Fun?: What would you REALLY do with a small unexpected windfall?
A check got lost en route to me many months ago, and I didn’t notice. So today I found out an unexpected ~$3k will land in my bank account – how fun is that, right!? Imagine the delightful date nights (see yesterday’s post) one could cover on $3k (or fine, really ~$2K, because taxes).
And YET. I cannot imagine actually doing anything fun with this. I can’t imagine placing it anywhere in YNAB the than our emergency fund. I can’t imagine Josh being on board with blowing it in some less responsible fashion, either. Yet it didn’t exist to me before this morning and I wasn’t sitting around worried about my emergency fund.
Isn’t it weird how the mind works around money?
(Maybe the date night thing IS the answer. Couples massages galore!)
((But probably just emergency fund.))
2025 Goals Series: Neighborhood Fun
(There are 5 goals left in this series, and on my list! I feel like it is quite a list, but I am also pretty attached to all of them, so here we are. Honestly I held myself back from including a number of other things. Which is probably good.)
“NEIGHBORHOOD: Revive book club + have casual neighborhood hang in the winter”
Winter is until March 20th, technically, so I have time!
A year or two ago we hosted a wine and cheese at our house and it was a ton of fun and also very little work! I feel like we could (and should) do it again, in part because new neighbors have moved across the street. They have little kids (excellent future babysitting opportunities for my big kids!) and we know lots of people in common.
The difficult part is the minefield of our calendar (as noted yesterday). That said, a Sunday night might be optimal – kind of a chill time, plus a good excuse to end early since it’s a school night.
On the book club side, I didn’t have to do anything – our book club revived itself! One of the members (here she is – she’s a Bookstagrammer, if you’re in that world, which I am not but I know she has a ton of fun doing it) kicked things off earlier this month and we had a great meetup. And now we are reading Miranda July’s All Fours for March which I think will be juicy and fun for discussion. I was also invited to be part of a school book club that is sort of . . . inactive right now, so maybe I can focus on doing that one.
26 Comments
I actually keep a list of “expensive things I want but do not need”. Then when I get little monetary surprises like that, I can spend ~1/3 of them on something I KNOW I’ve been wanting for ages! I put the rest in savings. Or instead of buying a thing – vacation fund.
Current examples on my list – replace all my athletic socks with one type I really like, Normatec boots, bike computer, stand mixer. For a long time it was “taylor swift tickets” but alas that didn’t work out for me.
I love this idea! I’ve never thought of doing that.
We recently finished having an expensive monthly payment and so the last few months I just…haven’t been thinking about things like paying for everyone’s coffee if we go out. That is VERY unlike me, but…why not?
It’s not either/or – put part in emergency savings so you feel like a responsible adult AND hold some for treating yourself! 🙂
I’d buy a new purse and not even factor potential taxes in.
I’m legit asking… Does that mean you would be buying a $2,000 or $3,000 purse?
Simply curious
Pretty sure Ramit Sethi discusses exactly this on his Netflix show and suggests you spend 1/3 on something fun, then the other 2/3 on furthering your goals 🙂
I know that I would deposit the check and never give it another thought, but it would be so much fun to do a “challenge” to spend the money on date nights.
I didn’t love All Fours BUT if I found a book club that was reading it I would join in a heartbeat! The discussion would be priceless.
Ooh that’s great to know!!!
I would also vote for deposit a majority % of the money and put the rest in a fund for something fun—travel fund or couples’ activity is my vote!
I often use these to pay something big instead of doing it over time, like braces or summer camp.
Or maybe it can go towards next December ski vacation at Big Sky fund! It is never to early to budget for a ski trip.
Ha, that is def true! I mean we definitely regularly fund our vacation budget. There’s just something interesting about an unexpected “extra” esp since it’s from old earnings!
All Fours is nothing if not juicy!
What I would do with a windfall is put it in our travel fund. But that’s the fun of being an empty nester!
I’d probably take a small amount and buy a luxury and then bank the rest.
It would go into savings and I would feel less guilty about buying another eye cream to try to solve my dark undereye circles!!
I’ve been told All Fours is not safe for Lisa. LOL. I am a bit of pride though! I have heard it’s great for book club though!!
We host casual hangs on Sundays and it works so well. People are grateful not to have to cook, it helps avoid the Sunday scaries. We do soup and nice bread – nicely branded as Souper Sunday. And this Sunday (weather permitting/providing we’ve got power and a tree doesn’t come down on our house), we’re doing a Fika party. Swedish pastries, coffee, hot chocolate, just drop in from 10:30.
I always feel some dread before hosting but then really enjoy it.
Given you’ll have to pay taxes on 40% of it, the number you have to spend is probably more like $1800 than $3000. So spend it depending on bills and future expected expenses. For us it’s taxes, oh and the dog just needed dental surgery and our furnace crapped out, so it would likely go towards that. For you, maybe $500 towards dinner out and put the rest towards your emergency fund.
Set aside for a couple fun but more expensive excursions in Hawaii next year. That’s my vote. 🙂
You could also give it away to a cause you’d feel excited about supporting! You’d get the fun of generosity without any stress over pulling from other needs!
good point!!!
Isn’t one of your goals to work on your wardrobe? Perhaps it can go towards that goal, which also seems to be an investment in your business since you are looking to update your work wardrobe as well as personal.
I say earmark some for fun that will last-3 months of couple massages?? I find that found money often becomes lost money (as in lost in the shuffle… you don’t notice it anymore). “Invest” some of it in something that will bring you ongoing joy- ie couples massages, or a night at a fancy hotel for a stay-cation with Josh!
I wouldn’t know what to do with the extra money other than doing what I’m doing already. I don’t like to “waste” money even if it’s free money, nor I am extra fugal for things I really want. I know sounds boring, I’d just add the money to the pile. I once won a team award that realized that it came with 1500 extra $$, I don’t remember doing anything special about it though.
I know you already said that you put the windfall into the emergency fund. I would probably have done the same but wanted to say “treat yourself to something, then put the rest into the emergency fund”. 😉
That cheese plate looks amazing.
I would probably also put most if not all of the money in my emergency fund. And I will be curious what you think of All Fours. I read about 30% and DNF because I did not like it.
You have mentioned often that you would love an organised home so I would say pay for a professional organiser to help you!
Personally, I would buy something fun (I like leather handbags) and put the rest into Joint Savings where it will probably go towards a holiday.