I splurge on what I want to buy. My H is the opposite. He thinks everything can be bought at Costco or Ross. If he needs something that can’t be had at Costco or Hime Depot I buy it.
I splurge on my kids. We still support the horse of one kid. I splurge on my car. Our house is in one of the nicer areas of our town but not anywhere near the nicest house. I would splurge to do some updates but it takes my H time to come around. Our landscaping needs a major overhaul. H will splurge on others doing the heavy work but won’t splurge on a landscape designer.
Vacations- for long haul I have decided business class is the way to go. My body feels much better and I’m better able to get off and running at my destination. H would fly coach if it was up to him. We stay in nice places but not big resorts. I’m not adverse to tent camping as long as it’s interspersed with a few days in a hotel.
For eating out we like ethnic food over the high end places. Haven’t had fast food or a chain restaurant in many years. We used to reserve fast food for road trips but now I pack us food and we feel better and it tastes better.
Boats- my H has been eyeing boats for years. We charter boats every couple of years. It’s expensive but for me beats owning our own. I also love seeing things that can only be gotten to by water.
I like nice clothes and nice shoes. I also like to be stylish. After a childhood of clothes that didn’t fit because they were hand me downs or from KMart and shoes that were from a discount place like Payless that didn’t fit I now buy what I like. I hate K Mart with a passion. I will buy clothes at Target.
Exercise clothes- I like the name brands. I usually find them on sale. No Ross exercise clothes for me.
Smartwool no show socks the only exercise socks I wear.
@mom60 Did you know that you can buy Smart wool no show socks at Sierra Trading Post for $5.24 with a coupon? 
This is one of my go-to places for exercise and casual clothes.
@mycupoftea thanks for that tip. I buy them on sale usually once a year from REI. I forgot all about Sierra Trading Post. I used to buy stuff there when my S was a big backpack enthusiast.
Hey @jym626 , nice to see you too!
Glad to know my logic makes sense!
Often considered buying a ski vacation place, but much prefer the flexibility of going where we want, and trying different slopes. And I am not a fan of vacation rental property ownership, especially if we want to stay there at times as well. Hats off to people who can manage that.
We splurged on taking 12 people (10 family- 2 guests, and one guest paid their way) on a weeklong Alaska cruise for DH’s birthday. We got nice, upscale cabins with balconies for everyone. It was memorable and I was glad to make DH happy to be with his extended family.
Hmmmm… I am splurging by retiring at 59, instead of working until 65! I Splurge on remaining in my house and paying 10k a year in property taxes, instead of selling the house and moving to the Midwest and banking the money from the sale of this place. Splurged by buying a barely used Honda CRV with all the safety gadgets (love it for nighttime driving). We splurge by hiring friends to do remodeling and house repair, and never bidding this out for cheaper options. Never clip coupons. Eat out ethnic food or inexpensive places at least once or twice a week. Donate more to charity. I am planning to splurge on the grandbabies like crazy - though probably from smart garage sale-ing! I do enjoy not having to budget or worry about money, but I will always be naturally frugal.
We don’t have nor want a vacation home nor boat. We splurge by traveling 4+ times/year. We often stay with loved ones so we can spend time with them and either cook for them or dine out.
H could have had his grandfather’s cottage. I said fine, but it’s your cottage. I will visit, but I won’t clean it and I won’t go up (1.5 hrs away) every weekend because it’s YOURS. We don’t have a cottage. He wanted a boat, but I wouldn’t let it be parked in our driveway. Rent a slip or park it on a storage lot, it’s not languishing in our driveway and I’m not taking care of it. We don’t have a boat either. I learned early on how things would be taken care of in our family.
Also why we don’t have another dog. Maybe when I can’t travel anymore I’ll get a lap dog.
We never felt the desire to get a second home, we probably couldn’t really afford one anyway. No desire for a boat or RV either. If we did get a vacation home, we probably wouldn’t be able to afford to go elsewhere…
How much we eat out varies. We usually eat out more on the weekends or when we have company visiting from out of town. During the week we usually eat dinner at home. H and I normally bring our lunches to work, though occasionally we’ll go out to lunch with co workers or meet each other for lunch. We rarely go out to breakfast…We do like going out to eat and that is something we enjoy spending our money on. That said, we never go anywhere very expensive and we love to take advantage of happy hour when we can or we share an appetizer.
When it comes to traveling I like to pay more for comfort and safety. Paying extra to stay in a niceish hotel in a central safe location is worth it to me. I am too old to do hostels. Sure, it means we travel a little less often, but it’s worth it. My D’s old high school friend and her family always stay in hostels. Even her parents who are about H and I’s age stay in hostels when they travel. They can afford to stay in hotels, but choose not to. Her dad does stay in hotels when he travels for business, but he isn’t paying then. This family travels a lot, so I would assume staying in hostels is how they are able to afford such frequent travel.
I remember when they went on a college tour back east, they stayed in a hostel just about everywhere they went! I didn’t know there were so many hostels in the US!
As we’ve gotten older and our retirement investments have gotten to the point where we know what retirement looks like, we’ve been less frugal in some areas. With both kids off to college, we tend to eat out a bit more- at least once a week which was unheard of for much of our marriage.
I’m not into purses, shoes or clothes. We don’t own a vacation home. We do own a bunch of camping gear. Winter sport choice is cross country skiing; that’s cheap. Summer sport choice is camping and hiking; ditto on the cheap. We do an overseas vacation every 5-10 years.
I drive a Mercedes. It’s 4 years old and I bought it last year (with a whole 5k miles on it, and at half the original cost.) I’ll likely drive this one into retirement. Dh drives a truck but it mostly sits in the driveway as he bikes to work. We will probably replace it next year as he eases into retirement. I don’t like debt so while he’d love one this year, he gets to wait until next.
We have no vacations planned this year. I’m trying to get my knee back to a point where it functions normally and our next vacation is supposed to include bicycling. I’m not up for that but I’m hoping the physical therapy that I’m starting will turn it around without surgery. We will both travel a bit to visit our kids this year but it’s likely we will travel separately for that- just the way it works when he travels more for work. We do generally fly first class now. It’s one of those very non-frugal splurges. We’ve just built that into the cost of our various trips. We stay in nice hotels but not 5 star ones. No motel 6 either.
We don’t do the yard or cleaning services. I prefer wildlife habitat to perfectly manicured lawns so my fussy-neighborhood-neighbors can just deal with it. Half my property is forested anyway. The rest is mulched with whatever is onsite (chop and drop). Oh yeah, I also keep chickens in my fussy neighborhood.
Edited to add: we are window snobs though. True divided light is expensive and dh and I both like it enough to pay for custom windows. We buy an average of a window a year (really: 3 or 4 every 3 or 4 years). Even I was a bit shocked by the cost this time around but I’m not skimping on my master bedroom.