quality or quantity?

It is no secret that Polly and I live on a fixed budget. Most people who hate debt do. So when Christmas and birthdays and such come along and people bless us with money and gift cards, we get a little excited. Aside from our small budgeted amount of fun money, this is the only opportunity we have to buy things we want. As much as we both love this, it has become clear to me that our spending philosophies are completely different.

Polly is the ultimate quantity person. When she gets money to freely spend, she saves it and uses it on a lot of little things she wants. She squeezes as much out of that money as she possibly can. Typically, she looks for good deals on clothes, scarves, shoes, etc. Regardless what she's buying, she wants bang for the buck. She doesn't feel the need to spend it all at once or right away.

I am the complete opposite. I go for the quality of the product. When I get a big chunk of spending money, I ask myself this simple question: "What item have I been wanting that I cannot otherwise rationalize spending money on. It's not a question of need, but a question of want. That being said, I do buy practical things I want. The first day I had a chance to make a purchase, I bought myself a GPS watch. As a runner, I've been wanting a GPS watch for some time. The one I bought was on sale (I'm no fool) and allows for me to track my speed, distance, heart rate, elevation, etc. It connects to software on the computer and graphs my runs for me. What runner wouldn't want one? That being said, I'm the one sitting with only like $35 of my Christmas money left. But at least I got something I couldn't normally get. I can use my small weekly fun money budget for the smaller things in life.

How about you? Are you the type that would rather buy a big item you want and can't otherwise buy or are you the type to stretch that money on a lot of little things?