where do you save (and where do you splurge)?

[MrsK]

This thread is depressing me. Anyone else? I'm getting tired of penny-pinching. I've always been a saver but when buying new tires, K-cups, or a thrift store coat is considered a "splurge" . . . I wanna splurge on something totally friviolous -- like $250 eyelash extensions that will fall out in a month.

[v-girl]

I "splurged" on some Anne Klein boots on sale for $130. I think I'm going to take them back. Makes me feel guilty. I splurge on purses but I carry them as long as possible and never spend more than 200.

I get it MrsK. I really do.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

This thread is depressing me. Anyone else? I'm getting tired of penny-pinching. I've always been a saver but when buying new tires, K-cups, or a thrift store coat is considered a "splurge" . . . I wanna splurge on something totally friviolous -- like $250 eyelash extensions that will fall out in a month.

Ooooh, let's start a thread on that. Totally ridiculous splurges that you'd do if you could...

[weeniegeniewife]

Ooooh, let's start a thread on that. Totally ridiculous splurges that you'd do if you could...

Love it!

[peggyfromwastate]

I "splurged" on some Anne Klein boots on sale for $130. I think I'm going to take them back. Makes me feel guilty. I splurge on purses but I carry them as long as possible and never spend more than 200.

I get it MrsK. I really do.

I don't know. I never feel like returning stuff like this. It's mental health really. If it makes you feel fabulous, I think it's ok. Clearly u splurge on stuff in moderation--- hence the word splurge!!

And if your girls needed a new ballet outfit, you know it would run at least $130... Just saying.

[oceanchild]

Our big savings are in our dirt cheap mortgage. Splurges are... probably pretty much everything else. Mine is definitely travel - I take on average probably a trip a month. DH's is food - he is in charge of groceries, and he is not thrifty at all. We have one new car and one old. We almost never go to the movies, but we spend a small fortune on cable and internet.

[MsSassyBaskets]

This thread is depressing me too now. I just re-started using Mint.com and realized our food and miscellaneous spending has gone from "splurge" to INSANE over the last couple months. Time to rein it in.

[scrub-jay]

Splurge: Medical School

Save: Everywhere else

(I'm being snarky, I'll leave a real reply soon)

[alison]

Yeah, not the right question for when residency interviews are around the corner...

[HouseofWool]

Um, I will be rockin' the college chic look for years to come. If I can't get it used and slap some paint on it, it probably isn't coming home with me.

That said, for the 3 of us (me and the kiddos) I try to keep our weekly expenditures for food and household supplies (including dining out) to $100. 90% of the time I stick to it. I was using Mint, but hated tracking every freaking penny - it stressed me out too much. So, now I pull 100 bucks out of the bank on Friday and that is what I spend. Once it is gone, I generally don't pull more out. Gas is not included in this when I am making the 4 hour drive to take the kids to see their dad, but I try to pay for my lone fill up that is between visits out of the cash on hand.

My lone large splurge was buying the house. Rent would have been equally expensive and I had to change my living situation, it was slowly killing me from the inside out. So, there are many expense related to this, including decorating and furniture because I lost nearly everything in the divorce.

Splurges: I do buy myself good shoes, but then wear them into the ground.

Coffee - I buy the flavored beans and use a reusable k cup. I would have never considered buying a keurig, but I have some of the most awesome friends ever who got it for me as a housewarming give.

Food - My budget is limited (see above) but I try to buy the best quality stuff possible. My uncle owns a small grocery store and twice a year he has a meat sale and I buy a bunch and stick it in the freezer. While I don't count that in my budget, it makes it possible to stay on track otherwise. I also don't do margarine or processed foods (outside of crackers and some cereals for the kids). Some thing like corn dogs is a huge treat for them. I will admit that we do things like pancakes for dinner a couple of times a month to help stretch the budget.

Saves: Kids clothes - most of S's clothes are hand me downs from my sister. I didn't buy a single thing for her over the summer. I need to fill in a few things for winter, mostly pants because she is shaped differently from my nieces. Otherwise, the new stuff that comes from Target is as fancy as it gets.

