I Am Way Too Stingy

I’m very stingy with money. Well, I should say my own money. I can’t really classify myself as a cheap person because I tend to spend lots of money on one big thing. I can’t classify myself as a generous spender either because I can’t justify a two-dollar soda without it ruining my day. I asked my friends if they thought I was cheap, and I wasn’t surprised by their answers. When we go out to eat as a group, I order a drink and a small appetizer. When we go shopping together, I never buy anything. If someone suggests a group trip anywhere, I say no because I don’t want to pay for it. I’ve always thought my money is better in my pocket. I don’t need to eat when we go out; I can just eat at home. I don’t need to buy anything when we go shopping; they are just impulse unnecessary purchases anyway. I don’t need to go on group trips; I'd rather hang out with everyone in Cooperstown. I can understand why this frustrates people, but if I spend any money on anything, it really ruins my day. It could be a perfect day, and I’ll go home thinking about the fifty dollars I spent. When I started working, I started viewing money very differently. I started seeing it as the time I spent at work. So, if something was $200 and I made twenty dollars an hour, is the thing worth ten hours of my time? I can never justify ten hours of my time that easily. I love impulse purchases from time to time. I haven’t felt the need to buy anything lately. I can’t justify clothes anymore. That is my wallet’s biggest enemy. Clothing purchases beat my wallet in round one and just kept pounding down on the poor thing. I used to order anything and everything. I bought some stupid stuff over the years: skateboards, mini ramps, tee shirts, and shoes. It is very rare that I consider something a valuable purchase nowadays. I wish I could buy something, enjoy it, and forget about the money. When I buy video games, I have a very easy system to help ease my mind. I just have to play the game for the amount of hours it costs. If a game was forty dollars, I need to play it for a total of forty hours. Games like Minecraft are the best. I have thousands of hours on Minecraft, and it was only thirty bucks. That is a fucking steal! When I get older, I hope I lose my stinginess. I want to be proud of my credit card history. For now, I just can’t do it. I write this right before I am meeting my friends for dinner. Hopefully, nobody calls me out for showing up late (another Max classic) or for not getting anything to eat. Happy Friday, everyone! Drinks on me!