Wanting it ALL

So I want things. I want a lot of things. I don’t get why that is bad. I don’t whine or beg for or steal the things I want. I buy things that I want with MY money. SK rolls his eyes at me when he hears me say, ooooohhhh I want that! I roll my eyes right back at him and ask, So?

I wouldn’t consider myself a materialistic person. I feel as though I have a healthy grasp of what is really important in life. My family will always come first, I would gladly give a friend in need everything I owned to ease their pain, and I know money will not be THE THING that makes me happy. But is it wrong to want?

For someone my age, I have a pretty sweet job. I work in the computer IT industry, where most of our work is done remotely, over the internet. I wear jeans and t-shirts every day. I dry my hair and put on makeup if I feel like it in the morning. I have my own office with a WINDOW. I make good money and get my car note paid each month via company expense check. I have the means to get the things I want.

And just because I want for things doesn’t mean I have to have them. I understand that while paying off my credit cards I should not buy that pair of stacked sole black and white satin polka dot peep-toes at Steve Madden, even though they are so so delicious and I could totally find something in my closet to wear with them, I solemnly do swear. I get when I need to cut back. I learned my lesson while digging myself into the never-ending debt pit I am in now—if you don’t have the money for it right now, DO NOT SWIPE THE CARD. That knowledge, however, does not keep me from wanting.

I think SK gets so annoyed because it’s not about WHAT I want, but how many times a day I say that I want something. I don’t want a $400 Coach purse. That to me is extravagant. I want a $20 Target purse and I will make it known every single time a Target commercial comes on tv. There is no filter from my brain to my mouth when it comes to seeing something that I want and voicing that opinion. No clue why, it just does not exist, and never has for as far back as I can remember. I don’t expect to GET something when I say I want it, I just let it be known that yes, I want that and I think you should be in on the wanting of that with me.

I am thinking I will just make a wish-list and post it on the fridge, adding to it as I find more things to need. That way he will not have to be bothered with how many times a day I vocalize my Wanting Of The Things; he can just see them every time he goes to get a beer. Anyone wanna place bets on how long it will last up there? I’m guessing about 1.7 seconds.

SL and I have been told repeatedly by friends that we are living the DINK lifestyle and that we should hold onto that and enjoy that for as long as we can with every fiber of our being. For the uneducated, DINK stands for “Dual Income, No Kids," which isn’t really a new concept to me…it’s kind of how I had always envisioned living my life, which is another reason it is so hard for me to not be able to have everything I want, when I want it. I’m working on it because I get that it is something about me that is MY problem and not anyone else’s, but when SK and I talk finances and I see how much we are bringing home in a month and how we have no one but ourselves to spend it on, I get a little bummed out when I realize that it really is going to be better for me in the long run to put that $40 toward debt instead of cute jeans. I feel a little like a DINK failure. And that is really, really sad.