In any big city, I’ll gladly taxi or uber, my time there is more important than dollars saved. And I hate spending time on parking. I do pay for (auto) early check-in on Southwest, don’t like long lines in the plane or sitting in back. And I’ll pay more for a good haircut. But I’m not into purses or i-phones or items with some design corporate name on them.
I’ve flown first class and would love to again, but don’t need it, at the prices. I’ve stayed in grand hotels on business and am just as happy in a pensione or bnb, on my own dime. My mother was the sort who’d stat in a hostel or 3 star one night and the Ritz the next. Both directions have their charms.
We tend to splurge on experiences vs stuff. Stuff, I tend to cheap out.
We splurge on great views when we travel whether that’s at a campground, condo, or hotel. We love relaxing and looking at whatever the view is.
We also buy good hiking and camping gear - scuba too when we were doing it more often.
We eat out more than most folks, especially since I dislike cooking and cleaning.
We tip far more than most people.
Everything else we save on. Old vehicles, appliances, flooring, clothing - with no concern for style, and anything else I can skrimp on to save money for more travel. These sorts of things only get replaced when truly needed and the bar is pretty high.
Expensive colleges 
are a no.
Will pay for $$$ food if on vacation.
Will go on $$$ vacations.
Owned boats, fancy cars, etc in the past now I cant do it. Just cheap and new function over form.
Will not buy expensive clothes
Focused on retiring at 55.
I’m pretty frugal. Willing to save for and splurge on special experiences, not so much on material things.
I refuse to pay someone to do something I can do myself (like paint the interior of my home, or build a bookcase).
I’m not sure remodeling a 1900 farmhouse is discretionary, but the contractor and finishes I’m choosing are!
My biggest splurge for awhile will be the super-cool Adventure World Vinyl Swing set I’m about to order. I have 3 grandkids under 4 and more to come. Getting the gangplank instead of ladder so I can get up to the slides more easily:)
I’m pretty sure my kids got the same amount of joy out of their $39 K-Mart swingset in 1990, but this one won’t rust, will look awesome and last, and won’t require H swearing for hours over 10,000 screws and parts.
We go all out for dinner 3 to 5 times a year. $250 or more easily. These are Michelin starred restaurants. The rest of the time we eat BBQ. We don’t go out a lot though. Possibly one a month. Our frugal kid uses our Amazon Prime, Netflix, and telephone plan. Our kid who makes more than we do pays for that stuff, but he’s so cheap, he keeps running out of minutes on the phone!
Last fall DH was getting two salaries for a few months and we had no cooking facilities where we were. We were happy to live in very Spartan quarters and spend the extra dollars on fancy food and travel. Most of our vacations are to family properties or tacked on to business travel. We stay in nice hotels and B and B’s, but not over the top expensive ones.
We spend an embarrassing amount on wine.
I do have a cleaning woman who comes once a week. She’s worth every penny I pay her.
I’ve got very little interest in clothing or fancy bags.
I splurge on my dogs. They’re Briards with long double coats, so their groomer and I are besties. We go high-end for their food (and remind them often). I take them to classes – in fairness, I’m the one who needs to learn more than they do, so it wouldn’t be fair to place that expense at their feet. I’m also a sucker for accessories. They have different types of leashes and harnesses for different situations, and my bar is pretty high for comfort and sturdiness. They’re 60 and 80 pounds, and I don’t want any of us getting hurt. And the toys??? I cannot wait to give them their new squeaky sloths, and they love their plush narwhals.
It’s interesting how we all have different priorities. Some spend on clothes, some on dogs, some on travel, some on fancy restaurants. All different.
I guess if you have a healthy kid paying for their health insurance might seem over the top but if you have a young adult with significant health issues it makes sense to be involved in their health insurance situation, even to the point of paying premiums because guess who’s not going to let said kid fall through the cracks if the wrong choice is made?
When I’ve read the hardcover books I give them to a thrift store or occasionally I take them to Half Price Books (and then buy more books.) Sometimes the library will take them.
I will pay for airline seat upgrades to sit close to the front of coach if I have a tight connection. I paid a lot for my All Clad cookware but I know that my great grandchildren will still be using it. My night vision acuity isn’t what it used to be and for a while I was driving a lot for work, so when I needed a new car I bought a lower priced base model car but paid for all the safety camera extra doodads.
I don’t spend a lot of money on clothes and furniture and cut the cord on cable TV (use a few streaming services and get PBS and NBC over the air).
For each house we’ve owned, we spend the first couple of years making it perfect for us (mostly in the kitchen), and then we spend on entertaining friends in our home, mostly groceries and wine. Our other buckets don’t fluctuate much.
