SafewayWhat do you splurge on?
Just Wondering . . .
I'm guessing most of us would consider ourselves to be frugal, but we also have something we are willing to spend more money on.
I'm talking about the things you think are worth it even if it's more than you'd like to spend. They are probably things you could give up if you knew you had to. I know — hope not! :)
It might be something small like a coffee or soda that you could grab at home much cheaper. Maybe you like to travel, eat out, or pamper yourself in different ways. Or, maybe you can't resist shoes, purses, electronic gadgets, spoiling your kids, or ??
This is half for curiosity, half for research. It will give me a better idea of what you would like to see posted here. Maybe you would still love to see a good deal instead of a great one and I can help you out.
My answer:
Gina recently said that her family likes to spend money on experiences, not things. That's also our theory.
I think we have two main areas of splurging. The first is eating out. We usually get a great deal, but not always. Even "deals" add up to be way more than eating at home. We also spend money on vacations, vacations, vacations! :) My husband gets six weeks off each year and none of them are spent at home — literally. Some are cheap (to family in CA), but others aren't.
What are you willing to spend your "extra" money on? I would love to hear from you, either in a comment below or over on Facebook. (You can do both if you want since not everybody has Facebook and might enjoy reading the responses.)
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Now that you mention it,,,there IS one thing i dont skimp on…and thats my hair appointment every month. LOL noway will i give that up. About the only other things, are like….when we have a seafood dinner…i dont skimp on that..i dont look at the price usually. If i want a lobster i'm getting a lobster. thats about all . Don't do it often, (maybe new year's)..but no skimping there.
I cut my own hair most of the time and my husband helps with the back . . . so we can go on vacation, I guess. :) I know I'm very strange and much too trusting!
I haven't splurged on a nice seafood dinner for awhile. I need to do that. This post is going to cost me! I'll stay cheap on the hair, though . . . at least for now. :)
We love to take short trips to either CA (San Diego area or Disneyland area) or Las Vegas. We will just hop in the car and drive out for two nights and head back home. So any tips on Disneyland (I know you do post that occassionally) are great to see since we are planning our daughter's first trip there soon or the SD area for things. We did get the SeaWorld pass last year that is good until the end of this year. What we didn't know was you also get AAA discount on those passes so luckily the lady in the ticket booth told us and helped us save even more money. We normally stay at the same hotel out there but if you had any deals for nice hotels near the beach that would be fun! or additional ways to save on gas, if those exist, besides just using our credit card that gives us points for future hotel stays. Thanks.
I'm not great with travel bargains, but will attempt to pass them along, if I see them. When we got to CA, we stay at my sister's in Long Beach. Then, we often to go places that aren't top on the vacation destination list . . . South Dakota and Maryland,. :) We have family there, too. Whenever I see "SD" like you did above, I get excited that other people go there, then realize it means San Diego around here. :)
I'm guessing you know about this, but make sure you're using your Fry's (or Safeway, if you have one close) fuel rewards. I just redeemed $0.50 off per gallon yesterday. I was waiting to get to empty. :) $0.10 was from last month and I earned $0.40 more this month, with the Mega sale. I normally don't get that much. The great thing about those is that you get $.10 off per $100 you spend, but it's much more for couponers. I still haven't figured out how it's calculated, but I know I always get more than I actually spend. (You can redeem them $0.10 at a time at Circle K or you can get them all at once, if you want, at Fry's. Oh, if you earn Safeway fuel rewards and don't redeem them in AZ, look for a Von's when you get to CA — at least they have them in Long Beach.
I love credit cards with perks, also. I'm not sure what you use, but we use the Chase Rewards card. There's no annual fee and they give you credit with each transaction, which is nice since mine are often small. They also have different spending categories every three months. You get more back (5%, I think) for those categories. Sometimes they are for gas. They might be entertainment, home improvement, travel, groceries, etc.
Enjoy those trips!
My makeup! I love MAC makeup even though its expensive! But its honestly worth it I don’t break out as much and it last forever since you don’t use much.
Even though I try to save on everything, I will splurge on CARS. When I buy a car, I want it to come with all the bells and whistles. Nice wheels, nice stereo, etc.
