What should I spend my money on?

I have a few things I have decided I would like to purchase over the next six months, most of them photography related, and some not. What to buy wouldn't be a question if I could find a job; I've done 20+ job applications this summer and no one has been interested in me for some reason. I have a job on campus so I'll have money once I go back to school.

The first item: a flash. I am ready to start experimenting with one; I think I could benefit from having one; and I might be putting together some kind of promotional video/slideshow for the engineering dept at school. A flash would help with getting pictures of the students doing some of the various competitions and such.

Second item: a monitor. I've started having prints made at a real lab instead of Walgreens and I've noticed that the prints are good, but they don't look like they do on my laptop screen. I also do a lot of CAD stuff for school and I frequently have several programs open doing homework, so I could benefit from the additional screen space.

Third item: car stereo. I drive home every 3-4 weeks and its a 10 hour round trip. I think I could really enjoy having a decent stereo for the boring trip. This has been something I have wanted for a long time.

Fourth items: Misc. photography related toys. Neutral Density filter, maybe a circular polarizer, upgraded neck strap. I've really wanted one of the imitation lens mugs for a while too.

I'm also open to anyone offering up other ideas and such. Hope this provides some entertainment and interesting discussion.

whats your budget though? how much do you have to spend?

I can get a flash for $225-250, monitor is the 23" Dell Ultrasharp (don't feel like looking it up) for $275ish and the stereo would be around $300

monitor and flash are important id say get both.
instead of the monitor for $300, get the dell 23" and a used manual flash for about $40/50.

if your current screen is good enough for photo editing, i say get the flash first, monitor later. flash is important IMO but if you cant see what you're editing, that kinda sucks too. (maybe a monitor and 5-1 reflector kit from b&h)

Buy what holds it's value. I spent over $3000 on a car stereo in my younger years and it was the best in town. It was a great thing to have the few years I kept it. Unfortunately the vehicle was worth far less than the stereo equipment I installed. All in all I got $600 lousy bucks for equipment that was still over 2k new. However, I have bought lenses for a $1000 and sold them a few years later for a profit. Not too shabby. The monitor is a good idea or you could have your print house make final adjustments before printing, usually for a small fee. At least with the monitor you could earn some dough with it. Good luck and I too would like to have a lens mug.

I wouldn't get a car stereo if you have any kind of MP3 player and your car has at least an FM radio or cassette deck. There are adapters for cassette decks or FM radios that will let you send your MP3 player/iPod output into the stereo system.

As for the monitor - you'd need to calibrate it, too and that's going to drive the cost up further. It'd be a lasting investment, but . . .

Flash . . . or have you considered a tripod? Either would help in your scenario. If you're not as much on the video as the still, the flash would help more. Conversely . . .

I've figured out how to get my dad's old Pentax AF200S flash to work in my hotshoe, so I have a flash for the time being. I've also inherited my dad's tripod, it works reasonably well, its just not quite tall enough for me. The monitor will be something I get once I'm back at school and am getting paid.

I think I'm going to invest in some neutral density filters.

Thanks for all the input and suggestions. Putting my money into something that holds value is excellent advice.

If you do not have a flash that would be my first recommendation. And then learn how to properly use it. It will change your photography in a way that I can only think a tripod could have the same effect.

I just ordered a Nissin (forget which kind) flash from BH and it's awesome! you can have it mounted on your camera obviously and also use it as a slave which has your built in flash activate it so then you have 2 flashes going off at once. I highly recommend it. It is the 125 dollar one.

Without a job hummmm.....not much to decide there, I would save your money and when you are able to buy good equipment then add the stuff you figure you need the most. I started out getting cheaper stuff and learned the hard way that I was never happy until I had the stuff I really wanted.