Discretionary spending -- What are you willing or unwilling to spend money on?

Parent Cafe
81

Yes, it is nice to be able to choose what to splurge on. I generally am happy with clothing I get at Costco. I am OK with buying plane tickets at prices I feel are reasonable even if not as low as possible.

I have a hard time paying a lot of money on hotel rooms (>$200+/nite), even though we can. I will search around and try different ways of finding a hotel room in the area we want before settling. I figure we are mostly just sleeping in the room so don’t need anything fancy.

I’m happy we are able to make choices that work for us.

82

Two things that I won’t scrimp on are shoes and mattresses. I figure anything you are going to spend a third to half your life on deserves the investment. Although I don’t go overboard wine is something I budget for. I’ll buy various types and usually purchase it by the case to save the 10%. That said since I like to cook and plan meals so we don’t go out often and my meals are usually planned with wine in mind or visa versa. We like cruises but unless we can get a good deal on a cabin with a balcony will usually just spend for the inside cabin. All we are using the cabin for is sleeping and changing etc. If I am staying in a hotel, however, I’ll often choose one with a suite or kitchenette. That way I can cook a meal. Usually the difference is less than the cost of the meal.

83

@jym626 , your last paragraph expresses perfectly how I feel about spending:

“I am still frugal in many ways, but am also now equally ok with spending for what I consider value. I don’t want to throw away money unnecessarily, but if its justified in my mind, I will not bat an eye. Thats the beauty of having been careful with $ and saving so that now we have th luxury of splurging and spending at our discretion.”

84

“Two things that I won’t scrimp on are shoes and mattresses.”

@lvvcsf, I had to read this twice. My new glasses are apparently not doing the job for my post-cataract surgery vision. I read the last word in that sentence as “mistresses” and was surprised anyone would post that.

Once I read what you actually wrote I agreed with you wholeheartedly.

85

Yup. Shoes. :slight_smile: ?- not that kind. ?This kind. :slight_smile: Mister will not go cheap with his tools.

86

I don’t consider it a “splurge”, but when we fly we either get upgrades or just pay for business/first class. My husband has a spinal nerve condition (five spinal cord surgeries in the last six years) that means he just can not sit for hours in the bento box that is now standard regular seats. It’s pay for the extra 6” or we can’t go. So that’s our splurge, and well worth it, and we are thankful for all the cards that fell into place that put us in this position ( starting with our own college tuition back in the 70s…$300/semester for the state university.)

87

Ha ha! I just showed this to my wife. There would never be enough “discretionary” income to afford mistresses.:smiley:

88

When something goes wrong with my car or some of my old dental work needs to be replaced or another unexpected expense comes up, I don’t even think about what it costs. I just do it.

It’s the “not thinking about it” part that I like. That is a true luxury. It’s a privilege to be able to live this way.

89

Interesting that no one mentions their vacation houses, luxury cars, boats etc. Perhaps those are not considered discretionary :wink: Our biggest luxury is probably a vacation house far away from home. But it’s our happy place, and we share it with family and friends all year round, so it rarely stays empty.

90

Not willing to buy bottled water when safe to drink tap water is available.

91

I called in my order for the super deluxe vinyl play/swing set today! In the upgraded colors to match my barn. After much internal debating, I got the extra add-ons I wanted, although I choked a little on the price.

But…but…this is an aging in place swingset. I got the gangplank instead of the ladder, the new open spiral slide (upcoming spinal fusion and I’m sure my neck brace won’t fit into the closed spiral slide) and the adult glider. Yes, yes–this is definitely all for the grandkids :slight_smile:

92

@mycupoftea, we used to have a lake house, but we sold it. :slight_smile:

I do have a very nice brand new car after giving my 5 year old car to D2 after hers was totaled when a wrong way (uninsured) driver hit her head-on going over 50 mph in a 30. Thank God for air bags and seat belts.

I don’t spend money on clothes, shoes, or hand bags. But we have a very nice house, which as a big time homebody, I really appreciate, and when we travel, we tend to travel very well. We go out for nice dinners and take the hit for good wine. Once a year we rent a suite at Cowboys stadium for a game with our family and friends, and that is definitely a splurge that would be the first to go in a belt tightening move.

93

Personally, I haven’t mentioned them because we don’t have them. :slight_smile:

H has a '60s era sailboat, but it was given to him for free in unusable condition and he restored it. He’s spent less than $1000 on needed things for it - and that spread out over time so it hardly makes a dent in our budget.

Sooner or later we need to replace the older of our two cars (2002 Ford Focus), but we keep putting it off because it’s still running.

We enjoy our farm though. We have some woods, a nice one acre pond, pasturelands, gorgeous view, terrific neighbors - and an old 3/1 house that desperately needs some money spent on it updating '60s era flooring and more. I think about doing that every time I clean, but then some sort of trip comes to mind and when we discuss things - we’d rather travel and see the world than care about worn out carpet and wallpaper. We’ve talked about adding a second bathroom for years too, but that never hits the top of our list either. In spite of having just one, our three lads all made it to adulthood just fine.

