If You Were Given £1,000 (or $1,000) What Would You Spend It On And Why?

@Janey1966 (24170)
Carlisle, England
January 23, 2010 6:53pm CST
Now then, I know we all get criticised for - maybe, banging on about material things all the time but, I'm one of those people who dream. I dream of buying things for the house that we cannot afford at the moment. I can't see anything wrong in that myself. Anyway, if we got a "windfall" of £1,000 from a dead relative or something I would have to choose one over the other in order of preference and practicality the item(s) I would like to buy. Our fire and fireplace were inherited by hubby and the fire, in particular, is not very efficient. For a new, more energy-efficient version it would cost at least £500 if we shopped around. Then the other £500 would go on the fireplace. Labour? I've not really accounted for that lol However, the alternative purchase would be a COMPLETE bathroom suite. We purchased an electric shower from a site called Plumbworld here in the UK some months ago and it has been invaluable in saving on water as our other one was like standing under a waterfall.A complete bathroom (excluding shower and flooring) can be bought on that site for well under £500. Then the bathroom cabinet, flooring, heated towel rail and accessories would be an extra £500 and that would include labour as well. We know someone in the plumbing trade! So it looks like the bathroom wins, surprisingly! Hmmm, interesting. I wish I had this "dilemma" in real life!
3 people like this
25 responses
@May2k8 (17978)
• Indonesia
24 Jan 10
Just a month for the cost of money may not be enough, so need to add a bit to personal savings. Perhaps, I'll save it to the bank to be able to buy a house in other time. Rest of the money I would probably use to buy furniture as well as for daily meals. And is also used to renovate the house to sell someday.
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
£1000 is a lot to me! I should have "upped" it! Personal Savings is a very good idea, thanks for your response, it is much appreciated.
@alfroi635 (297)
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
when im given $1,000 i will invest it for my future until it will become huge money and if that will happen, i will start helping others. that amount is not enough to buy all the material things u need thats why it is nice to invest first the money. I will also give the 10% of my money to the church for my tithes so that GOD will bless you more.
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Awww what a lovely response, thank you!
@vinslounge (1295)
• India
24 Jan 10
Really I dont have an answer now. I come from one of the fast developing countries in the world and 1000$ or pounds is such a huge money and I am so long in pursuit of a decent car as I am yet to own one. Hence I would save 900 dollars or pounds to get a car and 100 dollars, I'll donate it equivalently to Temple and charity organisation. Hope I get the 1000 dollars very soon:-)
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
I wish you well for the future, many thanks for posting!
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
24 Jan 10
There are endless things that I could spend that money on. I have so many things that need doing around my house that I do not know where to start! I think though that I would use that money to go to Norfolk Island this July for an archery competition that is being held there. I compete locally in the sport and know some people who are going on the trip to this 5 day competition this year. Norfolk is an Island in the Pacific Ocean that belongs to Australia and has a deep, dark history! Goggle it! It is a place that I have always been fascinated with and have wanted to visit, The trip costs around $1200 so that would nearly pay for it all. I think I will be going, but have not committed to it yet.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
24 Jan 10
Most of the Australian towns and cities were named after English, Scottish and Irish towns in the early days as that is where the early settlers came from.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Norfolk Island eh? We have a Norfolk here in the UK but it's a county in England lol. How interesting! Thanks for posting!
@sulsisels (1685)
• United States
24 Jan 10
Hi Janey..I too, am always dreaming of a windfall of cash and what I would do with it. It changes from time to time as to what I would do with it but today I would go with kitchen stuff. I love stainless steel appliances and would love to have a new refrigerator. They make such nice ones today. I would also buy a really good quality set of pans and other kitchen stuff I need. Cooking is my "thing" and it is so important to have the right equipment. When I graduated cooking school, My Mom bought me a really nice, quality set of knifes that I should have for the rest of my life. I can not believe what a difference having good knifes makes for me. I would also like a new food processor and a juicer as I have 3 fruit trees in my yard (Orange, pink grapefruit and Mango) and I would love to be able to have fresh juice every day,,yum!! I could go on and on with kitchen things i'd like!! A brand new gas stove with an indoor grill on cooktop would be a dream too!! Its fun to dream of these things..who knows, maybe a miracle will happen~~~Hope yours happens for you too. A nice bathroom is very tempting for me as well!!
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Haha! I like it! Yes, we do love to dream don't we? My dream came true over our kitchen so I'm sure it will for you one day my friend.
• Indonesia
24 Jan 10
May I have some more? Lol. Actually our main priority is to buy a house and $ 1000 isn't enough for it lol. And it's not enough to buy a plasma tv either. But if I were to be given the money, I'd rather save it to buy the house in the future. $ 1000 is quite a help for our saving.
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Course you can have some more...at least another $1000 more if you so wish! At least you would decide to save it, that is very sensible my friend!
@polachicago (18716)
• United States
24 Jan 10
I don't know. I need vacations so badly, maybe I would just take time for my vacations. Other than this, maybe home improvement or new appliances for my kitchen, house remodeling is next...
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
They seem like very practical ideas to me. I'd pretty much spend the money on home improvements too seeing as I spend so much time in the house at the moment. Thanks for posting!
