Things: What was the first thing(s) you bought with your first paycheck?

My first real job was as a sandblaster at a metal coating factory. It paid minimum wage but it was more than 40 hours a week, so for a high school junior this was a ton of money, esp as a first job. I remember that the first thing I bought with my first paycheck was a Tamiya 1/35 scale model 88mm flak gun. I still have it, it sits on a shelf in my back room.

I am pretty sure I put gas in my car and got some marijuana and beer. I'm sure I bought cigarettes too. Wait, I didn't have a car yet at the time. I think my first paycheck went to cigarettes, beer, marijuana and maybe some candy too. I was like most teenagers in my spending I guess, there was a difference though. I am sure that I did not buy CDs, movies, or books though. At the time I was joining those mail order book and CD clubs where you order alnums and books and then pay a low price for them. I never joined with my own name, it was always something like Jose Suarez or Igor Kislinski or Muhamud Al-Ibrahim or something. When they started calling my house because I never paid I told them the guy got deported. So I never paid for anything like that. I remember spending most of my money on getting fucked up. The rest I probably wasted.

In 1994, after completing my masters in speech language pathology, I received my job offer for $14.29 per hour. With my first paycheck, I bought a king size mattress for my husband and I.

For everyone who are employed, the first salary is always a special thing. It is special, not because you're getting some money into your pocket. It is special because You have earned it. It is Your money. When I got my first job, I had already made up mind what I was going to do with my first salary. I gave it to my parents, knowing that they deserved it more than me. I did it not do it because they were in need of that money, but because it was their support that inspired me to reach where I am now.

I used to get stipend those days. The day when i got my first stipend, i bought a Charity Gift Voucher of Rs 2000. Though it was not a big amount, but that feeling was just indescribable.

A bought  a tie for myself and my dad. When I was a kid, probably in class 7 or 8, I had a talk with my dad about the graduation robes that they show in movies. Then he told me the logic behind the graduation robes and various terminologies used. In hindi, graduates are called snatak, which by definition means someone who has bathed. My dad explained that this means that the student has bathed in the pool of knowledge. To mark this, they were given certain markers from their gurus (teachers). Some of these markers included angavastra (a semi-robe like towel which you can wrap around your shoulder and torso), astra-vidya (weapon knowledge) etc. As society progressed, these markers developed. The robe at graduation is meant to represent the halo of knowledge which the student has acquired. Now where does the tie come in? The tie, somehow, is an anglicised representation/version of an angavastra. Now, my college essentially doesn't give out robes. They have maintained their tradition of angavastra. However, due to certain complications with my degree during end of my graduation, I wasn't able to participate in the graduation ceremony and hence, didn't get a proper felicitation. So, with my first salary, I bought a couple of ties, went home after a few months and gave it to my dad. Asked him to present one to me when he deems fit.

I'm not counting here my first few cash payments when I worked as a waitress in a pizzeria during the summers I was 16-21. I'm counting my first "full month salary" in a proper job, in 2004.  I bought the following: For my Dad: a portable CD player with MP3 reading capability, he had always 'complained' we both (my brother and I) had a Walkman when we were kids and he'd never had anything of the sort.  Also a Paul Shark polo (we're not big in brands at home, we like them but don't usually splurge on them). For my mum: an old-fashioned bike with a basket on the front, she said she's always wanted one but never had one, only being able to borrow her best friend's one as a kid, some days in the summer.  Also the biggest bottle I could find of "Eau d'Issey" which she loved but hadn't splurged on in a long time. For my brother: an MP3 player (I didn't even have one at the time) and a Burberry shirt. For me: my first digital camera: a Sony DSC - T11. The gifts for the three of them were bought as surprises, I took the three of them for dinner to an upscale restaurant close to home to celebrate my first salary, and then, during dessert, I handed them out (except the bike which was delivered that afternoon to my parents' making my mum flabbergasted). :)

I bought parker roller pens and gave it as a present to all my close friends. They were 150 Rs each in 1998 and very expensive for me. I always loved them but couldn't afford earlier. I gifted one to myself as well (-;

I bought a gray Fender Stratocaster USA electric guitar. I didn't really used it since. It is still in the case, in a closet, 20 years later!!