Money Matters
hoffse
member
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What are your splurges? What are your saves?
Just for fun!
What do you buy that you know is overpriced or unnecessary, but you still buy anyway? What are things that other people pay for that you refuse to spend money on?
My splurges:
-OPI nail polish. $9-$10/bottle doesn't slow me down.
-Purses. I love coach. And I'm blessed (or cursed) to live near a massive coach outlet. Same for vera bradley - I probably own VB purses in 30 patterns. And a new kate spade store just opened at our mall. H is worried about the damage I can do there.
-Candles - I will spend $28 on a Yankee candle once or twice a month. It's incredibly dumb, but whatever.
-Books on tape - granted, I buy them used, but they are much more expensive than regular books. I buy them all the time for road trips.
My saves:
-Clothes - I hate trying on clothes so I rarely buy them. I go clothes shopping about twice a year, and that's really it. But I'm a sucker for accessories.
-Electronics - I didn't get a smart phone until I started my job after law school. I didn't want to pay for a data plan. I still resent paying for a data plan, so I buy the smallest plan possible.
-Eating out at sit-down restaurants - if my firm isn't paying for it, I don't go. I haven't paid for a meal at a sit-down restaurant in nearly 2 years.
-Probably TMI, but birth control pills - every year I talk my OBGYN into giving me a bunch of samples. This year he gave me about $300 worth. Win.
Re: What are your splurges? What are your saves?
-We buy organic for many of our food staples. We like the food better, and we're both into environment and conservation issues so buying organic (especially small, local organic) is an easy way to "live" that interest. For us-no judgement/preachiness.
-We SCUBA dive. I started this hobby in college, very pre-MM, and now I can't stop. Most of my diving is in the beautiful local waters of MA, but it's still crazy expensive. I gained a professional certification and work to pay off some of these costs. I have no regrets; I've seen such amazing things underwater.
-Kitchen appliances. Many of ours were wedding gifts, but we find quality to be worth it in this area.
-Outdoor footwear. If it leaks or hurts, what's the point? H, in particular, works his hiking boots pretty hard.
-We will pay slightly more for direct flights. I've had nightmare missed connection scenarios in the past!
-Craft beer. We're working on cutting back.
Saves:
-I make coffee and pack a lunch every day. H is working on this and making progress.
-No cable. Like many of you, we are fine with Netflix and Hulu.
-Clothes. I hate shopping. I get most of my work clothes on sale from Lands End or Target (it's a casual office).
-Purses/manicures/heels/general girlyness just doesn't call to me.
-Haircuts from Supercuts for both of us.
-Housing. Our current place in on the cheap side, which is helping us save for a home of our own.
Purses-Coach! Ugh such an addiction fortunately I got a bag for Christmas to tie me over for awhile
Make-Up- I don't want to put cheap crap on my face. It makes me break out.
Phones- We both have to have smart phones for work and now our job gives us a discount on our plan but it is still $140 a month. *gag*
Saves:
Clothes- I try my hardest to not buy clothes
Hiarcuts- Walmart for us!
Cable- We have none and probably never will
Housing- We live for free on the campus we work which is fantastic. No rent, no gas, no heat, no electric, not trash removal, no water, no wifi or anything else you can think of haha.
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
Fun!
Splurges-
Electronics- Still buying video game systems and games, We have an Ipad and 1 Iphone, and a big TV.
Cable Bill- We pay $185 for all 3 (this drives me nuts though and I will look into it eventually, but we love our TV)
Vacations- Ours tend to range from cheap to expensive (staying at relatives homes/condo's to cruises and AI's) Vacations are very important to us!
Saves-
We also pack our lunches daily and don't eat out very much
We usually stick to store brands on everything we buy unless brands are cheaper or we have coupons
Cheap h.cuts for us as well ( $16 ea).
Cheap gym memberships ($10/mo ea)
This is a good idea:
Splurges:
1. Clothes for the girls- I get stuff pretty cheap, but I tend to buy a lot at a time (usually from Old Navy).. especially in multiple sizes if something is really cute. I guess it's a slurge/save because at least I can use DD#1's hand-me downs for DD#2. About $50/month. The one good thing is that I get free shipping and rewards $ with my BR Luxe Card (paid off in full every month of course!).