That’s what this thread is all about, no? What we choose not to spend on in order to spend on what we choose!

At some point we are contemplating getting a winter beach condo in Grenada or perhaps the Virgin Islands, so maybe then we can talk about a vacation home. We’re still debating whether that’s a good investment or not though - might just invest elsewhere and rent for our travel needs. That has the “pro” of allowing us to continue to see new areas. Other thoughts include a Class B motorhome or H wants a liveaboard sailboat. We have a year or two before we’re serious about any of those.

94

We are fortunate to have no pressure to “Keep up with the Jones.” In my part of the country, if you can afford to shop in Walmart or Target with your own money, you are well ahead of the curve. What I consider splurging isn’t compared to most. We tend to buy things cheap and make them last out of necessity.

Clothes - Many of my pants are 20 years old. My favorite pair my MIL bought for $0.50 in a yard sale in 1999. Best 50 cents she ever spent! I do spend a bit more now. I tend to shop on sale at Target or Penneys. I used to go to Goodwill.

Purses - I haven’t bought a purse in over 10 years. My last 2 were gifts. But even then, I made the $15 walmart purse last for 5 years.

books - library. I read a book a week. That would be really $$$ otherwise!

hair - I used to cut my own hair. Just hack at it periodically. Now I get it cut for real 3-4 times a year.

Eating out - this is my splurge. We eat out at a fast food place once/week at an Applebee’s level place every Saturday. We don’t have many fancier places in town anyway.

Food shopping - walmart. We don’t have anything like a TJ or Cotsco or Whole Foods available

exercise - our gym membership costs are very low. I also run and a splurge used to be racing out of town. However, I cut that out for several reasons, but $$$ was a big part of it. I have added yoga in recent years.

Travel/family excursions & experiences -this has always been my splurge. Coming from a small poor town, I wanted my kids to see the world and see how others live. When they were younger, we would go anywhere within a 4-5 hour drive. The last 8 years, we try to fly somewhere once/year. Always coach and any hotel that has a free breakfast, though lately we have stayed in some airbnbs. We have also stayed in a treehouse and a castle!

We also have hit tons of museums, science centers, zoos, conservatories, etc around the world. My kids have always enjoyed that stuff, even as teens/young adults. In Edinburgh my 21 year old wanted to make sure we hit the Museum of Scotland. Not on the top of my list, but I was glad it was on his. We also hit the zoo in Prague because it had a clouded leopard - one of my kids’ all time favorite animal. Also important for me on these trips is that we use public transportation. I wanted to make sure my kids were comfortable going somewhere new and being able to get around as needed without relying on $$$ taxis.

95

I have a very expensive espresso machine at home, and I often buy whole bean coffee that’s fairly expensive ($15/lb).
BUT, I almost NEVER buy fancy coffee drinks out.

96

Well, I tend to avoid anything that can be perceived as flashy, fads, high-maintenance, status symbols and likes. Went against the herd mentality for my entire life and not a trend-follower. So, no designer purses, clothes, shoes, jewelry, trendy cars, luxury hotels, expensive restaurants for our family. But we are not rule followers either, so I would get certain items I really like, it just happens rarely.

Flying business or first class would make me feel old, and I would regret waisting the money, so we never do this either. But we are very well traveled, and dragged the kids around the world with us since they were little. Would happily pay for sport equipment, classes, instructors, tour guides and such. Pay for house cleaning and a gardener who magically managed to bring our dying shrubs and trees back to life.

97

We spend on experiences for our two kids (and on us) that expose them to nature and history. We’ve explored Mayan ruins in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala. Explored the great barrier reef off Australia and the meso-american reef from many central american locations. Snorkeled with whale sharks in the Caribbean and with seals and marine iguanas in the Galapagos. Along the way our kids have learned so much.

98

“We’re still debating whether that’s a good investment or not though - might just invest elsewhere and rent for our travel needs. That has the “pro” of allowing us to continue to see new areas.”

@Creekland We made the decision to just rent many years go. I prefer the flexibility and freedom it offers. No need to worry about maintenance or natural disasters among other things.

99

Vacation homes are never a good investment. I would only buy if could pay cash, have many vacation days available to go to other destinations besides the vacation home (we have 6 weeks each), rented prior to buying for many years to make sure you like the destination, and have a lot of space to comfortably accommodate guests (it’s not fun to be alone). It’s also a must for us to have low property taxes, low HOA/maintenance fees and a reliable maintenance company, so we never have to do any cleaning or repairs while on vacation. Most importantly, must enjoy being there.

We can easily rent our vacation home for profit if we needed the money or decided to skip a few years. But it’s never a good investment, definitely a luxury lifestyle choice

100

No vacation houses or boats, but we (Mr.) did splurge on a Tesla. The plug and play aspect of it is actually great. Do not miss spending time waiting in line for gas at Costco, emissions testing (although this will be a thing of the past soon), oil changes, etc. It also requires less frequent washing because - no exhaust! :slight_smile:

We splurge on plants. I love unusual rhodies and conifers. We also splurged on land to plant them. :slight_smile: