11. (men) OMG! Electronics!
11. (women... or at least my wife) OMG! Shoes!

I need this.
Hey, I do! I don't have heels in this shade of black, after all.

The Raider's can't lose!

Hope and Change!

"I have a job."

"Hey, cutie. You're totally in my league!"

We need these bailouts NOW! No time to read the bill, vote yes now or martial law in America.

1. "I'll make a bunch of money after college and pay it off then."

Winnar! There is going to be a day of reckoning in this country (USA) when a tipping point is reached and $60-150K in student loans will NOT be amortizable over one's lifetime, let alone worth it at all.

1. should be expanded to reflect general assumptions of future wealth. Leading up to the crisis economists justified debt loads by suggesting "time preference" plays a crucial role in debt accumulation. It does, but "time preference" needs to met with reasonable controls on debt accumulation - either consumer-driven and self-motivated or regulatory - to avoid becoming "time bomb."

@axiomatic:

Agreed! 11. Oh boy! I really need to have this uber expensive computer! After this, I won't need to upgrade for a long time!

*sigh* if only I had more self-discipline... but I do have a pretty sweet PC! =D

"Vote me in. I'll lower your taxes and make your government both smaller and more moral... Act now, and I'll throw in 'Whiter' for free!"

Me to my wife: "But it's on the front page of Slickdeals!"

Phew, I only do #9. Most of the others don't even make sense to me as a way to think.

I've found my biggest ANTI-spending psychological tool is living with a pack rat. Stuff I used to buy because it was fun or cute or whatever I now find myself thinking, "OMG, do I need MORE useless shit in my house?"

"I look good in this!"

(Switch with "Honey, you look great in that. And skinnier too!", when appropriate)

#1

Like student loans, you'll be paying that off for a long time...

Hey if you find something that fits so well, i should by 5 of them. Just in case they stop making them.

My fiancee is guilty of that. Not that i'm immune to it...

Hey! I'll be getting a tax refund in a month or two; or, that person who has owed me money for the last few years said he'd paid me next month for SURE; or, I'll pay for this with that rebate that should be in the mail any day now.

I find that I want to spend future (un)certain monies several times over before it's even arrived.

"This eight-ball will last all night!"

I just did #5, and it really is for my business. But hey, yesterday I got an offer from a local shop to carry my work, and supplies are necessary if I want product!

@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): Hey, are you my girlfriend?!?

Number 1 is the reason I will still be paying on my student loans when my child (who isn't quite born yet) graduates from college. (assuming they don't take 8 years like me).

Good lord, what was I thinking?!

Uhh, I did the second one when I opened a new card that had 0% APR on purchases until April 09. I just paid off the balance. Of course, I didn't think of it as free money, just an interest free loan.

@Trai_Dep: awesome!

I can pay it back in inflated dollars!

"I've been wanting this forever!"

But I do deserve a treat...

#2 is not a lie. I'm often prepared to pay cash for something and am offered 0% APR. Why not take it?

11. My car just exploded, I never learned to ride a bike, and this city's public transportation smells like cat urine!

(checkmate, pocketbook.)

The problem with #1 -- student loans -- is that NOT doing it is also not a tenable answer. In my early 20s I was getting considerations, responsibilities, and promotions that equally talented co-workers in their 40s weren't, because I had a college degree and they didn't.

Fair? Not particularly. Reality? Yes.

So my massive student debt -- from being an in-state student at my public university -- has saddled me down beyond my ability to live comfortably with it, but NOT having it wouldn't do me any better. My in-pocket net pay is probably about the same either way: no-degree means less gross pay, degree means much higher gross pay but massive debts.

Basically it's a no-win. At least this way I have a chance of rising and a shot at industries that interest me.

@CubeRat88: To semi-quote Jeff Foxworthy, "We may not have food, but we got iTunes!" on his apartment w/spool furniture, and a $9,000 stereo.

Umm its from Apple :)

@Trai_Dep: Boy did we ever bet on the wrong horse there!

I will be able to pay this off at the end of the month, NO PROBLEM!

Number #9 owns me.
I realized yesterday that I had, after counting them out and adding it up, i had 65gb worth of flash drives and SD/MicroSD cards in my backpack, only about 3gb of that was useful stuff, the rest were empty in case I needed them.

Most of them were, of course, 2for1 deals or 40-60% off.
I tossed alot of them in my 'spare parts' drawer but i keep the old, beaten, or 'disposable' ones handy in case I need to do a PC cleaning or loan someone a flash drive.

"Extended warranty? How can I lose!" (Homer Simpson)

My new challenge is to STOP READING the Morning Deals on Consumerist.com. 8-/

@hi: No no.. vote yes, because we're too big to allow to fail.

@legwork: I'm slowly moving out of the packrat phase myself. I look at the stuff and say, do I really want to move all this garbage again?

The lie that gets me the most is:

"Go ahead and expense it". Or it's brother "I can expense this when I get back".

I usually can expense it, but it takes a while to get the money from Finance (they're getting better), and I usually end up in negative numbers between the time I submit the receipts, and when I get the money back.

"i'm rich!"

#1 got me when I was young and dumb...

@axiomatic: Psh, shoes. Electronics, baby, electronics. If they're shiny, or color-coordinating? Even better!

"I'm doing my part to help stimulate the economy"

"I'll just cut back a little somewhere else."
No I won't. I'll keep buying video games and worrying about my balance come rent time.

"I deserve nice things"

Totally guilty of that one a few months ago.

It's only my tip money.

I know I might ostracise for what I say, but I want to say it anyway. I am still a big believer of spending our way out of depression. As long as people don't spend, businesses are going to continue to lose money. When businesses lose money, they will lay off more employees. Capitalist country survives on people buying stuffs. no buying = no jobs. Case in point, Japan has one of the highest saving rate in the world. The result is that it has been in recession for years, maybe a decade. it relies on export to survive. The reason US was able to rebound from recessions one after another was because of consumerism. We used to spend out way out of recession. It is impossible to save our way out of any recession or depression. Instead of discouraging people from spending, we should do the opposite. If every persons in this world start spending again, we would be out of recession in a year, maybe in a few months.

since i'm charging it anyway, i might as well upgrade...

The college thing actually worked quite well for me. I had a job offer with the U.S. governmeny that I accepted and planned on going backpacking in Europe before I started to work. The trip would have been significantly shorter and less fun if I only had the little bit of money I saved in school. However, I charged a few thousand dollars on my credit card and had a trip of a lifetime - something that once you get a full time job (and a sense of desiring not to sleep in youth hostels) you will never have the time off to do. It took me 6 months after beginning work to pay off teh debt (I had planned on 3), but it was well worth it. Charging responsibly can be ok.