2. Organic groceries- It's all we buy for the girls so it's all we eat too. Our weekly bill is usually $120 for 2 adults and 2 kids.
3. Body Wash- we only use Bert's Bees and Dr. Bronners- about $10/bottle.
Saves:
1. Home improvements - DH has become super handy over the years and we borrow all of the tools from my parensts. He's saved us a lot of $ on things most people hire out for - demo, framing, drywall, painting, residing, tiling, landscaping, electrical, and some minor plumbing.
2. Cable - we have Netflix and a super cheap cable plan- $20/month for both
3. Lunches- we pack our lunches for work everyday so we actually use the groceries we buy each week.
Splurges:
- Julep, Essie, and OPI nail polish. I swear they put crack in them.
- Name brand running attire. Yup, Underarmour, Brooks, Alta. So worth every penny when you're using them for their intended use.
- Traveling, we refuse to cut it out of the budget entirely.
- Good food. We would rather go out to dinner once a month for $100 and have it be amazing than go 5 times a month for $20 each and have it be gross.
- Cars. We can't do base model cars anymore. Just can't.
Saves:
- Traveling again. We refuse to take it out of the budget, but we also stick to our budgets for each trip.
- I can't pull myself to buy a pair of designer jeans. Nope, won't do it.
- Clothing brands don't matter to me. I shop purely on price and functionality.
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
I'll play.
Splurges:
- Coffee. Everyday at lunch, I buy a cup from the local convenience store. In the mornings, I brew a cup from our keurig, however, I only like the Donut Shop Coffee People brand, which can get pricey.
- Cable. We have satellite and have the NFL Sunday ticket. But my reasoning behind this is, we would spend more at the sports bar every week to eat/drink than what it costs per month for the added premium on our cable bill.
- Cell phone. I just upgraded to the iphone 5c just because I wanted a color phone.
Saves:
- I pack my lunch every day.
- We split dinners from take out restaurants if we do get anything. Usually, we just cook at home.
- I have a very basic, value car (and it's paid off!). It doesn't even have power windows or power locks.
-Manicures/Pedicures. I don't ever get these. It just doesn't appeal to me to spend all that $$ when I can do it myself.
-Massages. This may seem like a splurge, but I go to a local school that the students in training do the massages for $25 for 50 minutes.
--Food. We primarily buy organic, and DH enjoys some expensive items like almond butter and avacodos. We do stock up when things are on sale and also bulk order to save money, but we don't spend much time on coupons or adjust our meal plans to track weekly sales.
--Childcare. We spend more than we have to on childcare because we really like the benefits of having a nanny part time even though one of our kids no longer stays home.
--House cleaning. This is obviously not a need, but I am so much happier.
Saves
--Pretty much anything girlie like purses, manis, pedis, waxing, hair cuts, etc. They have just never been a part of my life.
--We are a 1 car family. It's inconvenient at times, but it's probably our single biggest source of savings.
--Clothes/shoes. We don't buy a lot of these, and we usually check out used options or discount stores first.
--Kid stuff. We just don't buy our kids a lot of toys (2 at Christmas, 1 at birthdays, and not much else the rest of the year). We buy pretty much all clothes used and some of the toys as well.
Splurges:
Purses- I own probably too many Coach/ Dooney and Burke purses, and just bought my first MK one. Dream about a LV, but will probably never buy one. I even have 2 Coach diaper bags, which is insane.
Car- I just bought a new van because our small sportage wasn't working with the carseat. Never though I'd buy new, but the price was so good and we got the full 10 year warranty, so it seemed worth it.
Cable/internet- we got like the platinum plan when we changed providers. Since I'm home a lot (SAHM) I'm really happy we did this, but honestly it hurts a bit to pay that bill every month. I'm thinking when we our done with our contract we will go to Hulu/netflix
Kindle- I haven't had much time to read since LO was born in July, but I love buying new books for my Kindle. When I end up finding more time to read, this could be dangerous again.
