Daily Archive

I was reading through some of my favorite blogs, when THIS came up. I liked the post, and some of the points were great. When I was reading the comments LAZY MAN made a fair comment about not seeing men talk about the designer suit they didn’t buy.

So I had to.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I were asked to stand up for our nephew as Godparents for his baptism. Of course we were honored, and said yes. My wife got a nice outfit and I decided that, since I had put on a LOT of weight since the last time I wore a suit, it was a good enough excuse to do so.

Now that I was HUGE, I was kind of limited to the places I could go. I could go to the local fat-guy store (that’s what I call them since I have yet to see a tall guy walk into a big and tall) and get something that I was okay with, or I could go to the high class Fat Gentleman store and have a suit custom made. On a lark, I chose the latter.

I went to the Fat Gentleman store, and tried on this suit that felt like butter. It was easily the nicest suit I had ever worn, and I would have thoroughly enjoyed wearing it. I would have worn it EVERYWHERE. So, I get the guy to take my measurements and write up an order. The cost was $900.00 after everything. My wife and I make good money, but we are both frugal and have both agreed (if I knew what was best for me) that she manage our finances since I have a lot of other things on the table. We made a deal where I tell her about any expenditures that are over a certain amount. I forgot.

When I got home and told her the good news, she flipped out! She couldn’t get over the fact that this suit was well worth the amount of money, since it didn’t come with a bike or something. We had a big fight, I cancelled my order, and never forgave her.

The aftermath:

First, we get to the baptism, and if I would have worn the suit, I would have been woefully overdressed. In fact, I wore a tie, put decided to take it off when I saw that the father wasn’t even wearing a tie.

Second, I needed to get some work done on my car. Anyone guess how much that cost me?

Third, I recently started losing a lot of weight, and the amount of weight would have made the really really nice suit useless.

The lessons here are simple: First, never buy something on an impulse, especially if it costs more than what you have in your pocket. Second, if you have agreed to have someone manage your money in a certain way, stick to it. Third, think ahead before you make any large purchases. When you do this, more often than not you will see that you don’t need to buy as many things.

I’ve got one of those stupid VISA commercials going through my head where they show how great using a debit card can be. There is one guy who pays cash for something, and he stops the well-oiled machine dead while the clerk gives him his change.

Are debit cards that great?

Sure, there is a convenience factor of being able to use them wherever VISA (or MASTERCARD) is accepted. But that also lets in some badness when it comes to young people and finance.

I love my debit card. I rarely use anything else. But when I’m going to a fast-food place, or any place where it is too easy to make impulse purchases, I prefer to use cash. I only carry a few dollars on me at any time, and I don’t like to make multiple trips to the ATM. I know the availability is there for using the debit, but there is always something that I think would be really cool to have, that is usually slightly more expensive than the amount of cash I have on me. At these times, I’m glad to use cash.

There is another downside to a debit dependence. Every time you use your debit card, you are opening yourself up to possible fraud. If you use cash when you can (and without carrying too much), you are limiting that risk.

At the end of the day, the debit card is an awesome thing, and there may be a day in your lifetime where it replaces cash completely, but I still contend that cash is king, especially for those small purchases.