Why Fun Dollars?

"So, what's the point?" you may ask. Why should I care about what you spend your money on? Isn't the whole point of fun dollars is no one can tell you how to spend them or criticize your purchases?

Deep down inside, I think we all wish we could just go out and spend money with no consequences. Some people are shopaholics, or they buy just for the thrill of it. Some people save so tightly that they never give themselves the pleasure of a purchase. Other people might have such a limited income that they wouldn't dare spend a dime on themselves. While others still have so much disposable income that an allowance for personal spending seems laughable. I want to share my fun dollars experience to show that no matter what your income level, no matter what your spending pattern, there is a joy to be found within the spending of fun dollars.

There is another reason I want to be totally transparent with how I spend my fun dollars. Even though what I purchase is my business, I still feel a sense of guilt about some ways I spend my money. I find myself justifying a trip to Wendy's because I "had fun dollars". Having fun dollars doesn't excuse me from making decisions that contradict a personal value. I really want to teach healthy eating habits to my children, and if I go to Wendy's every time I don't feel like cooking, what message does that send them? This is just a specific example of a personal value that I betray sometimes because I have fun dollars. This is one of many facets to be examined during my year of public spending.

And lastly, some of the creativity and personal growth I have experienced in the past year and a half of using the fun dollars system comes from when I don't spend. When I think about choices I've made, ideas I've come up with, and new ways of doing things, just because I either ran out of fun dollars, or I didn't want to spend what money I did have, the list is too plentiful to name. And that's most of the fun for me. It's the appreciation for what I have, the anticipation of wanting something, and making it happen, as well as the challenge to think outside the box that makes fun dollars truly "Fun".

Happy Spending :)