have decided not to buy anything new for a year. It was based on a local woman who joined the online collective last year.

Reporting this story really made me think. I put back a fabulous pair of $17.99 Vera Wang ballet flats (those aren’t the exact ones) that finally hit clearance– whether it’s because of the Compact or because I really want to save a boatload of my salary this year, I don’t know.

But the concept of not buying anything really rubbed some people the wrong way.

Some readers think my story will cause the recession– as if 8,700 people who signed up for an online user group can sway the economy. Others wanted to know how a newspaper reporter could be opposed to printing newspapers (cutting down trees is bad for the environment).One guy basically said he hopes I lose my job.

Then there were those who felt slighted because they’ve been living this way– buying used, making do without, since the Great Depression. And people who were mad at me because they wanted to know the address and phone number of the Prop Shop, where the photo was shot. These gals thought the story was about the store!

One thing I do know is it was a talker– it’s still of the list of most e-mailed stories on the Star Tribune site. And last I looked 32 more people joined the MN user group since the story ran. So….do you think buying nothing new is a terrible idea? Good or bad, do you think you could do it? If you could do it, would you want to?

Time. What time? No holiday cards from us this year. I even sent Christmas presents that will definitely be late. And I forgot to get a little gift for the afternoon helper in my daughter’s school. Yeah he’s not a teacher, but he has to deal with the kids when they are so exhausted and strung out that all mine can manage to say is “doodie bum.” So he probably should have gotten the holiday cocoa too. But holiday tipping and all the issues that surround is for another post.

Today, it’s all about feeling a little Scrooge-y. Yes, I could have sent the presents and paid more than $50 to do so. But being a frugal type, I reluctantly rationalized that a late present from me wasn’t going to ruin anyone’s most-likely over-indulgent Christmas day anyway. They’ll get it on Boxing Day. What’s the big deal?

Then I’ve been having the dilemma of whether I should feed my family the cheapest piece of beef I can find or splurge for the tenderloin. I know what Scrooge would do (order pizza– tempting), but I’m thinking in this case I’m going to be reformed Scrooge and buy the nice meat.

I was searching for the cost of a Christmas dinner online. The American Farm Bureau comes up with a Thanksgiving cost estimate each year: $42.46 for 10 people in ‘07.

And I ran across this fascinating New York Times story from 1908:

IT is not so much the question this year what shall we have for our Christmas dinner as what shall we not have or rather what shall we dispense with to save expenses, as prices of food products are tremendous.

It gets better. First it says that if we were English we’d have to have roast beef and pudding because Brits are traditionalists. But we Americans are:

UP to date and dominated by the “New Thought,” one of the principles of which is self-denial.

Hah!
I probably should have posted this sooner, but here’s the link to Lutheran Social Services Scrooge-O-Meter, which will open your eyes to how long it will take and how much it will cost for you to pay off those gifts you already purchased. I’ll post it in October next year.

Here’s an amusing and frankly terrifying list from a CPA who writes books about becoming a millionaire. I can understand the dog sled expedition on the North Pole. That would by cool, But what kind of person wants a diamond encrusted cell phone or $25,000 dessert? Or that Jambi-like character you see to the right? (At least Jambi came with a gilded box).

I can’t say I believe these are the priciest gifts. Don’t you think somewhere someone will find a personal jet, small tropical island, or work of art under the tree.

Anyway…here is Jim Trippon