For FUN!! What's the 1 "luxury" you find hard to give up when budgeting

[sarah4770]

Charmin tp
Tide w/frebrezze
Cable tv w/hbo (big love) and Showtime (Dexter)
netflix
My Mom78 every Thursday Burger King Whopper Meal

Your 78 yr old mom eats a Burger King Whopper meal?
That is so cool... what a great tradition.

 

[Minnie J]

1. My hair appointments
2. Family pizza nights
3. Eating ramens and other cheap to buy quick to prepare foods(exampleack of hamburger 2.89, can of pork n beans .89 cents=dinner for us~priceless)

I did all 3 of these for the sake of saving money even though it was truly hard to do.

 

[ilovebassets]

Clinique skin care and make up. I have very acne prone, irritable skin and it just seems to work better.

Eating out. Yeah, I know, this is a huge one we've battled with over the years but at the end of the day, we both work extremely long hours and see eating out as combination entertainment/dining/stress relief. We use lots of coupons and deals when we eat out and tend to order cheap stuff (no alcohol and husband is vegetarian), but obviously we could eat cheaper at home. Not willing to give out going out several times a week.

High quality dog food. Nature's Variety or Solid Gold or something like that.

Organic produce (usually, not always) and organic milk (always).

Nice (but not over the top) vacations. Budget about $1000/person for a week.

Never spend money on coffee or bottled water, ever. Don't dye my hair. Go to Famous Hair and spend my $16 every 12 weeks on a trim. Husband actually cuts his own hair (it's long and he wears it up anyway). Buy cheap, 1L bottles of shampoo at whole foods when it's on sale for $5 or even cheaper at trader joes. Rarely buy new clothes/shoes. I wear scrubs at work. Husband just hates shopping and wears clothes until they literally fall aparat.

 

[JCMHutch]

I couldn't give up my Coca Cola Classic/Zero. I have tried the store brands and they are not good. I don't mind the generic ginger ale, root beer, etc, but the cola does not even come close!

As for hair coloring - I go 3 times a year for a full cut & color ($90 a trip including tip). All my gray is on the very top of my head with one lovely white streak on my right temple so between colorings I use Root Touch-Up. The stuff is great and matches really well. I don't know the brand of color my hairdresser uses but it doesn't really fade. I have very long hair use Dove conditioner and my hair never feels dry.

On the humorous side I have found that DH does not like the gray hair showing - at one point I was very busy and didn't have time to color it so I had about an inch of gray showing when my hair was down. He told me if I made a hair appointment he'd pay for it.

 

[Rekenna]

Intersting in light of the fact that I just got my toes done (it's been 2 months) and my hair cut and highlighted (it's been almost 6 months). I think I could live without these things, but I wouldn't be near as pretty!

Can't survive without DSL (we can't get cable where we live and I need it for work).

We try really hard not to eat out-but it seems to creep up on us. Nice dinners and trips to that sneaky McDonald's in between. We always have good intentions of eating healthier at home, but it never seems to work out.

We could probably go to pre-paid phones, we only talk to each other and don't text or anything extra.

I have to agree with other posters...it's the DishNetwork and DVR. Whenever we talk about what we could cut out we literally shudder when the topic of TV comes up and switch subjects very quickly. We don't have every movie channel but, we have quite a few and I refuse to live without TrueBlood (that's an ironic statement)! When we got DVR I thought it was so stupid, until I discovered the beauty that is DVR, how did I exist before we had this wonderful magic box?

So yeah, it's the darn TV!

3 addictions broken...I had a serious candle addiction at one time and had to put the kabosh on that; I books and have not bought a book in 2 years (except Sookie Stackhouse/Charlaine Harris and Stephen King), we have run out of room so that's my incentive to not buy more books-I feel your pain-joined a free book discussion group at our library-it's one of my favorite things; **the big one-I quit smoking 5 1/2 years ago-so my DH says I can pretty much do whatever I want (Disney trips) and spend what I want-since it would still be less than the $$ of cigarettes.

Fun thread! Thanks.

 

[savannahcat]

Ice cream and Diet Dr. Pepper. I must have my Drumstick ice cream cones and my pop. It's non-negotiable.

It's Diet Mt. Dew here!

 

[Snowysmom]

I would find it hard to give up date night with DH. We go out on Friday nights. We don't go to expensive restaurants, mainly locally owned places but we both look forward to it.

 

[fabmic]

DVR
Movie with popcorn
High speed internet

 

[Tistal]

World of Warcraft.

My DH and I too! Compared to what we used to spend on console games and going out wow saves us a ton. Instead of going out and spending oodles of money on dinner and a movie, I'll make dinner at home and we'll play wow together. In my opinion, wow saves me money

 

[Nayan]

My DH and I too! Compared to what we used to spend on console games and going out wow saves us a ton. Instead of going out and spending oodles of money on dinner and a movie, I'll make dinner at home and we'll play wow together. In my opinion, wow saves me money

Us too! My hubby and I play together all the time and the cost per month is really cheap (comes out to about a dollar a day for both of us). Other things we can't do without are

1. Coffee
2. Pepsi
3. Cable
4. Internet

 

[Minnie J]

Us too! My hubby and I play together all the time and the cost per month is really cheap (comes out to about a dollar a day for both of us). Other things we can't do without are

1. Coffee
2. Pepsi
3. Cable
4. Internet

Pepsi can never be missing from this house for more than 2 days!! If it does hubby starts doing this

 

[Priorityonecb]

We have internet for dh's job, otherwise I would have said that. For us, it would be eating out! We could save a lot of money if we didn't do it, but we just enjoy it so much. We both work, and have busy kids and it's something we all love to do as a family once a week. Add on a movie and it's really a luxury!

 

[LilyWDW]

1. Groceries... we spend a lot more on groceries then many other 2 person households. I see posts on these boards all the time at how to save money and while I look at them to get meal ideas, I don't really care about the money part. We just like the way we eat and we want to have what we want to have.

2. Internet... though I don't really call DSL a luxury item. It's a necessity here because I am taking online classes. There is no way I could do this with dial up.

3. Netflix... I am keeping my Netflix account because while it is an extra $15 a month, it's a lot less then what I was spending when I bought the movies and only watched them once!

 

[ilovejack02]

Net flix !

 

[pattiteach]

The cleaning lady. I could starve, be bald and naked, but if I had to clean! It would not be pretty

 

[pattiteach]

The cleaning lady. I could starve, be bald and naked, but if I had to clean! It would not be pretty

 

[Evi]

starbucks.........its just to easy. I don't leave the house thinking ok and I'm going to go get coffee but after a few hours I want one. I know I could make it at home but it would never be hot or cold when I want it.

 

[patsal]

Name brand items that really are less expensive in the long run...like good coffee beans, Tide, Bounty, Heintz ketchup, and Kleenex.

 

[kelly1218]

my cell phone.

I could probably give up almost anything else.

But I am totally addicted to what I can accomplish with my phone

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Here are mine in order of really no way to I hope I don't have too!

DSL

Diet Coke (I have limited myself to 2 a day) but I don't like the off brands

Good Creamer - I like the vanilla caramel

Eating Out (again limiting myself to 2 times a week/ a lunch and a dinner) but it is so nice to just enjoy a meal without doing the dishes!