Pay Day
Today is Pay Day (hooray! Also, I never would have guessed but you make considerably more money when you work full-time rather than 15 hours a week. This revelation shocked me, frankly).
Pay Day means two things. First, that money will appear, as if by magic, in my account at 12:01 a.m. (I do not understand people who don’t take advantage of direct deposit).
Secondly, it means that most of the office will go out to lunch. And when they ask me if I want anything and I say “no” (because I am the world’s largest cheapskate) they will inevitably counter with my favorite line in the world:
“But it’s pay day!”
Did I miss the memo? Does extra money arrive with your pay check that can be used only for lunch the day you get paid? Is lunch actually free on pay day? (And by the way, my office gets paid twice a month, so sometimes it’s Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s not like it’s always pay day AND Friday).
Frankly, I find this attitude perplexing. It’s all just money, whether or not it’s from today or from three weeks ago, isn’t it?
Am I the only one who feels this way or does food really taste more delicious when it’s purchased with fresh hot cash?
I don’t understand that mentality AT ALL either. Who cares if it’s new money? I treat it the same as my old money. I think money suffers from a lot of age prejudice in our society…
I totally agree! My husband’s co-workers go out to lunch quite frequently since they can get it relatively cheap at the COB cafeteria. He rarely goes with them because he almost always takes his own lunch (usually yummy leftovers), and enjoys it a lot more than the cafeteria food. 🙂
I understand!!! I get paid biweekly, always on Friday and inevitably, someone always wants to order out. It happened today and I was able to answer with “I brought my lunch, so no thanks!” (That is always my response.) Everyone always replies, “You’re so good, I wish I could do that.” When did bringing a lunch to work become so difficult?!
I think in my year of working downtown at the law firm, I only “went out to lunch” twice, and both times were paid for by my boss. I am a confederate of the “el cheapo club.”
Fresh hot cash itself is actually quite a bit more delicious than the older kind.
Yikes! I debated on posting this because it looks like I might be alone on this, but I am kind of the other way…I LOVE going out to eat. I also LOVE cooking a good meal, so it balances itself out. But I will say, Brad and I go out about once a week, maybe less now that Chase is getting harder to handle in public, but either way, we at least go and grab something that I didn’t have to cook. Like I said, I do love to cook, but for some reason other peoples/restaurants’ food tastes sooo much better to me. At any rate, I am sure they just feel less guilty spending their “new” money rather than the “not so new and now diminished on who knows what” money. I can see it from both angles.
I’m normally a cheapo as well, but I find it easier to splurge when I’m flush with cash after a payday.
haha..this happened so many times at Atlas last summer. And I look forward to many more lunch proposals when I start working in a few weeks, all of which I will promptly SHOOT DOWN!
everything is better on payday! when i worked and made an ok income there was always a fresh outlook…lunch first and then you pay bills. then it is penny pinching for the next two weeks!! i am just grateful for a hubby who is not expecting to live off of my amazing income now! 🙂 haha!! i have to agree with holly too!
I am a cheap-o and, as mentioned in a previous comment, don’t like to go out much (especially fast food), but there is something about pay day that is enticing. As a teacher, I only get one pay check a month. I hate it. After paying all my bills and filling up my savings account as much as possible, there isn’t much there by the end of the month. I like having a lot of cushion in my bank account, so as it gets lower I get more and more frugal. Then that blessed day comes when money magically appears at 12:01am and I turn over in my sleep and sign with relief. The cushion is so springy that I inevitably feel I deserve to splurge on something (usually a new book) at the beginning of a new month. I have been good for so long (two or three weeks really is a long time) that it new hot cash is way better than what little is hanging out in my checking account.
Right now we live in Austin with my parents while our house is being built. Our house is being built in Kyle, which is on your way to San Antonio from Austin. Just about 15 minutes south of South Austin, right before San Marcos. I work at the Domain, do you know where that is? On Mopac at Braker Lane, the new mall. Anyway, I work there at CPK.
Haha, that’s so funny! One lady I work with tries to get us to go out to lunch with her every pay day, and it’s like why would I waste the precious money I just got? But on the other hand, I have been known to use the “but it’s pay day” excuse on Bryan when I’m looking at buying some new clothes…
Another person votes for going out to lunch…
Going out on payday is about being able to spend a little of your hard earned money before it gets thrown into the household expense fund. (Men have been doing this forever. I guess it depends on attitudes and finances of the family.)
Going out to lunch means getting waited on and getting to eat something you didn’t fix yourself or maybe wouldn’t ever make yourself.
It is a time to socialize and get to know your co-workers.
Microwaves and refrigerators are a relatively new features in the breakroom. (Everyone got heartily sick of lukewarm soup and dry or soggy sandwiches!) Actually, I sometimes get heartily sick of leftovers. And, I usually throughly dislike the quick lunch stuff – which is expensive, too.
Being in the same building or even on the property still guarantees that I will be interrupted and/or wind up working my lunch hour (without pay, of course). So, sometimes I just have to escape.
It’s as if each dollar has a voice…and you simply can’t ignore the choir at full capacity!