Dear Quentin, My spouse and I spent years saving for a new house, and living well below our means. It may sound weird, but now that we have a new home, we feel overwhelmed by the prospect of spending our savings on the items we were actually saving toward. Basically, my partner feels bolstered by our nest-egg, and goes for high-end items every time, while I’m stuck in a penny-pincher mindset. I feel like we need to list everything we may ever want to buy and weigh each item against the rest, and it’s completely overwhelming.
Can you recommend a way to make a middle-ground plan? Thank you for your help. The Diametrically Opposed Duo Dear Diametrically Opposed, You can only do one thing at a time, and plenty of new homebuyers sleep on air beds before buying a mattress. I slept on one the last time I moved house and, when I bought my first home I used a wallpaper table covered in a table cloth for dinner parties. So before you think about furniture and washer-dryers and cookers, you should look at the broader economy, your own job security, your emergency savings (6 months minimum) before spending more money. Congratulations on buyi …