I have to laugh a bit about the toilet splurges - we recently stayed at the Inn at Little Washington and our room had a toilet that could be controlled with a touch screen if desired. I never want a toilet where I need my readers just to determine what I’m doing!
Most of my splurges relate to travel. We don’t travel as frequently as others but when we do I want it to be the best experience possible. When D and I went to the Paris Olympics, we flew business class with the lie flat seats. Our hotel was centrally located, overlooking the Jardin des Tuileries. We could watch the orb glow and rise every night and see the Eiffel Tower twinkle from our room. It was fantastic. We took our daughter and her friend to Surfside with us last year and splurged on the Four Seasons there. It was great and a lot of fun just to relax and spend time together after a really stressful time.
My personal to me splurges are classes. I take Pilates every week; I enjoy taking watercolor instruction; I buy a lot of books because I’m too impatient to wait. I am less about physical things and more about experiences at this point in my life.
Three years ago we gave a huge party for my 75th and our 45th. We had around 70 people, including our kids and grandkids. A lot of fun – both in the planning and in the party itself – and I’m looking forward to doing it again for my 80th and our 50th!
When our kids were young travel was mostly driving to the Midwest to visit family. The last several years we started taking trips for fun and upgrading.
I have long wanted to take a Viking river cruise and S ( who is an independent travel agent) was willing to go with me. If I booked 2 standard rooms, I would have to pay the single supplement ( double) for each room, so I booked a suite. It has two rooms and we have requested the beds pulled apart ( duh). We should have plenty of room, but the cost is definitely a splurge.
We’ve definitely been splurging more on travel, especially when we travel with our daughter’s family. My SIL always insists on the best hotel suites and meals. He’s very generous and is happy to pay for us, but I always Zelle him back for our share.
We’re just grateful that our daughter’s family enjoys having us join them on their travels. It’s really special to be included and to spend that time together.
Our son, on the other hand, is much more of a value-conscious spender, just like us though our baseline has gone higher and higher as we age.
We’ve also paid for family vacations to include both son’s and daughter’s families and we hope to continue doing this as long as we could coordinate our vacation times which is not easy.
Travel is definitely our big splurge. Earlier this year we did a ski trip to Mammoth and paid for all of the family. We did the same last month on our trip to Bermuda. We plan to continue to do this for as long as we can.
@Colorado_mom my Ikon pass is not a splurge. It is a necessity since I love to travel and ski.
Unfortunately, my idea of a splurge is calorie-related. Never enough ice cream, but I never eat as much as I really want to. I’m pretty sure there are no calories in heaven so, some day, I’ll be splurging on as much ice cream and as many milkshakes as I want.
OK people maybe I just don’t get out much but, I hate getting my car washed. For some reason, whenever I get my car washed, and I wipe the windows well, every bird from every nest, decides to do their “business” on my windshield. How they get dead center visual aim is amazing. I have spent a lot of time cleaning the windshield after I’ve washed and dried the car.
This morning I decided I’m “gonna go for broke” and have the car wash people wash my car.
Did I splurge, yes I did, but it was worth the 40 bucks I paid for it, and my piece of mind-and time to get back home to enjoy my air-conditioning!
I am having a very stressful time today, and to cheer myself up I decided to splurge on something. Couldn’t think of anything for a few hours and then it hit me – I LOVE Starbucks’ flavored coffees! And I don’t normally want to pay the price for it. (Ok, coffee snobs, I know I have outed myself as a philistine)
Not only that, I just discovered a website called “Fresh Enough” that sells coffee that’s close to its Best By date for half off. I got every single flavor they had, which was a lot!
You need to have your car detailed! It’s so luxurious, even has that new car smell.
Try to find a service that comes to your house, we had one that just started. I think I will do that in the spring when my car is especially nasty after all the snow and salt mess!
I need to find someone to wash my windows which I will feel like I’ve really made it!
I laughed at “coffee snobs”. I have a family member (love to pieces btw) who is a coffee snob of the highest order. Saw him this weekend. He had just finished a 6 week work assignment in Boston and reported “I finally “get” Dunkin”.
Every hour or so, someone on the team would say “I’m heading to Dunkin, who needs something?” and initially he’d cringe-- Dunkin coffee is terrible, flavored Dunkin is the devil’s brew, the donuts are gross and too sugary, etc. But between the Dunkin in the lobby, the Dunkin K-cups in the company break room, and the THREE Dunkin’s he’d pass every day back to the hotel- he ended up trying EVERYTHING on the menu at some point. Needed dinner at 11 pm one night when everything was closing up, no restaurant would take a new order, so he got an avocado toast, an egg wrap thingy, a bagel with cream cheese and a huge decaf and said “best late night dinner ever”.
And he’s now addicted to Dunkin coffee. All of them. The sweetened ice coffees for breakfast. The black hot coffee after lunch. Something with whipped cream on top instead of dessert at dinner. And a decaf before bed.
The problem with splurge is it goes from want to need. I used to feel very lucky if I got upgraded to business or lucked out to have to pay very little for it, but now it is hard to sit in the back. When D1 books flights for us it’s rare she’ll book us in the back now, and that includes my two GDs. She does have a lot of FF points because of work.
D1 wants to throw me a retirement party. Is that a splurge or just celebration of passage.
I love hearing these simple, not costly splurges - a splurge doesn’t have to have lots of big numbers - maybe it’s something you could do/make yourself or do without but you “splurge” and do it or get it!
Definitely a worthwhile splurge.
What I’m noticing is that some things that us “older” folks consider a splurge are no big deal for our kids generation. My husband washes our cars as he can’t imagine even paying for the car wash. My son and his wife both work and have a child with medical needs and for them it’s a no brainer to have the car wash detail guys come to the house while they are working from home. Their time is more valuable than money saved on washing their own car or driving to the car wash. My daughter who is super frugal even had the car wash guys come to her.
My small splurge the past two weekends has been sea bass. My grocery story had sea bass for $16 a piece. I bought a fresh piece yesterday and a week ago Sunday and made it on the stove with a lemon caper sauce and it was just as good as I get when we go out.
I did forget food as a splurge. I do the shopping and ShawWife brilliantly does the cooking. I am happy to buy premium ingredients, though I prefer to buy them at Costco when I can like the Wild King salmon I just got there for over $20 a pound. We don’t love going out to mediocre restaurants, but I am happy upon occasion to go to really nice restaurants. One of my favorites is The Frog in London and I have gone there on many visits. Another is Quintonil in Mexico City – I go there if I can get in whenever I go to Mexico City. Both have recently gotten Michelin stars. We went to some phenomenal restaurants in Japan and Korea in the spring. [I did pass on an invitation to join someone for dinner at French Laundry]. We recently had a great time at Indian restaurants in an area outside of Toronto that seems to be 100% Indian. In Boston, there are only a few restaurants that I’m excited about. But, going to nice restaurants and buying good ingredients are splurges.
