Vette,
If you buy every new thing you will end up with a bunch of old junk. How often do you play atari/nintendo/supernintendo? Do you want to retire if you have spent 20 in, or do you want to have to work another 20 after? Would you rather keep up with everyone else buying this or that, or be sitting on a beach for retirement insted of working?
Youth is wasted on the young. Why do you think your dad says invest for a house? Probably because he wishes he had, or he was smart enough to do it in the first place. I'm not saying not to buy some things for fun, I'm just spilling all this because of your "what did I do with my first BDCP paycheck" thing.
Just something to think about, maybe others could comment here.