I was scared about how tonight was going to go. We had plans to have sushi with some friends that were in town from Austin and because they are leaving tomorrow we couldn’t say no. There were 6 of us, and one gentlemen kept ordering for all of us and I kept recalling the birthday budget buster situation. I tried to politely imply that we were ordering out of our price range and then the very pushy man just said, ‘well we are splitting it between 6 of us, so it shouldn’t be that bad.”
I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t want to be a pain. I already feel like a pain when my friends invite me out and I have to say no because I am busy working, or even worse I am out and don’t want to buy anything because I’m watching my money. So I went along with it and enjoyed myself, hoping I wouldn’t kick myself by the time the bill came.
When the bill finally came, one of the other guys quietly took the bill and paid the whole thing. THE WHOLE THING. We had FOUR bottles of sake (small ones) and a ton of sushi. I imagine the bill was at least $200, if not more. We don’t know this person very well and we tried to pay, but he was insistent it was his treat. From what I know, he works at Nike and makes very good money. He let us know that money isn’t a big deal to him and it makes him happy to be able to spread the love and share good times with his friends.
I wanted to cry! I had an amazing night with friends, eating sushi, drinking sake and having fun. I realized this is another reason I really want to be debt free. I want to generously drop any amount of money on my friends or strangers, just because. JUST BECAUSE. BECAUSE I CAN.
How amazing would that feel? To not worry about money and to let your money truly work for you? To buy experiences and not things? To truly help friends out and share what you can? I cannot wait for that day.
Because of tonight, I am more inspired to get out of debt sooner and repay all the generosity bestowed upon me. To make that happen, I came home and threw an additional $350 at my debt. I’ve paid off $1650 this month, which is the most I’ve paid off since February.
Are you in a position where you can be generous? If not, how do you want to be generous when you are debt free?