I don't buy cars often, so, when I do, I might as well get everything I want with it.
I do still haggle with the sales rep to get the total price lower.
We also go out to dinner once a week and we get whatever we want on the menu.
We save a lot with coupons but we love to travel So the main part of our money goes to travel
I love the variety and how many enjoy to travel. Some things are simply worth it!
My splurge when my kids were younger was dance classes at a local studio, let me tell you there is nothing frugal about the recital costumes! Yikes. When my older daughter was in the dance company she might wear the costume 2 or 3 times, but after that they got hung in the closet. If anyone has any great ideas for selling used dance costumes, I know I will never get back even a third of what I paid for them but the idea of selling them for pennies on the dollar is repugnant!
My splurge now is clothes and toys for my granddaughter (6 months). I'd be interested in bargains on those. (Yes we already have a pass lined up for the Saavy Sale!)
Sorry — no great ideas for those costumes.
I loved garage sales when my kids were younger. My son's very favorite toy, for a long time, was something I got for $0.25! (I cringe at what I wasted on a few "real" toys (at the store) that he never played with. Ughh!!) The ones the kids didn't end up liking or outgrew, I would take to a second-hand store. I usually ended up making more than I spent and would even pick up a few extras, just for resale purpose from time to time.
I used to get whole outfits for $0.25 – $1. One time I just asked how much for a huge mound of clothes . . $40 and I think it ended up being around 75 full outfits that I picked and chose from, for a year or two. Oh — books, so, so much cheaper. Enjoy the Savvy Sale, too!!
Quality skincare and makeup, gotta fight the aging process LOL
I splurge every year for my birthday on ( believe it or not) hotdogs. I have not found a local hotdog that I like. So Happy Birthday to me…….I order hothogs from my home town of Syracuse NY. Maybe crazy but I work 6days a week/ 12-16 hours a day…… so I really feel that I am entitled to them . LOL
That's funny! Maybe you need to open up a hot dog stand somewhere if they're that good! But, I don't think you need a extra job for your one day off. :)
LOL I know. One my one day off I am COUPONING!!!!!! LOL
Hubby and I like to take one night mini-vacations when we have some extra money. We still look for deals but it's definitely not a necessity. Eating out I'd say is another luxury. Again, we look for deals. We get the Chinese lunch specials or go somewhere with a coupon. We like soda, but we only get it when it's cheap, so we did some stocking up with this mega. Overall, I'd say that there's not much that I'm willing to spend full price on. I only get my hair cut about once a year but hubby gets his done every other month or so. We go to the cosmetology school which charges 6 dollars and doesn't allow tipping. They do a good job and everything is checked over by an instructor before leaving. By being frugal everywhere I've found that we can fit just about anything we want into the budget.
My biggest travel tip is to use http://www.betterbidding.com in combination with http://www.hotwire.com to get good deals. If you need two beds when booking with hotwire be sure to say you have four people traveling even if it's only two. The hotels say that one bed is double occupancy so listing only two people could get you a room with one bed which could lead to an awkward situation if you're traveling with your friend.
Thanks for the tips! We’ve been using Hotwire for a trip we’re planning in April. I’m confused now, but if you have the Entertainment Book, I think there’s a $10 rebate for something — maybe just a car rental, but possibly hotels?? As I said, I’m confused and have looked at too many things!!
We’ll have to check out BetterBidding. Thank you for the suggestions. Good to hear from you!!
I haven't used the Entertainment Book in a long time but I should look into it. I'll be traveling to LA for some medical stuff soon and it might save me some money if I can get a good deal on one. This will be my second time to LA and I was shocked by just how expensive everything is out there.
I'm not sure it would be worth it for the Hotwire or other travel things since the deal is probably floating out there somewhere. All the car rent deals we looked at were the same through the Entertainment Book and other places like Costco, USAA, AAA, etc. They might raise the price, if you go through them, to get you the discount?? But, if you want to give it a try for that and something else, Ebates has 17.5% cash back. I haven't looked into the other cash back sites, but got an email from Ebates yesterday. I'm not sure how long it lasts. Hope you can find some deals in LA and that everything is alright, medically. Take care!