It’s Friday! Maybe you just got paid. You could use that money for boring stuff like bills, rent, and food, or you could act like a wonderfully impulsive consumer and spend it on any number of products. Here are some ideas to get you started based on your taxable income bracket.
10% ($0 to $8,375)
Cheer up, big cat. You’ll pull out of this personal recession sooner or later. Just because all your buddies are throwing down real money for real drinks doesn’t mean you can’t join them at the bar. Use this $11 flask shaped like a BlackBerry to sneak in your own libations. As a bonus, it’s an old-ass BlackBerry so might get some free pity drinks out of it.
15% ($8,375 to $34,000)
Time for some new furniture. You’ve earned it! Let’s not break the bank, though. In what can only be seen as the furniture deal to end all furniture deals, you can get not one, but TWO inflatable sofas for $50 today. They measure 75 inches and, better yet, they have your favorite team’s logo all over them.
25% ($34,000 to $82,400)
Should you get an e-book reader or do you stick with old-school books? Both! Use this $150 wireless magnifier to turn any book, magazine, or newspaper into a big-screen digital edition. It looks like a computer mouse, and you just scan it over whatever you’re reading to see it magnified on your TV from up to 15 feet away. Problem solved.
28% ($82,400 to $171,850)
You’re making good money because you’re smart, right? Show your friends and family how smart you are with the barebones 12-inch ASUS Eee PC 1201T for $390. You’ll have to load your own operating system onto it and there’s no optical drive. Do you have the chops to MacGyver your way around such a seemingly insurmountable task? Time to shine!
33% ($171,850 to $373,650)
While you might not be in the top tax bracket yet, show everyone you’re well on your way with the Signature Series diamond-encrusted Vertu cell phone. If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it. Rest assured that there are at least four zeros in the number, though. And—ooh!—4GB of memory and up to five hours of talk time. Look at you!
35% ($373,650 and up)
This scooter that shoots flames out the back is NOT for sale. But everything’s available for a price when your bi-weekly paychecks clear more than $15,500 each. Whatever money this guy put in to his flame-throwing moped, offer him double. Then triple. Then quadruple. But not quintuple. You’re rich, not foolish. Okay, quintuple, but that’s your final offer.