Saves:
Baby stuff- diapers I buy as cheap as possible, and I buy a ton of his clothes on garage sales, because honestly sometimes he only wears the stuff once before he is out of that size. I do however love going into the store and buying 70% off clearance or whatever- its still a save, right? We also went to consignment sales for a lot of our big toys.
Groceries- love my grocery store, and since I can shop mid-day I get a lot of manager special foods. If we can't use the meat especially that day I will toss it in the freezer and save about 1/2 price.
Free gym/pool- Just found out that part of our property taxes we pay help fund a gym/pool/mini-golf area in a local park. Talk about score! They even provide free swim classes, so as soon as their pool is remodeled this spring I will be taking LO there for swim classes.
Splurges:
- Online clothing shopping when the mood strikes. I usually end up ordering more than I need to get free shipping...
- Going out to eat, especially with friends
- Craft beer for H
- Cell phones- we both have smart phones with data plans and unlimited texting. Not really a necessity but I don't want to give it up. We share the plan with my mom so at least it's not as $$ as it would be otherwise.
- Gap jeans when I need them. I'm really tall and these seem to be the only brand I don't mind. But I still try to get them when there's a sale
- Travel..for the last 3 years we've planned one big vacation a year. Also, my whole family lives out of state except for my mom so visiting them can add up.
Saves:
- No cable for 2-3 years and still haven't missed it
- Relatively cheap rent for our HCOL area, heat included
- No 2nd car because we can't have one at our complex...not sure if that counts...
- Likewise girlie stuff PP mentioned.
- Have no urge to buy name brands
- We pack our lunches and make our own coffee
- Movie tickets- I get really cheap ones through work
- Other than going out to eat, we don't spend much money on dates. Usually we do really cheap or free stuff.
Splurges: Nice restaurants to celebrate various events (and always spring for the expensive martini...or two), nice hotels when we travel, I Phones, Craft Beer, Amazon Prime, lots of organic products (specifically produce. I just spent 6.99 for a carton of strawberries!), nice-ish coffee (no thank you, Maxwell house), nice cheese (mmm aged gouda...)
Saves: Not interested in pedi/mani, expensive purses/bags/shoes, no "designer" anything, "average" cars (2004 corolla and 2009 CRV), no cable, Great Clips haircuts, no expensive jewelry (other than e-ring/wedding band).
Splurges:
Our house, we have a pretty hefty mortgage and over $500 a month in property taxes but are on a lake. The house is small and nothing fancy. We don't travel much and will never have a second home. To get to wake up to the water every day is worth so much to us.
Food/household/body products: we buy mostly organic and local and nothing processed. It's important to us but expensive. Our budget is $800 a month!
Electronics, I'm an electronic junkie. TVs, Apple products, my Vitamix, I asked for a food saver for Xmas!!
Saves: when taking on the house I chose to give up the salon (I went from bleach blond with touch ups every 3 weeks to my natural dark brown with 2 haircuts a year). I used to be a purse snob (and have a small fund started for my first LV, but like pp said it is a bag I will buy once. In the meantime my mom passes her designer hardly used bags down to me. She just gave me a gorg MK bag she never used!!!
Fashion: I love to shop and be up on trends but I do all my clothes shopping at Gap.com when they offer 40 off with my silver card. Between shopping for me and dd this keeps my shopping bug fulfilled but doesn't cost me much. I have a few pieces of jewelry I love, and don't really need more.
Oh and I love cars, especially fancy ones. However, I can't justify laying that kind of money at this point in my life. DH drives a 2013 fully loaded Sedan but his company provides it so we don't have any costs on that except tax on the Miles we drive for personal use. That leaves me driving his '04 paid off truck. Def NMS however it's safe for me and LO and frees up $.
1. Nice makeup. I love having lots of options.
2. Expensive dog food because my dogs are my babies and I want them to live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible
3. Organic food and lots of fruits and vegetables
4. I buy a magazine sometimes at the grocery store and pay around $5 for one magazine. Idk why I do it, I just like to get a magazine sometimes. If I subscribed it would be way cheaper.
