Dear Prudence,
I struggle with consistent employment and my husband works retail. We live very conservatively and barely make ends meet. My mother (probably and justifiably assuming I’ve passed the point when I’m ever going to finish my degree) recently turned over to me the $20,000 trust she’d intended I use for college. I know from regrettable experience how quickly money can disappear into day-to-day expenses, and I don’t want the windfall to go to waste. There are also several large expenses that have been haunting us for a while that I could put the money toward (repairing and paying off the car, getting out of credit card debt, etc.). Should I use it immediately on something like that, sit on it and try to avoid using it as much as possible (knowing that it may be much diminished from one minor emergency after another), or block myself access to it completely to avoid the temptation and let it continue to accrue value while we keep on trying to become responsible, well-paid adults on our own?