<p>Maybe he wasn’t ordering for everyone, just asking for a bottle of wine.</p>
<p>Is the Herb Farm still open? I thought they closed and The Barking Frog is somehow a replacement. Now that I google I see that you are right. Not that it really impact my life one way or the other ;)</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I thought the Barking Frog was the same location, just not the epic experience. I think they did close the Herb Farm for a while, and moved it. I’m sure it’s not in my future either, but I guess you never know. If they give me enough fine wine, I might even eat the disgusting stuff (or pretend to).</p>
<p>It was out in Fall City and now it looks like it is at or near Willows Lodge. </p>
<p>OMG!!! Willows Lodge has a “Do Not DIsturb” package with “in tub” dining and the tub is strewn with rose petals! I want that. If anyone is feeling rich and wants to wire me $800 I will book 2 nights!</p>
<p>Yes I took a class from the person that runs the garden at the herbfarm.
The inn at Langley is also well known as is Rovers in Madison Park.
I don’t imagine Gerard’s is in Bothell anymore. 
And I hadn’t been to Le Gourmand for a long time before it closed. As H doesn’t drink, I really couldn’t polish off even one bottle by myself.</p>
<p>@westcoastmomof2 Typically restaurants will mark up the retail price of the wine by 2-3 time its retail price. That is one reason I rarely drink wine when I eat out unless it is part of the menu. I checked and Screaming Eagle cab retails for $1100-$1800 depending on the vintage. What a mistaka to maka!! Being a wine lover and foodie who is solidly middle class I don’t eat out that often. If I did I’d be looking for fine dining establishments that would allow me to bring my own wine and charge a corkage fee. </p>
<p>The Gerard’s building is now a brew pub. I have never been in, but it seems popular.</p>
<p>I hope no one on here who is talking about several hundred dollar wines and restaurants says they don’t feel “rich.” For the average person, a meal out is McD or a diner. </p>
<p>It does not surprise me that many with incomes above average nonetheless feel poor.</p>
<p>Wealth can be at least partly defined by social capital - is there an extended family or community that will provide at a minimal level if you lose nearly everything, or will you be further stigmatized and marginalized, making it increasingly unlikely that you can recover? Do you have a network that can step in and help if you or a family member (such as a recent grad who needs to be launched) needs a job? In times of rapid churning in the workforce, networks seem to become increasingly important.</p>
<p>If you or a family member were to become ill or disabled, would you have access to needed personal care, provided by a family member not in the paid work force or by affordable paid helpers? (Not trivial, if both parents are working in order to afford basics.) Would your insurance or government benefits be adequate for your needs if you were to find yourself alone? (Do you have someone who would let you sleep on their couch?)</p>
<p>If you are a parent who is “at home”, whether by choice or because you cannot access childcare, could you support yourself and your family if you were to lose your spouse’s income? If you have a profoundly disabled dependent, can you access residential care or even a few hours of respite?</p>
<p>Also, if you need a steady stream of income, is it likely that your income could disappear overnight if your job is outsourced? Is your line of work carefully protected by a union or by licensing requirements? Are you competing with H1B workers? Is your area of expertise vulnerable to becoming obsolete? Would the cost of further training to enter a new field be greater than expected rate of return on investment, given your age?</p>
<p>If you own a business, is it vulnerable if the surrounding community loses a factory or two to outsourcing? Do you work in a position where you feel vulnerable to age discrimination? Conversely, have you begun to earn a high income within a decade of retirement?</p>
<p>Can you depend on defined pension benefits? </p>
<p>Pizzagirl I agree. I will say however that I will save up to go out to a nice restaurant (sans wine). It’s an affordable luxury for me. I might not be able to afford a $75k Mercedes but I can afford $100 a plate dinner even if it’s only once every couple of years. Along with a concert or a play and its called “Puttin on the Ritz”.</p>
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<p>My kids would probably think you were being sarcastic or exaggerating. But when I grew up, that was exactly the case. I have five siblings. We lived in very modest accommodations, and dinner for a large family was expensive. I don’t remember ever going out to a restaurant as a family. Occasionally, however, my stepdad would bring McDonald’s home or The Colonel, and it was a special deal to us. We were not poor; probably lower middle class.</p>
<p>I agree with frazzled2thecore. Rich means the luxury of some sort of financial safety net, so you never have to worry about being homeless and living on the street. And I am definitely not talking about multi-million dollar trust funds. Rich is the freedom to be deliberately downwardly mobile. Rich is not having to worry about money. Some people who have very little wealth are rich because they have constructed extremely enriched and satisfying lives that don’t require a lot of money. </p>
<p>Rich to me is having the nice stuff in the space I use everyday, not just for show in the downstairs public rooms. : ) Rich is not having to work 40 hours a week, much less 80. Free time, to use as one chooses, is the ultimate luxury. imho</p>
<p>by this definition and frazzled’s definition - I’m rich, although very middle class. </p>
<p>My small town southern lawyer told me this story: He was walking back from the courthouse to his office one beautiful spring day. An elderly woman he knew was sitting on a bench. He told her he wished he could just sit and enjoy the day and she responded, “you can, Mr. Bob, all you have to do is sit down here beside me, doesn’t cost a thing.” </p>
<p>IMO the difference between being comfortable and wealthy is comfortable people have in demand skills but they work for their money. Wealthy people have in demand skills, or employees that do, and their money works for them. </p>
<p>"$3750 for my friend is nothing. (My wife said he isn’t careless with money which is true)."</p>
<p>IMO, the people for whom $3750 is <em>really</em> nothing don’t waste it on stupid things like a bottle or two of wine. Time to re-read The Millionaire Next Door. </p>
<p>"We go there. The bill was $900 with tip. I don’t drink much by the way. So my wife and I paid $450.</p>
<p>I told him after a little while that I am just not comfortable spending this much for a dinner. He had no clue. (I know there are people on CC that can afford this)."</p>
<p>I still don’t believe that this person had “no clue” that a $900 dinner for 4 people was a lot of money. In any case, he sounds like a boor for not realizing or not caring. </p>
<p>I’ll consider myself comfortable when I can live the way I live now without working for the rest of my life. I could actually say that now except I’d have to die in 5 years. 
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<p>I’ve been thinking about this thread overnight & since we all are anonymous here, thought I"d jump in with facts and figures. </p>
<p>My H and I both work full-time and between the two of us, pull in a little under $150,000 a year. We feel the opposite of rich (and don’t live rich…used cars, kids in public schools, no exotic vacations, etc.)…I think it’s linked to 3 reasons:
- Our house. We live in an expensive urban area and I was trying to avoid the hour-long commute (both ways) that those in the suburbs have here. So we purchased a house in-town…it’s smaller than we would have had in the suburbs but the taxes are insane and the percent of our income that goes to the mortgage is higher than the money experts recommend. 100% our choice but this is at the top of the money heap for us.
- My troubled brother. Enough said. But we are his financial lifeboat and he often leaps onto that boat.
- My amazing f-in-law who raised 3 great kids but has no savings. We support him (pay his rent, etc.)</p>
<p>If we didn’t have money, we’d knock out reasons 2 & 3 but because we’re the ones in the family with “extra”, we’re the ones who have stepped up. I do this willingly.</p>
<p>All of which is to say, ya never know. </p>
<p>SouthernHope,</p>
<p>That is tough.</p>
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<p>Back into a college context, some parents do not worry too much about certain kids choosing college majors and career paths with relatively low pay prospects, because those particular kids have frugal spending habits and are not likely to need high levels of pay to live reasonably well. But they do worry about other kids with reckless spending habits who can probably spend themselves into poverty even on an investment banker’s income.</p>