Last night I had a dream that I won $2000 in some very minor gambling affair -- like I played roulette by accident or picked up a scratch card or something. In retrospect, this seems like the perfect amount: I could buy cowboy boots and a really nice digital camera (something I didn't even think I wanted...) and an oven thermometer and then put the rest in my savings and forget about it. This is pretty consistent with the mundane sort of dreams I usually have -- others have included picking out t-shirts or discovering new clothes in my closet -- because it's not enough money to actually change my life, but it would make things just the tiniest bit better. But, and I think this is critical, it is enough money that I'd have a little bit leftover, so I wouldn't have to feel bad about spending it because I'd still have some for my savings.

Annoyingly, if I weren't so plagued by that sort of fiscal responsibility, I actually could just dip into my savings for those cowboy boots and that digital camera, and an oven thermometer is a pretty negligible expense, but if I did I'd have nightmares about losing my job or realizing I owed my old landlord $2000 and I'm not at all sure it would be worth the guilt.