What are your biggest splurges?

[hsmamato2]

Oh,Also of late we eat out quite a bit..... It just seems to happen a lot in summer. That's a splurge, and very different from when the kids were younger. (Going out for Thai tonight,worth every penny)

 

[DizMe]

My Disneyland Annual Pass. Just renewed it @ $800. My dh says I need it to stay sane, and who am I to argue?

 

[christyd2]

My Disneyland Annual Pass. Just renewed it @ $800. My dh says I need it to stay sane, and who am I to argue?

Good man right there. If I lived within a reasonable distance from Anaheim or Orlando, annual passes would absolutely fall under the necessity category.

 

[tvguy]

I'm retired at 51. Good pension. Makes up for low pay and few increases

I keep telling my kids that as they start out on their careers and as my wife and I wind ours down. They are looking what the pay is, we keep telling them to look at the retirement and benefits.
Last time I was on jury duty there was a 48 year old newly retired lady on our panel. Started with the state at age 18, worked 30 years. Her department allowed full retirement after 30 years without regard to your age with full benefits. 60% of her last year's pay was her pension, with COLA for life.

 

[DLgal]

My Disneyland Annual Pass. Just renewed it @ $800. My dh says I need it to stay sane, and who am I to argue?

Can I change my answer? LOL. Yeah, Disneyland APs for our family of four. $2600/year. Totally worth every penny!

 

[Minnesota!]

Travel...domestic and local.

Memberships - Science Museum, History Center, Sea Life.

Candles - I have a Scentsy addiction. Not ashamed.

Good beer.

 

[Budzooka]

Gambling.....love to go to Vegas and play craps. Usually go 2-3 times a year.

 

[Minnesota!]

Saving is my splurge.

I was able to easily write checks for my kids' college tuition, and I will retire about 20 years younger than the average person.

Ditto to that, too. I throw a large portion in savings, and will be doing the same. Retiring early, college should be easy, too.

My Disneyland Annual Pass. Just renewed it @ $800. My dh says I need it to stay sane, and who am I to argue?

Cheaper than therapy!!

 

[DisneyHardin]

Vacations. I am a teacher and I generally do a week at the beach with friends for Spring Break, 2 weeks at Hilton Head with DH in the summer and 5 days at Disney in the fall. It's a lot of money and a lot of time away from home, but worth it.

 

[marthachick]

Having my nails done and our family travel. I don't 'go shopping' with the girls, I coupon, I watch what I buy and am almost fanatical about turning off lights when we're not using them. But since 2013, we have gone on a big (to us) trip every year. People I work with and family don't understand how we do it. Several of them make way more than us but have expensive hobbies or shop a lot or otherwise spend their money. They would probably laugh (or cry for us) if they knew how little we actually make. But we're traveling while we're healthy. I've seen too many people wait until they retire and are too sick to go or die shortly after retirement.

 

[YachtClubWoman]

Travel
Hair appts and products
Pedicures
Housecleaning

 

[ronandannette]

Entertaining. I can easily drop several hundred dollars on food, wine and flowers on a dinner for four and we love to do it several times a month. When I'm worn out and the house is a mess, we treat friends at restaurants and that's even more expensive. I giggle at some of the threads I've read here about splitting the bill and making sure everybody pays their fair share down to the penny. Just pick up the whole check yourself - problem solved!

 

[Pooh2]

Travel is our splurge!

 

[Northernlites]

In 1999 I made 2 major purchases

1. Rolex Air king for husband
2. I bought for my 35th birthday the 35th anniversary convertible edition of the Mustang

The car has only 99,000 miles on it as we only drive it less than ten times a year.
Today the watch is probably worth more than the car, but hey I owned them both so what do it matter...........................

Since then we do two big trips a year and small 3 day week end trips at Easter and Thanksgiving...

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

My husband and I go out to eat waaay too much and we're working on that. Otherwise, our biggest splurge is vacations/mini-vacations/day trips.
This summer, we got Kentucky Kingdom season passes, we went to Kings Island, and we went to Holiday World. We also went to a bed and breakfast for a weekend. All that driving around and ticket-buying has certainly added up. . .

 

[PrncessA]

Disney World and my kids' extra activities. Not sure what we spend more on!

I also like to get my nails done once a month.

 

[Ava]

On a yearly basis, definitely travel. I budget for it and save money where I can, but we still spend a fairly high percentage of our income on our yearly "big trip" plus one or two smaller/local trips per year. Second is the kids' activities. My DD's school runs a great after-school enrichment program but the cost of a couple classes per week for the year adds up. And my younger DD is starting pre-K there this year.

Recently, it was adopting a red-eared slider turtle. A friend found him abandoned in the laundry room of her building and posted on Facebook looking for someone to take him. I've wanted a turtle since I was a kid so I jumped at the chance to rescue the little guy. He was in a tank that was way too small for him and didn't have any of the other equipment that sliders need (water filter, water heater, heat/UVB lamps, etc), so I've spent about $800 in the last two months purchasing a 75-gallon tank and all the equipment. And I will be spending a bit more still to decorate his tank and really make it a home for him. It's worth it though, he's a really fun pet and the whole family loves him.

 

[AquaDame]

Aside from vacationing every year probably driving to work instead of taking public transportation... it costs me $15 a day (plus gas/maint - we have owned my car for years its a 1997) to park downtown within a block and a half of work. The up side is it is safer, I'm not getting sick as often and it means I spend an hour less every single work day getting to and from work. So I gain an extra 260 hours a year to do other things... but it costs about $2,900 per year over buying a bus pass.

We also have pets and I drink a cup of coffee every day as it gives me a chance to socialize with work buddies but I think my parking costs more overall. All three give me serious mental health boosts so...

 

[AnnaS]

Our biggest splurge has been our DVC. I am not counting our usual travel (with and without my kids) but we have taken two huge DCL cruises that I consider splurging. Our 11 N. DCL Med cruise and another DCL cruise with my dd, sons and daughter-in-laws.

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

For me the two things that come to mind are
(1) Broadway show tickets: On a recent trip to New Jersey to visit my mother in law, we treated ourselves afterward to two nights in NYC including three tickets to see "Hamilton" ($200 pp), a great seat for my son to see "Wicked" (about $120), and three great seats to see "Come From Away" (about $120 pp) // So about $1100 for an absolutely amazing and inspiring theatre splurge. Our next visit to see my mother-in-law will be December of 2018 and we enjoyed this so much, so I'm budgeting to do this again.

I travel to NYC a couple times a year and I always splurge on one Broadway musical by getting great seats. I buy Rush Tickets for anything else I want to see.