I have spent less than 50 bucks on furniture for S's room and it will be awesome when it is done. Some was free, some was purchased used. Then I used enough spray paint to kill the ozone layer to paint it. My bedroom furniture was free, but needs repainting. The only thing I bought new for the house was my couch, which is leather. It isn't high quality, but should last for a bit and it looks fine. C's room - again, under $100 bucks for him too.

I simply don't splurge right now. I am hoping that after this year's tax return I can finish paying off the credit card debt that I ran up when I bought the house, and that will allow me to work on building my emergency cash back up to where it needs to be. I feel like 18-24 months from now (provided E doesn't screw things up) I will be in a great place. It is slow going, but so worth it!

[scrub-jay]

Yeah, not the right question for when residency interviews are around the corner...

Sorry!! Yup, flights are painful.

[SuzySunshine]

I don't really feel like we're saving at all right now and that would be because we're not. Six months out of training and we have NO savings, it depresses me.

Saving:
- I grocery shop once a week, and will ONLY go back for milk - if anything else is forgotten we skip it because more trips only means buying more things we don't need.
- I buy in bulk at Costco where it is cost effective, we'll be getting a freezer soon so that I can do this more.

Splurges:
- My car was new this year and its financed but its 0% financing so I don't feel so bad about it, DH is still driving his '04 and probably will for a few more years.
- KU Basketball and football tickets, we are HUGE fans and went to every game in undergrad. Now that we are back after 13 years we are looking forward to going to the games.
- Our house - while it is well under what we could qualify for and what we could afford we have spent a BIG chunk of change on it since we moved in getting two major projects done, next up will be the kitchen but we'll wait a year and save as much as we can for it so that we can pay as much as possible in cash.
- We have paid to have some things done, like interior painting and some yard work, we still do our own mowing. We also have a cleaning service every other week but its very important to me that DH spend his home time with US not on projects so if that means we can pay someone for very little we do.
- We have gone a little nuts on gifts lately too, for DH's birthday we bought him a new ipad without batting an eye, I got nice jewelry for both my birthday and anniversary - you could say we're definitely in the "making up for 8 years of training" financial phase.

I don't really know about the rest. I've been splurging on clothes lately but that is because after pretty much buying nothing for ourselves for 4+ years DH and I's closets were in need of a major overhaul. We keep our thermostat higher then most in the winter because I can't stand to be cold and refuse to be miserable in my own house - is that a splurge? I'll probably say yes when I get the first winter gas bill.

I'm sure I'll think of more...

[JDAZ11]

This thread is depressing me. Anyone else? I'm getting tired of penny-pinching. I've always been a saver but when buying new tires, K-cups, or a thrift store coat is considered a "splurge" . . . I wanna splurge on something totally friviolous -- like $250 eyelash extensions that will fall out in a month.

My closest friend here does eyelashes every month. I think it's insane - I mean they do look nice, but really?

Splurge: Food is a huge splurge for me. I'm actually not sure how it ended up that way. We have a very healthy diet, but we never eat out - plus DH gets free meals at work. Our grocery bills are absurd (although I guess they tend to include beer/wine and any household product.... And kombucha - I'm addicted. But it's still rediculous). Exercise is another huge spurge. We belong to a really amazing gym (which I use nearly every day, but DH tends to run or lift at work... adding him to my membership is only something like $20 a month, so I just leave him on. But i also play tennis (no court fees, but pay for group lessons, restringing racquets, shoes, sunscreen etc), AND I also at least twice a week go to a separate fitness studio for classes. PLUS i hurt myself quite frequently and end up paying a bunch for physical therapy! Very smart! It's honestly way too indulgent, but it makes me happy.... I also spend WAY too much on skin care. And we love HBO/showtime series - I think we pay like $40 a month that package.... Other people's weddings have been a huge expense for the last 5ish years.


