What Would You Do If You "Found" $500?

A few weeks ago my bank posted the following question on their web site "What would you do if you found $500?" At first I thought that meant if you found $500 at the ATM, would you turn it in? But no, what they were actually asking was, if you had an extra $500; maybe an unexpected bonus at work, a gift from your Great-Aunt Prudence. or a winning lottery scratch-off ticket, what would you do with that $500? I of course said Save It! After all I knew the chances of me getting an unexpected $500 were pretty slim, so it was easy to give the "right" answer.

So image my surprise when I got the mail this evening and there it was, a check for $500! It appears that a medical bill I had paid had actually been covered by insurance, and I got a refund. So now I have an unexpected $500. Such a delicious feeling. But it does pose a dilemma. $500 is such an in-between amount. Any lower, and I could spend it on that great handbag I had been eyeing or concert tickets with no guilty feelings. Any higher amount and I almost have to use it to pay off debt, or save it. For me, temptation has arrived in the form of a cruise.

You see, I love to travel, and I especially love to travel by cruise ship. Last night I saw a cruise for next June, Rome to Venice with stops in Naples, Sicily, Malta, Kotor, and Dubrovnik, and its at a great price, only $849pp! But the deposit was a whopping $950-Rather high for a cruise deposit this far out. However, today I saw an online cruise travel agency that is offering this very trip, same price, and a much lower deposit, only $425. Hello, we are a go.  But wait, I said I would save. What is a Paltry Saver to do?

Right now I am leaning towards a compromise; I will put it in savings, but in my travel fund....and sleep on it, and decide tomorrow.