I’m cheap on entertainment spending. Most of my “entertainment” is relatively low cost - exercise, gardening, visiting parks. Travel is minimal but largely because we have a lake side cottage so while it’s not fancy, it takes a lot of our discretionary income.
Don’t eat out much and when we do more likely casual local. Will splurge on good quality ice cream.
Even though the kids are older I will forego other things to splurge on them. I like to buy a needed item for their home. Take them along on a trip or treat them to day trips. Overdo, at my pleasure, holiday gifts.
My D just got a full ride scholarship (yea!) and my splurge is hiring someone to wash my windows! Other than that I will spend money on experiences. Concerts and food especially! I won’t spend money on technology - my phone is 2 years out of contract and I still love it.
Education, travel, comfort.
I spend on travel but it’s budget/flashpacker type travel. I’d rather do that for 6 weeks (I work online) than go premium for a week. So I do fly coach (free, usually - I do the travel credit card bonus thing), use Airbnbs or inexpensive hotels or hostels (private room not dorm anymore!). Walk the city myself or take public ferries/trains/buses rather than using organized tours (I find a deeply discounted tour, sometimes). Travel is my favorite thing to spend money on and ideally it involves my family and/or friends.
I do not get any joy (I think about what sparks joy a lot lately even though I haven’t seen that show on Netflix, I love the idea) from expensive clothes, restaurants, homes or cars. Not really any THINGS at all.
Wait, i need to pull my broken glasses out of the free tote bag I got from the library to read what this thread says. Ok DI-SCRE-WHAT?
Yeah, sorry. Dont know what that says.
Admittedly, my “disposable” income is far less than most on these boards but I’m an expert at making it stretch and I’m proud of that. I splurge on experiences and travel and am downright frugal on material things. When I travel I don’t need to go 5* but I do like to be comfortable, so Hampton Inn or Springhill Suites etc, someplace preferably with a coffee maker in the room and free breakfast is where I place my aim. I like to avoid tourist areas and restaurants and prefer to knock elbows with the locals in their regular spots. I saved every year to take the kids to Disney or camping, at least one vacation for a week, the second vacation was a “staycation” in our beach resort hometown. A third vacation for myself and SO and a girls weekend at least yearly.
I do informal entertaining quite often for the girls in my life…in the summer, its on my back deck with lots of wine and salads…in the winter, its at the kitchen table with meatballs and cheese slices, and of course lots of wine lol. Everyone brings something, I provide the house because I’m solo here and its easier for everyone. It gives us all a social outlet for much less than meeting out.
I gladly take my mother’s linen hand-me-downs. She re decorates often and is a shopping addict. Towels, sheets, rugs, they all come from her with little wear. I own just a few pair of shoes which I’ll gladly pay more for comfort. I rarely buy jewelry and spend very little on makeup or lotions, only what I use. I really don’t like to shop for clothes either. I always get my bathing suits from LLBean or Lands End and they are a little spendy but they get alot of use.
I do like a new car about every five years. I need that reassurance that I can get in the car and go anyplace at any time that generally comes with a new vehicle. But they are not super high end, I’m driving a Mazda CX3 now after trading in my Honda Accord.
My kids had everything they needed, some of what they thought they wanted and some of what I thought would be nice for them to have (whether they knew it or not lol). Its all good.
@NEPatsGirl I could have typed what you did word for word almost 
I love to cook, so we hardly eat out. We grow our own vegetables and fruits in our large backyard as a hobby. That takes care of our meditation needs as well as saving some from our grocery bills. I have a home theater system, so we don’t go out to movie theaters. We travel on points. This past summer, our family of four went on an international trip for a full month on points. When I helped my freshmen son move in at his college 1,600 miles away upon returning from the trip, we flew SouthWest on points, rented a car on points and stayed at a nearby Hilton on points. I do 95% of all repairs around the house as well as renovations, most recent projects being the conversion of our three floors from carpet to wood and the kitchen countertops.
One thing I do spend my discretionary money on, however, is my decades long passion for photography that began with a DIY darkroom built in our garage when I was a high school yearbook photographer some decades ago. I now have my own DIY photography studio established in my basement. Pretty much all of my equipment has already purchased awhile ago. Although estimated $20K went into my most expensive hobby, I took care of all of our formal photographic needs over the years, including my nephew’s wedding. Just about the only gear that I’d need to upgrade every 5 years or so is the camera body. Whatever the old equipment I sell on Craigslist, I save every dollar for the upgrade budget.
As a young man, I was heavily influenced by the writings of H.D. Thoreau and Emerson on “self-reliance” and on “economy.” I no longer read them. I now watch one of my favorite TV programs, “Life Below Zero,” which is largely about being self-reliant and living a simple, uncluttered life.