So, who knew that my first actual blog post would be one about finances and money!! Everyone always talks about how everything is so expensive these days, and it sometimes becomes difficult to really afford anything. Last night I spent $8.07 at Arbys on the way home from work. This morning I went out to run a couple of errands, and while I was out, I spent $5.24 at McDonalds, and I spent $4.97 on a pack of cigarettes. In the past 24 hours, I have spent a combined $18.28 cents on fast food and cigarettes, which other than eliminate hunger (which I could have done for a lot cheaper), and cure a nicotine craving, didn’t do anything for me except take from the money that I worked hard for last night. I also had this thought while I was working. I was cleaning off one of my tables while closing down my section last night, and I thought to myself “I’m going buy fast food and cigarettes after work which will be almost fifteen bucks. Do I really want to spend my hard earned money on that?” But in the end, of course I spent it!
This morning, while I was running those errands, a saw two young girls running a lemonade stand on my street, and immediately knew that I had to buy a cup. How much is a cup? Fifty cents!! Really? I get to quench my thirst and absolutely make these kids’ day by buying a glass of lemonade from them for only 50 cents?? That seems like a no brainer. I stopped and bought a glass, and it was delicious! It only took a couple pieces of spare change that I had in the cup holder of my car. It cost me about 3% of what I paid for the fast food and cigarettes combined, and did so much more!
This may sound strange, but I feel so good about stopping to buy that lemonade. Those little kids were so happy that I stopped! They had huge smiles on their faces when they greeted me, and they treated that lemonade like it was the best product to be sold in decades! They were much happier than the store owner of the gas station was when I bought the cigarettes, and definitely more happy than the person who had to take and deliver my order to me at Arbys. It also made me feel really good about myself that I could do something to put a little bit of joy into a kids life. So, no matter what people tell you… 50 cents can really go a long way!