@cripfemme (7698)
• United States
24 Jan 10
If I received $1000 tomorrow, I would pay off some friend debt. It's my goal to get out of friend debt in reality by the end of this year. Because my friends are not in dire situations, I would also give money to Haiti. I would keep at least $500 to pay off friend debt as I mentioned.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Good for you! That is a very kind act and thanks for posting.
@irishmist (3814)
• United States
24 Jan 10
Well being the practical person that I am, I would put it on my truck payment. The faster I get it paid off. The happier I will be, as I hate having anything important like that hanging over my head.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Yes, I do know what you mean. I have a relatively small credit card bill I want to pay off...and it I was working it would only take me a month to do it! So frustrating! Thanks for posting, it is much appreciated.
@illfavors (590)
• United States
24 Jan 10
Me? I would pay off one of my new IMAC's I just bought. Or may pay a little on it and put the rest into savings. I have been saving mostly all and any extra money to gain some interest since the economy is so bad. I save it for emergencies and I am also saving a little for tuition, for when I get to go back to school, hopefully that will be soon.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
The economy is bad isn't it and many of us are struggling. I admire the fact that you want to use the money to save for your education, a noble act my friend. Good luck to you.
• United States
24 Jan 10
A free, no strings attached $1000....I'd probably put it in my PayPal account and have it to use for concert tickets as I need it. I should use it to pay off my two credit cards, which both have pretty low balances but it would be nice to have them paid off again....but this is a free, no strings attached $1000 and it should be used for something fun
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Yes I agree with you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having fun my friend, nothing at all. Any band in particular you would go and see?
@jambi462 (4576)
• United States
24 Jan 10
I would save it so I could have some funds because I want to get a house with my girlfriend so we can go to college at a little bigger of a school. It's kind of limited when you go to college in a smaller town's community college. It would also be nice to get a change of environment and it would help me to commit to college.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
That sounds like common sense to me, a great way to spend the "free" money and thanks for posting, it's much appreciated.
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
Hi. That would be around Php45,000 here in our local peso currency. With the amount, I could already afford buying a new laptop I could use when servicing my clients on field. My current laptop is almost eight years old now. It might be broken or stop working anytime.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
That would be a most useful item to buy my friend...and, thinking about it, I could buy quite a decent laptop for a grand. Mmmm, decisions, decisions!
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
Yes, I agree. This amount is already more than enough to buy a decent laptop. I could even buy other office equipment for my home-based accounting service business.
• India
24 Jan 10
i would start a mini business of my own. in our country, 1k euro is quite a amount. so i think ill start a small cyber cafe..then as my business grows so will my cyber cafe and my profits :)
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Excellent idea my friend! I hope your dreams become reality very soon and welcome to MyLot!
@BarBaraPrz (45217)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
24 Jan 10
That's what I used to do when I couldn't sleep... spend an imaginary million dollars instead of counting sheep. I never got too far into it before I fell asleep.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Haha! So much to spend it on eh? Judging by my responses I reckon I should have had that amount in discussion topic...but a "free" £1000 or $1000 would help some people I'm sure. I just didn't realise that there are people out there a lot worse off than me financially...so I've been a bit naive.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31367)
• Denmark
24 Jan 10
If I received $1000, I would probably spend it on travelling. My husband I have talked about travelling around in Europe by train. We want to visit Berlin and Krakow at first, and after that we want to go to Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. On the way back we would like to visit Austria and maybe Switzerland. $1000 wouldn't be enough to pay for the entire trip and we also need to pay someone to take care of our pets, but $1000 would be a big help, and it could probably cover one of the train tickets.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Yes, at least you wouldn't have to save up as much or as long. Thanks for posting!
• Malaysia
24 Jan 10
Let me tell you what will I do if I were given $1000. I want go travel to somewhere beautiful places, resorts, not so warm and not so cold place...just within my state. I will bring my boyfriend with me and spent that peaceful moment with him. I will spent that money to rent an apartment or cabin for a week. Enjoying all the things that place could offer. The bottom line is, I would spent that money to buy me time and moment that will be memorable in my life.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
That's a lovely way of spending $1000, I like that! A holiday would be lovely for us too, but I'd need another £1000 and I don't wanna be greedy lol. Many thanks for your response.
@zkapfo123 (319)
• India
24 Jan 10
Hi janey1966, if i'm given such an amount, i'll invest it on some high yeilding income sites and i'll only spend and use the money which i get as interest. With such an amount, you're bound to get a huge amount as interest in the shortest possible time. Thank you.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
That's very interesting! I'd never thought of that. Thanks for posting!
• India
24 Jan 10
If i get $1000 i would rent a beautiful villa in a hill station and spend my one week there
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Very nice too!
@redex1 (40)
24 Jan 10
If i was given £1,000 then the first thing i would spend it on would be a nice phone for myself. I also want to buy a pocket pc, and a ipod touch and a iphone. These are the first 3 things i would spend my money on and after that i would spend it on whatever else intrested me.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
24 Jan 10
Thanks for that. You are obviously into technology and good for you to have an interest.