Saves:
1. I make some of my own body care items such as: raw honey face wash, almond oil and tea tree oil night moisturizer, apple cider vinegar and water toner, olive oil and sugar body scrub
2. I rarely eat out
3. Cheap furniture. It was all bought used and we just painted it or it was bought at a steep discount
4. College was funded on scholarships
5. Our air conditioner has that Edison cost saving thing in the summer where it automatically shuts off
Splurges:
-Vacation/travel-we try to take a trip once a year, it's our anniversary gift to each other. We don't stay in the most expensive hotels, but we do choose moderately priced ones, eat out every day wherever we want, and will pay more for as few flight connections as possible. Vacation savings is part of our monthly budget because we refuse to give it up!
-Baseball-As part of our annual travel, we try to get tickets to an MLB game; we plan to visit every stadium.
-Eating out-we love to eat out; it's a good thing there aren't a lot of restaurants in our small town. We've been trying to save in this category.
-Cars-H is a saver and would probably never have bought a new truck, but he wrecked his old one and we decided it made more sense to buy a 'new' (one year old) truck than to get another used one that would take a lot of work. Then, for my 30th birthday present for myself, I bought a brand-new car; ordered it from the factory! It was so exciting and I love that car, despite my $250/month payment. I know when H's is paid off he will keep that truck forever, so in the long run it will be a save.
-Keurig/K-cups-H loves good coffee and had been hitting up Starbucks every morning. The Keurig is a save/splurge because it's cheaper than Starbucks but still, those little cups are expensive!
-Pet care-Our older dog has health issues and requires a very strict diet; if we add up all the food, vet bills, and pet-sitting we've paid for our two dogs, it would probably be in the tens of thousands. But...we wouldn't ever give it up! They are our kids
Saves:
-Haircuts/spa stuff-H and I each go to Great Clips for our $12 haircuts. I've never colored, permed, or done anything else to my hair. I will get a manicure once a year, usually before we go on vacation, but that's my only visit to any type of salon.
-Clothing-I couldn't care less what brand of clothes I wear, as long as they fit and I feel good in them. I buy whatever I can find on sale at Kohls or JC Penney.
-Cell phones-We both have prepaid Tracfones, the basic $20 models that don't have cameras/internet or anything like that. All they can do is make calls and text. My company pays for me to have a smartphone; otherwise, I wouldn't even know what one was. LOL
-TV-We cancelled satellite TV about three years ago and cancelled Netflix about a year ago. We now pay zero for TV and only watch whatever we can find for free online. We will occasionally rent a movie from Amazon.
-Maybe a couple months a year I'll splurge on clothes to set me up. Not crazy but spend a couple hundred to get my wardrobe set up.
-Books I guess. Every few months I tend to buy like $15-20 worth of books on Kindle.
-Eating out I guess. I tend to meet up with friends for lunches/dinners, and then DH and I eat out about 2-3 times a month for dinner. And I spend $42 a month on weight watchers haha.
-Vacations- That's our biggest splurge that DH and I do together. We're spending about 11k on vacations in 2014 alone.
-DH plays golf. I encourage it even though it's expensive because it gets him outside and with other guys and makes him happy.
Saving-
hair- I get mine cut usually only three times a year, and DH maybe once every 6 weeks at a cheap place.
House stuff- now that the house is stocked with everything I need, I don't spend much on it unless I find something on sale.
lunches- we usually just make our own lunches
purses/accessories- i rarely buy accessory type items
no gym membership
only 1 phone payment
cheap mortgage and student loan repayments...
we don't do concerts/plays anymore
Photographs. I am getting monthly photos of my son taken every month until he is a year. Sometimes we go cheap (JCP groupon or mini-session with a photographer I've found on facebook) but sometimes it's expensive (buying the JCP CD or a more known photographer in our area). But this is something that I"m not ever going to cut from our budget. We will probably do this for every kid because they grow so dang quick. And I'm not always very good about getting my own camera out, so therefore I know at least that I'm getting monthly photos.