Practical versus Impractical?!

Jay and I received very little this Christmas in actual physical gifts. The majority of our 'presents' came in the monetary form. Nothing to complain about, it just means that we are then able to decide what we would like to buy with that money instead of getting something that we would not like. Props to the gift givers, however that leaves both Jay and myself with a dilemma. Do we spend the money that we got for Christmas on ourselves and get some stuff that we would like, or do we use that money for something practical, like paying for rent next month?!

Part of me thinks that we deserve to use it on ourselves because had we not gotten the money, we would have gotten actual physical gifts. So instead of me using it to go buy a pair of jeans, I would have gotten a pair of jeans from someone. You know? Like, why should we have to use our Christmas money on rent? But the other part of me is thinking, well... it would be nice to your bank account if you did use that money on rent instead of another pair of jeans that you don't need.

And then I think... well, I already have set aside two of the three Amazon gift cards and a Barnes and Noble gift card for textbooks, I took back a sweater and long sleeve shirt (that didn't fit) and two wall decorations (that I really did like) because Jay needed new jeans. Those are all practical things, right?! Shouldn't I be allowed to spend a little of our Christmas money on myself/ourselves?

I will admit that I did use one Amazon gift card to get two books for my Kindle ($25), and let Ayden spend a little bit of his Christmas money ($30), got Season 2 of Burn Notice on DVD for Jay ($25), and bought two filters for my camera lens ($19). So, it's not as if I didn't get to spend ANY of it yet. I think maybe I'm still a little bitter that Jay and I didn't get each other anything for Christmas. Unfortunately, my car needed a 'minor' repair that ended up costing us $270 which totally sucked! Thankfully my car is working the way it should (minus the fact that we now realized it has racing tires on which totally SUCK in the winter weather, but that's a whole 'nother rant of its own) and I am grateful for that, but there went any money we might spend on each other. Not that I needed a gift from him, but you know, its nice every now and then and seven years into our relationship, he's about lost any spark of the spontaneous 'I love you' gifts.

And then to top it off, I ended up returning my iPod Touch (never could get it to work at our house, despite all of Apple's 'help') and using that money- money which was birthday money and/or money I had earned from my wedding shoots- to BUY CHRISTMAS GIFTS! Once again, using money that should have been used on ME on someone else! Yes, I know that that's the spirit of Christmas. I'm not complaining that I had to buy gifts for other people, I do really enjoy that, and seeing their faces when they open them, I'm complaining (once again) that I'm a poor college student who is sick of 'this part of of her life'.

And so, instead of going out and buying an iPad (which probably wouldn't work at our house anyways since the iPod Touch didn't) or a Samsung Tab or any other tablet that would be pretty nifty, I'm probably going to deposit any money we got for Christmas and use it to pay bills. Oh, now that is what I call Christmas fun!

I apologize for two bitchy posts in a row, I can't hide how I am feeling, its hard. I have no one else to complain to, well actually, I don't want to complain to anyone else, I'd rather just write about it.

CIAO! LOVE ME!