PLAN
I almost bought a pool on a whim. No thought or research or preparation of any kind. It was sort of hot out and floating in your own pool, no matter how small, beats sitting in a lawn chair and misting yourself with a garden hose every. single. time. The kind of pool I was about to buy was one of those hard-sided DIY pop-up pools that are supposed to last 5-6 years with proper maintenance. They run about $300 -$1000 depending on size, shape and the season during which you make this impulse purchase. Pools are (not surprisingly) more expensive in July than they are in October. Every Midwesterner who’s ever sweated through a 102-degree day with 1000% humidity knows summer is best when you’re near a body of water. So why not put that body of water right in my back yard where I can enjoy it whenever I want? Well, after giving it even 30 seconds of thought I came up with more than a few really good reasons why not. The first is that my backyard is a border-line disaster. Weed-filled former flower beds and vegetable patches are the main attraction if you walk through our gate. Don’t get me wrong, having to stare at some overgrown garden beds and the world’s largest dandelion patch aren’t enough to ruin MY pool day. But the bugs that come with that much greenery are. No one wants to swim in a mosquito sanctuary. The second is that we have two rowdy dogs who run and dig and well. . . go to the bathroom in our yard. We hire a poop-scooping service to clean it up once a week (the most ridiculous expense I will never, ever give up), which helps but doesn’t solve the problem. The third is that there is a significant amount of manual labor and maintenance involved with having a pool in your backyard. I know this because growing up there was a pool in my parents’ backyard and I was lucky enough to find pool duty on my chore chart regularly. And yet, I spent an entire day scrolling through Amazon and various farm and home store websites looking for the best deal. You see, I have an occasional problem with impulse control (see how much money I’ve been known to spend on takeout if you don’t believe me). When I get an idea in my head, sometimes I just run with it. And while that has turned out to be a great idea sometimes (I adopted our first dog because I had a bad day), it has had a disastrous effect on our finances in others that I’m not willing to mention here. Luckily before I bit the bullet and clicked that Buy Now button on my dream of a more aquatic summer, I went through what I’m now calling my 5 Step Program to Prevent Ridiculous Purchases.
The 5-Step Guide To
PREVENT RIDICULOUS PURCHASES
Amanda Spurgeon
3
PATHFINDER
