a luxury item

After med school, residency, etc.. What is one luxury item you or your family can afford to have.. (not being a car or a house...)


Otherwise if your not at that point yet what is one thing that you can't afford that you wish you could?

I would love for us both to have the time and money to take an exotic vacation together.

Since we aren't at that point yet I can definetely say that we have no furniture that is good for anything except a big bonfire. I don't know if I'm so sad about this as the kids color and put food hand prints on everything anyway but still.

Some luxury items I avoid are buying magasines and books, this is really hard. I like new reading material. Our dishes and silverwear are pretty horrid too. I don't think we have any matching cups.

A luxury item I think I want someday is a stereo that has speakers all through the house so I can sing and be happy while I clean!

[twinsmom]

Wow - good topic... one that is REGULARLY discussed at our house - I think the dreaming big helps us know that there really IS a light at the end of LONG, DARK, DANK, BOTTOM-OF-THE-BARREL-POOR tunnel .

Some of the top ones on our list are: a fun cruise to anywhere (we regularly spend time on the internet "planning" our dream cruise), a walk-in closet (we have yet to have a house with enough space for both of our clothes... and we hardly have ANY clothes!! Which brings me to the next...), enough clothes to fit into a walk in closet , day spa trips at the drop of a pin, the ability to give our family members fun gifts (Merry Christmas, here is your trip to Europe!), at this point in time, I would just like the luxery of going to the grocery store and being able to buy "impulse" purchases, just to try them out .

I have also requested in our dream house a shower that has spouts coming out from all sides of the wall so one person isn't stuck in the cold when you shower together (maybe a little TMI!! ), as well as a jacuzzi tub.

All of this is, of course after our loans are all paid off (when we are in our mid 60's , and college educations are funded, house is paid off... so lets see... we are looking at about our 95th birthdays we'll be able to afford all of this!! But the dreaming is fun!!

Jen

[houseelf]

I could go nutso with this thread but I'll limit myself to one thing:

A housekeeper. Preferably a young, buff stud who cleans like nobody's business. But even if s/he looks like a three hundred pound toothless truck driver, I'd looooooovveee a housekeeper. I freakin' hate the stress of the mess.

KB

A housekeeper. Preferably a young, buff stud who cleans like nobody's business. But even if s/he looks like a three hundred pound toothless truck driver, I'd looooooovveee a housekeeper. I freakin' hate the stress of the mess.

KB

Named Sven?

I only get one thing? I think it would be travel: near, far, where ever. Just the feeling that I could afford to go do whatever sounded fun. And I would love to have laser corrective eye surgery even though the mere though of it makes me queasy.

[DCJenn]

OK- I have TWO very important aspects to this answer:

1) I'm almost 40 and I have busted my ass in social services for almost 20 years- I made less than 30k for a lot longer than I have made more. (and I was self-sufficient BEFORE I got married. I was divorced, owned my own home, had NO kids and had earning potential)

2) Uncle Sam owns my husband for 9 more years-

So- we want for nothing. It's sick.

So- what's our biggest luxury? Being able to afford to adopt. Yep- that's it. So, when the adoption agency wants $2,000 here, $1,500 there- it's sure nice to be able to whip out that checkbook & not even have a minor heart palpitation. But we have both worked damned hard to get here. My husband was enlisted and I mowed lawns with mentally retarded/ mentally insane men.

Jenn

[mommax3]

Well, DH has been out of residency for a while, but since he is in the military, his salary has been quite a bit lower than it will be next year, when he gets out and gets his first "real" job......

Still, our life is pretty nice now. I think our biggest luxury is having the boys in private school. It has taken a huge chunk of change out of our pocket each month, but the results have been SO worth it. Another one is our high-speed internet connection (roadrunner). I love, love, love it and become agitated whenever I am somewhere that only has dial-up. And finally, working part-time this year has made me appreciate (again) that I don't HAVE to work outside the home, and that is a luxury indeed.

Next year......the house we will buy figures prominently in my dreams, but to be more concrete, I am mostly looking forward to finally (after 14 years of marriage!) having bedroom furniture for ourselves, and a new kitchen table, and bedroom furniture for two of my boys......one will keep the Cargo bunkbeds that we bought when we moved here. But also at this point, being able to finally get out of debt will feel like the biggest luxury of all, so the other stuff (not the house) will wait for a while.

Sally

[SueC]

Where should I start?
I'd love a housekeeper.
A bigger house (3 kids in a 3BR house is a tight fit).
Vacation--I'd love to go on a Disney cruise (there are other, cooler places I'd like to go but those commercials have me convinced we'd have a great time lounging by the pool while the kids are playing with Snow White).
I'd love to go to the grocery store and not always have to analyze where the best bargains are. I almost always buy store brand, but would love to splurge and buy toaster strudels and something other than Malt O'Meal knockoff cereal.

I have also requested in our dream house a shower that has spouts coming out from all sides of the wall so one person isn't stuck in the cold when you shower together

Oh that sounds wonderful! I have got to get one of those someday.

[Vishenka69]

The shower idea is really cool, but what I would absolutely love is a walk in closet just for the shoes. Of course if it was also filled with Manolos...

[Auspicious]

Besides the big three of getting ourselves a mortgage instead of rent (in a neighborhood that's shooting-free), a car, and kids, we actually have a list written down at home of little niceties we're looking forward to having when we can. I'll try to remember what all is on it:

a garbage disposal
a dishwasher
an herb garden (tomatoes too!)
camping equipment and a place to store it
a grill
a washer and dryer (that one's not so luxurious)

there's more but I don't remember it all.

And then there's other goals like we'd definitely like to travel more and to have our kids' college choices not be limited at all by money, as both of ours were. (Not that I'm complaining at all, but of course you hope for each generation to have a little higher starting point on which to build their hard work than the one before.)

All in good time . . .

[twinsmom]

What's funny with the whole shower issue, we went on a tour of this mansion when I was about 9 or 10 and the main shower had SEVEN spouts coming out from the walls (and this mansion was WAY old!!). The lady of the house said that she wanted to have warm water hitting her no matter where she stood in the shower. At the time I thought "what a waste of water... what a spoiled woman!!" But as I have gotten older (especially on COLD winter days...), I have wondered what it would be like to have seven spouts all hitting you... ahhh, the joys of dreaming .

Jen B.

Of course if it was also filled with Manolos...

I hear you...

[peggyfromwastate]

When DH finishes residency and enters the lucrative world of military medicine, we will be almost immediately faced with college tuition for our oldest, to be followed by the twins, then the baby... Luxury items??? I long for a nice water-wasting tub to soak in (after giving so many kids baths and you know what they sometimes do in the bath... I want my own bath...) and I would love a trip with my husband alone... But reality dictates that the luxury items we'll be paying for is tuition...

Such is LIFE!