We Don't Travel Or Go out to Eat ALOT , But We DO Spend alot on Home Furnishings and Upgrades , My Dh has added alot of Trimwork to rooms , Or is always Replacing a Light Fixture or Door. just cause he Likes the way it looks Better.

My Friends Have A Low Mortgage , Little Furnishings And Don't even have Curtains , But they Go out to eat weekly , to Different Places , and they have Traveled all over the Country. They Are Very Cultered. They would think nothing Of Spending 150.00 on A Pot to Perfect a Meal ( hubby is a Cook) But She Never Has the Extra Money to replace a Bedspread or Lamp.

MY other Friend Has About 200 Different Full Outfits from Head to Toe - And A Million pieces Of jewlery , They also Rarely Travel , and Her Kids Don't have Many Clothes.

While None Of the Above is Wrong... Obviously None Of Us Are Hurting anyone , No one Has to travel , Dress their Kids Well Or decorate nice, and We all seem to Be spending $ on what we Like.

It just seems so Many People are able to Spend on one thing Because they are saving on another.
It Doesn't Seem Anyone I Know Has Tons Of Money to Allocate to all areas of Their Lives.
What Do you Save On To Be Able to Afford Money To Spend On other things?
Really think about this ...
Cause you Might not even Be Doing it Purposly.
It may Just Be the Way you have always Lived.

The big one is to save to spend money on the Bills. The biggest choice that is really the hardest for us to handle with is not having the 2nd income. Though personally its the best choice we have made.

Ours is realizing we can't have everything we want right now so we take little pleasures. We don't buy Soda to have the Weekly Latte. We limit eating out but still do it, we don't buy much in the way of clothing DD gets Handme Downs but I will spend on activities for her.

I think it has to do with our routines and what's important to us

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

I love the diversity!

For me, it is distasteful but sometimes necessary to bring something into the home. Some THING. I don't mind having a blank wall and no knick knacks. It is necessary to have some furniture, but I don't get any real pleasure out of things or clothes.

When the budget allows, I have no problem taking a trip or eating out where I can comfortably be myself. If I can afford gas, I like visiting friends and family and hanging out with those I am close to.

Cathleen

To me, my home is my safe haven and the place I spend most of my time, so I try to make it look and feel as comfortable as possible. Through major decluttering, we now have more room and it's been much more stress-free. But, I still like to decorate, and have nice things that evoke a special feeling of comfort. My nice things can come thru yard sales, thrift stores, hand-me-downs, Ebay, and once in a while, I'll pay full price at a nice store! I haven't bought anything for the house in quite a while; the children are still very young and break everything anyway!

My inlaws, however, have a house I want to run away from whenever I'm there. My MIL is a hoarder and when I'm in her house, I feel so closed-in (not to mention, they like to sit in the dark). Although they could afford nicer things, they've spent many summers traveling across country, camping and staying with family. (In other words, saving alot of money by inviting themselves to visit with family members so as to not have to pay for motels, food, etc).

I think the one thing I'll probably spend something on (outside of bills) is creative things - arts/crafts, books, toys, things I can do either by myself or with the kids. I'd rather spend the money "doing" than "having."

I really don't know the answer to this one yet because I have just recently become aware of how I am spending my money.

I try to budget for everything a little bit. I have about $100 to spend on home improvement (including landscaping) per month in my budget. (That is in addition to the $100 a month maintenance I set aside for anything that needs fixing.)

We have a vacation fund that I put money to as well. I guess I am trying to have it all in smaller amounts.

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Grace

Wife to Stoney

Mommy of Sarah (8.5), Hannah (7), and John(4.5)

aha! Is This the comment you were Referring to??



Never heard that one. You're kidding Right? Distasteful??

No, I am not kidding. We live in about 500 square feet. I like it. I am attuned to my feelings. Even bringing a bag of groceries in evokes an inner cringe. A trash bag going out brings a sense of relief. I know that I am not typical. It is what it is.

Cathleen

Gosh, I feel like there are so many answers to that question! Our whole lifestyle is give and take. We choose to live in the city - this means spending more on mortgage and taxes but spending less on gas and car maintenance. We choose to not use babysitters and/or go out to fancy restaurants very often so that we can pay for a wonderful (and very expensive) preschool for our little one. We choose to pay a higher mortgage so we can live in a great school district so that we don't have to pay $18,000 a year in tuition for our older son. We choose to have nice clothes that are good quality that will last a long time but we wait until the "last call" sales at the good stores so we can buy them at 75% off. We choose to eat fresh, healthy, and often organic food which costs more so we don't eat out as much to make up for that big chunk of our budget. It goes on and on....

We have a different lifestyle than most of our friends. We choose not to spend money to go to professional sporting events or Nascar races, or on vacations other than our inlaws beach house (FREE) so that I can stay at home. We choose to eat at home most of the time or choose where we go out to eat based on whether or not we have a coupon or gift card. Unlike most of my friends, I dont buy a lot of clothes for myself and when I do, they are on sale and I dont care about brands.

I will gladly give up the things I mentioned in order to be able to spend money on the things I like to do-scrapbooking and stamping, and to be able to get the occasional pedicure. I will also spend hours comparing prices, looking for sales, clipping coupons, etc in order to save money on groceries so we can continue to do the things we want to do.

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Laura

Wow,

Yeah It is What it is ... I Just Was A little Mystified how Buying " Things" was Distasteful.
I think of Distasteful as Tacky and Crude. I Can see not Wanting " Things " . I Guess I Never Heard it stated that it is distasteful to Bring them in the House.
I Just Didn't Get what you meant. Sorry