I Should vs. I Want

But what of the self-control?

I'm having fun with conundrums. I'm getting not-quite $400 back, between my federal and state tax returns. (Which is good, as it means I don't have to pay in. Whew!) My main issue is what to do with the money.

I could be responsible with it - pay off more of the one credit card, so that it gets paid off that much sooner. I like this idea, truly,

But there's also the "I want X" issue to deal with. I want to get the wood for making my needlepoint loom. I want/need new shoes (or at least better inserts!). I want a new cell phone (mine is 3+ years old). I want to get some stuff for my business so I can play with metals again.

Another thing to consider is theoretically, I'm supposed to get a $50 bonus for getting another "You're doing a great job" patch at work - my total was brought up to 6, and that means I'm now at silver level. Except the computer shows I got that back in October (???), so I get to look into that with the Store Manager tomorrow. There's also the bonus checks for beating the crap out of our sales plan, and last year I got ~$140 for that. Since we beat sales plan even better this year, I should get more than that (I hope).

There's also the whole "I should start saving money for a car/house" dealy. Which, yeah, I should do, but I'm not going to actually get either for at least two years, so it's not like it's a Dire Emergency that I start saving for those. My education, now, that's another matter, but I shall put that as a separate journal entry.

What I've decided to do, atm, is use the Federal refund as follows: $250 to the one card, and use the rest to buy the new cell phone, which (last I checked) has a $50 mail-in rebate attached to it. I can then use the rebate to pay off more of the one credit card, or another card. Jury is still out on the state refund, though. ;P