No Whammies! No Whammies!!

I know, I know…posting was pretty “light” so to speak last night. Sorry – I had a VERY bad headache and just enough energy to wash bottles, feed Jax (while watching that movie on TV) and get to bed. It came up out of the blue, and I really can’t say what caused it.

Could I be allergic to work?!?! Hee hee!

Just kidding. But I did get some really good news from the work-front yesterday. Our company in the past paid out a yearly bonus, but in recent years (like the last two years) just like every other company that’s been struggling through the recession the bonuses were not paid out. Yesterday, just when we had all given up hope of ever getting a bonus again, an email went out notifying us that the bonus would be paid this year. Better late than never, right? I’m already spending the money in my mind, which begs a question to mind.

What do you do when you get an unexpected “windfall” of money? I’m not talking about lots and lots of money, but more than just a little bit. Are you smart with the money? Or do you “play” with it?

I usually go a mix of the two, if it’s enough money. You know, put a big chunk of it towards something smart – paying off debt, increasing our savings account, purchasing some stocks - and then take a little (much smaller chunk) and do something fun with it. This time around I’m at a loss as to what “fun” thing that I would like to do.

We didn’t do anything really spectacular over the summer with the kids, since I was 435 weeks pregnant for half of the summer…so part of me says that we should do something fun with/for them. I need two new tires on my car…and Brent needs an alignment on his truck…but those don’t really qualify as “fun” things, do they?

We both have new phones…I have a laptop and our home computer is brand new…we both have iPods and don’t really need an iPad. Brent would say that we need a new TV for the living room, but I would disagree. He only says that so that the current TV in the living room (which is less than 3 years old) can be moved into the garage/man cave. I don't necessarily rank this item with the importance that Brent does!

I have a nice camera. And we have all the big items that we needed for Jax as far as baby items go…so I’m truly at a loss on what to do.

So I’ll turn the question over to you, dear readers…what would YOU do? Maybe one of you will inspire me about something that I’ve been wanting and haven’t splurged on…let’s set a limit of $500 since the practical, anal-retentive side of me will have to do something smart with the rest of the money, I just can’t help it!