Learn to appreciate the value of a dollar?

[CollegeCatholic]

Hey all,
This forum is my life-solution answer bag, haha.

So, I've gone through a series of purchases/spent some cash, and the end result was a "oh really?" (although, it was well worth it, and the stuff I spent it on was "made up for" in personal enjoyment and such).  So, I'm kind of shocked (a little bit), and I figured I'd ask the collective wisdom of FE how to appreciate the value of a dollar.

I'm an early-20s student, if that helps.  Haven't had many "real" jobs (I have had like, two or three, but I wouldn't count one of them as a real job [refereeing soccer], and the other was an internship).

So...  I'll absorb your knowledge!   ;)  Thanks in advance, as always.

[Rosarium]

The dollar is weird. It is actually valueless.

We can judge it on what it can buy however.

I can use a few dollars to buy all the food I need each weak (the bulk of the next fortnight of eating is less than $10 in cost), and I can use $300 dollars I have saved for buying a handy laptop computer.

I can also use $100 to send rosaries to someone in Africa. $100 to have a package carried from the post office downtown, across the Atlantic ocean, into a foreign and somewhat poor country and a person who used a free internet connection to send me the requests has the rosaries they want.

For my views on money as a whole: http://rosary.freehostia.com/index.php?p=articles&article=mammon

[Dust]

Try thinking of the time your money represents.

Remember, you worked for  that dollar.  The harder or more specialized the work, the more you generally get paid.  In the case of non-specialized labor, you are getting paid mostly for your time and work ethic, or a cut of what the company makes because of your work.  Specialized labor, you are also getting paid because of the time and effort you spent acquiring the necessary skills. Think in terms of the time spent earning that dollar.  If you only get $6 per hour, one dollar represents 10 minutes of your life that you will never get back.

But time spent does not necessarily earn you money, remember.  If you stay late and work more, you might not get paid for it.  If you are thinking of work at home, you aren't getting paid, even if your job is to think and figure stuff out.  Viewing money in terms of what is a day's pay or a week's pay for larger sums of money may help.

But Rosarium is right.  The money isn't worth anything unless someone else is willing to do something for you in exchange for your money.  A hundred dollar bill's most valuable use in the wilderness may be as kindling, if no one is there to take it.

When you donate your hard earned money to the church, in a way you give of your time.  That can explain why the poor widow giving all she had despite being very little monetarily is accually more significant than the rich man giving large sums he did so little to earn.

[veritatem_dilexisti]

Do not try too hard to appreciate the value of a dollar, or you will fall in the Flanders field of the bourgeois/Protestant work ethic.

[flannerywannabe]

Am helpless to assist you as I always appreciate money more when it is gone.   ;)

People say you will understand better what your money can and cannot do if you make and stick to a budget, but I find this brings my mental and spiritual health to a tailspin as a budget causes me to be perpetually fretting about whether I can "afford" this or that social event, donation, helpful household item, takeout meal to make a stressful weeknight easier, etc. I figure, if you are not lacking in means, best just to spend what you need to spend in order to make things go smoothly, and then carry on with your life. Not to be wasteful, but not to be a pennypincher either. Some report the opposite effect from budgeting, though -- they get a sense of good stewardship and responsible virtue when they plan the spending of every dollar, and they are able to strike that balance within preplanned limits. To each his own, I suppose.

Logically, I think detachment from "stuff" should also help. When you come to think of it, money is only worth what it can purchase for you or someone else you care about. If you already keep your personal expenses pretty low, don't eat/drink in too costly a fashion, don't need a lot to be entertained, etc., you should be more able to focus on the other-centered meanings of money: everything from alleviating the sufferings of the poor to providing great experiences of fellowship and fun with friends.

Oh, one more good way to start appreciating the value of money: get married, impregnate your wife, and then start looking at the prices of baby stuff.  :o  Instant thrift, I guarantee.

[DrBombay]

Give it all to me.  We only really appreciate what we have when it's gone.  Thus, the only true way to appreciate your money is to give it away.  To me, of course.

[libby]

Oh, one more good way to start appreciating the value of money: get married, impregnate your wife, and then start looking at the prices of baby stuff.  :o  Instant thrift, I guarantee.

Flannery, you keep talking like that, and you're going to send me to Milledgeville.

 

[flannerywannabe]

Oh, one more good way to start appreciating the value of money: get married, impregnate your wife, and then start looking at the prices of baby stuff.  :o  Instant thrift, I guarantee.

Flannery, you keep talking like that, and you're going to send me to Milledgeville.

 

Talkin' like what, may I innocently ask? 

[geogeer]

Do not try too hard to appreciate the value of a dollar, or you will fall in the Flanders field of the bourgeois/Protestant work ethic.

Hmmmm.... I always thought the Catholic work ethic was greater than that of the protestant work ethic!  ;)  Work hard and you'll appreciate the value of a dollar!

[didishroom]

The Protestant one seems to be an end in of itself, as material wealth is a sign of predestination. Protestants also believed we are so depraved of grace we cannot cover up our sins. That's why "cleanliness is next to Godliness." They can't clean their souls so they channel it to cleaning and scrubbing bare the physical world. It is an empty and illusionary work ethic.