Spending Money--A Paragraph a Day

I've always had problems spending money on myself.  It probably comes from the fact that when I was a kid, we almost never had any money in our family due to the fact that my dad would drink away so many of his paychecks as soon as he got them.  It was only as an adult that I started to realize that it wasn't at all normal for a family never to have any money to do things like take vacations or do special things like go to concerts or sporting events--or even movies, for that matter.  So I've brought into adulthood a tendency to not want to spend money on myself because it's somehow "irresponsible."  After all, what happens if I spend all this money on something and then we need the money desperately tomorrow?  But this feeling goes contrary to the purpose of money in the first place--money is meant to be spent, meant to circulate.  When my wife and I come to a nice town and stay in a bed and breakfast for a nice weekend retreat, we're not just spending money to spoil ourselves.  We're actually contributing, in a small way, to the family who own the bed and breakfast, and the family here has two wonderful daughters who are about five and seven years old--so our money is helping their parents to help them grow and develop and become adults eventually.  If we had stayed at home, the money that we're spending here never would have been shared.  We would have a bit more money in the bank, but the money in the bank does no one any good, does it?  I would much rather enjoy my two nights here and hand the money over to the owners so that they can use it to support their livelihood--to pay the mortgage and the taxes and the electric bills and everything else that they need to do to provide a safe and comfortable home for their kids.  I need to stop feeling guilty about spending money, and as long as I'm spending it wisely and usefully, there's absolutely nothing at all wrong with spending it.