Save: we don't have car payments. We keep our house at 77-82 all summer (which totally sucks). Last year we only turned the heat on for one month. Neither of us spent much on clothes the last 4 years (although we all of a sudden have started shopping a bit again). I don't cut my hair often (I only do it when I'm back in NYC - so max 3 times a year). Never ever drink coffee outside my house - unless it's free. We don't really do anything entertainment wise - we tend to hike/bike etc when we have time off. I also don't wear much makeup, so rarely buy it (but don't worry, I spend enough on skin products to more than cancel that out). We haven't been traveling for fun much since we spend most of our time flying to visit family. We bought one TV ourselves, but all the other electronics we have we're gifts... We don't pay for any household maintenance (but also waste money renting...). Oh - the biggest save is probably not having kids.

[mommax3]

Splurges:
our house that we built 3.5 years ago, although it didn't max us out or anything

some of our furniture...not sure I would do that again

eating out (we eat out 4 or 5 times a week, although it is usually not the whole family...we are almost never all home at the same time (except to sleep, and even then DH is often not here) so lots of our meals are eaten on the way to/from one activity or another. I have tried and tried to find a way around this (freezer meals, crock-pot) but the truth is if you aren't home, you can't eat there. So we embrace the family time and eat out! (Our grocery bill is not very high, either.)

My hair....I get it cut/colored (highlights) regularly and it breaks down to spending about $60 a month. DH and the boys make do with SportsClips, but they all keep their hair super-short, so they get it cut monthly.

Pets....we have four cats and a dog. They all eat high-quality dry food, and don't get treats or fancy baths/grooming, but it definitely adds up.

Cars....we have three cars, two that are less than five years old. We're making payments on the newest (bought used) which is a Yukon XL Denali. I freaking love it. DH and I are tall, my boys are huge/heading towards huge, and we take a lot of road trips. It is worth every penny. Our other cars are a Ford Fusion and a very old Suburban that has 230K miles on it that DS drives.

Clothing....I spend $1800-2000 a year on clothes, with probably another $500 for shoes, although I've been trying to reign it in a little. I don't consider the shoes as much of a splurge b/c I stand all day and wear them until they wear out. DH and the boys are pretty cheap to clothe, although buying clothes for my oldest got a lot more expensive once he got taller than standard sizing would fit.

Chores: we outsource a couple of things(cleaning 2x a month, lawn), but there is still plenty to keep us busy. We try to protect DH's time at home, as others have said.

Music lessons: roughly $250/month

Travel: probably our biggest splurge. DH and I do an overnight at a nice hotel downtown every year at Christmas, and take a 4 day trip every spring. We do a longer couple trip on special anniversaries, every five years or so. We do several family road trips every year, and usually a fairly nice trip over Spring Break.

Saves:

Already mentioned above, but we don't buy new cars and usually don't have a car payment....our car payment will be gone by May.

DH paid for med school with the military program, so he had a very small amount in school loans, and they will be paid off by next summer.

I work. We don't need my salary, so that is what we use to cover some of our "splurges" and will be the way we finance our kids' college tuitions, without having to compromise the retirement saving we are doing. If I ever decide to stop teaching, some of the splurges will go away and DH will work more in-house shifts to make up the difference. I think I will always work at least part-time, though.

None of us have expensive hobbies. We have (mostly) not done club sports, not so much because of the cost of the sport itself, but because of the travel involved. DH wouldn't be able to travel to see the boys compete, so we just don't do it. DH's closest thing to a hobby is going to movies...I would say he's earned that splurge!

Our cell phones (four) are paid for through DH's business since we are on a family plan.

We have a geothermal heating/cooling system, so we keep the thermostat wherever we want and the cost is miniscule.

We do not have a pool, boat, or vacation property, all of which I have to say I find very tempting. However, we will begin paying for college next year for our oldest, and our youngest won't finish undergrad until 2024, so I think we will just focus on that for the next 11 years!

[weeniegeniewife]

I just thought of a splurge! Last year I insisted on hanging Christmas lights on our house. We had yet to do so the previous 5 years because DH didn't want to risk hurting his back by getting up on the ladder, and we live on a very steep slope. I totally get that. However, last Nov I was very depressed after my hysterectomy, and knew that Christmas lights would make me happy. So I hired a company to come and install an amazing light display down our long driveway and all over the front of our house. It was definitely a huge splurge and DH wasn't totally on board; however, I didn't give him a choice. After they were installed he loved them, and just last week he reminded me to re-hire them for this year. Yay!