How responsible are you with money?

[Araciel]

It's hard to say. On one hand I budget everything for maximum repay of my mortgage and cover expenses, but then if I DO have extra cash I blow it on gambling and restaurants and booze etc..

[Dat Matt]

I am terrible with my student loan, I'd probably end up spending that $1000 fairly quickly. It's not a very great amount of money and seeing as I have no income aside from student loans it would likely go on food and emergency stuff relatively quickly.

When I have an actual income tho I am usually pretty good with saving. Ideally, I'd like to save like 50% of my wages. This isn't very likely at all, but would be amazing. When I get a "real" job, I'm planning to save as much as possible. I guess if I was super frugal and already had a strict savings routine I'd be tempted to spend the £1k on something nice.

You changed the currency half way though. $1000 is about £591.91 just now. I'd take £1000 any day.

When I started my current job I would spend about £200 a month on driving lessons, and try and save 20% of the wage with anything left over at the end of the month also being added. I did not save very well during this period. 50% of you wage to savings is pretty steep. I'd say aim for 20% as a starting point and then work up if you have extra money at the end of the month.

Also, I remember student loans, they were great. Mostly went towards booze. How much of your student loan is budgeted towards the pub?

[Psychotic]

I've grown up learning accountancy, so I know the dangers of getting into debt.

Many accountants are poor at handling their own finances and especially debts! They try to treat them like they would accounts and it ends horribly wrong.

[LunarWeaver]

Now that I'm on the wrong side of my 20's, savings. $1,000 extra just sitting in my bank. Screw my broken toaster or whatever. I want to see that number sitting in there. Boring can feel so good sometimes.

[fire_of_avalon]

Paying off student loan debt. I wouldn't even blink, just put the money in the bank and then after it posted immediately apply it to my loans. I want to be debt free before I'm 33, because those things rhyme and because I will incur a bunch more debt if I ever have kids because I'll need a house.

[Jessweeee♪]

Not great. I make sure my bills are paid but I don't save at all. I get this attitude like "well I can only save an extremely depressing amount of x dollars a month after my bills are all paid anyway may as well spend that little bit on immediate gratification instead." I'm really good at scoring deals and free stuff though so that helps.

[Kalevala]

I'm not very responsible at all, but I'm trying to get better. I tell myself I'm going to save but then small purchases here and there end up building up more rapidly than I expect. That being said, I'm relatively young and don't have very many serious commitments yet other than rent and bills.

[Miss Mae]

My parents met working in a bank, and now one is a financial adviser and the other is a book keeper; money was all around me growing up and they are stupidly responsible with it.

In your hypothetical, it would depend on how urgently I needed to buy those things you mentioned. If they aren't too urgent, all that money would go into savings.

If I were to stumble across $1,000 in my current situation, I would put a decent portion of it aside to use as a buffer to help me pay bills next semester when I have to do a 10-week unpaid teaching prac, and the rest would go into savings. I struggle with spending large sums of money on myself unless they have been specifically set aside for that purpose.

[Jiro]

Last time I got a bit of money I paid off the bills and put everything in savings except for enough to buy a video game.

[Calliope]

I grew up in poverty, so my default mindset is pretty much "Eh, I've already been in dire straits, so I know I'll be alright if it happens again (I'm miserable most of the time anyway), so oh well, I'll buy a cup of coffee and a cardigan if I want to". However, America is forcing me into a bizarre mix of forced frugality and immense spending at the same time. Last week I spent a month's worth of wages paying for healthcare (after insurance), and then had another procedure done that is over a month's worth of wages (out of pocket, after insurance), and today I got a letter confirming that yes, I have effectively signed up for fifty thousand dollars worth of student debt. I've applied for so many jobs in my field, it would be so nice to have one full time job at a decent wage, instead of two that have no benefits, a miserable commute, pittance wages, and a steady line of people who would be more than willing to replace me.

[Dat Matt]

There is an odd mix in this thread of depressing stories where $1000 would mean a lot, and smug jerks where $1000 wouldn't mean too much. Personally falling into the latter category it's interesting to see opinions from both sides.

[404]

When I was a student I was horrendous with my money and would go months without checking my bank account. Now I'm living in the real world I manage it properly and have a savings account and everything. That said, if I came into £1000 I know I'd probably blow it on stuff I don't need.

[black orb]

>>> Im a cheapskate..

[Mercen-X]

When I had my first job, I quickly blew through like 300 dollars online. I was using a credit card so I didn't realize I had blown past my limit. So, I think as of today, I still have bad credit. Why the smurf did my parents give me a credit card? Seriously...

[Shorty]

Probably in hopes of teaching you responsibility with it.