Love it and Hate it!

So I recently received a gift card from work for $50 and now I am perplexed as to what I should spend it on. I am really bad with gift cards. If I receive a gift card I seem to always have to have something “perfect” to use it on. I won’t go shopping and use it here or there on small items. I will get up to the cash register and think, “This isn’t worthy enough to use my gift card.” So I will just end up paying for it which makes me end up spending more money because I go to the store with the intention of using the gift card and then end up spending money that I normally would not have spent. So I am thinking what is my game plan for this gift card. I need to commit to something and roll with it with no regrets. So since I am on a savings kick, I should think about this and buy something I have wanted to buy but haven’t because I’m trying to save my money. So what are some items that I can spend the whole $50 on. I was thinking maybe a writing space, I know I sort of have that covered but in a sense I don’t or maybe Paul and I could go out to a really nice dinner since we don’t go out much since we are saving money. Maybe wait until something goes on sale at Ulta (you know that is my favorite place). Maybe save it until I need to buy more makeup since right now I am set on Bareminerals stuff. I do secretly want a Vera Bradley bag so maybe I should buy one. Gas for a week costs $50…maybe I should use it on gas but what fun is that? $50 worth of $1 candy madness…just kidding!

When I get something that is “free”, I want the best value for the “free” money. If only I was completely like this with my own money. Going up to the register and thinking…this is not “worthy” of my bank account being spent on this. Yet I will swipe my card and spend MY money. (not as much as I used to but still on occasion) It is just crazy how much we take money for granted but when it is “free” money we treasure it.

So thanks to Zach (attorney I work with) I now know something I am going to buy with the gift card...headset for my laptop.  I was telling him how I dictated like 3 long blogs yesterday on my car ride home into a tape recorder and he told me if I had an i Phone it would type it out...well alas Shia's does not have an iPhone so he mentioned Chrome Apps....Chrome has a Talk to Text app...so now I will hook it up to my laptop and talk away on my drive home and my "assistant" will type it up for me.  Genius!  Thanks Zach!!!

So the chrome app did not work.  However, never fear...good news!  First, I went to Office Depot to see if I could get a digital dictation device with perhaps voice-recognition. I found one for $99 and even with $50 off I couldn't justify spending $100 on my blog. So I left Office Depot to go over to Target to see if I could get a standard microphone for my laptop. I had a feeling that the chrome app would not work because something just told me that that seemed to easy. While at Target I looked for computer program. I found the Dragon Voice Recognition Software on sale at target for $40. I could not have been happier I thought finally I have something to buy on my gift card and it's blog related and it will help me how many times have I said that I wish I could just plug a USB port into my head and then into my computer for my blogs. Seriously, I have joked numerous times this week that I need an assistant. This is my new assistant. I just spoke this entire paragraph and my new assistant typed it for me. I love this program and blogging just got a whole lot better.