What were your 'Best Spent Monies'?

[Cogswel_Cogs]

There was this bacon and egg sandich a couple of years ago.

 

[neverlandsky]

Paying savings first, Gifting, Travel, Let food be thy medicine, brand new vehicles & their routine maintenance (oldest vehicle is going on 14 years old & youngest vehicle is 7 years old) & always dressing for the job you want, not for the one you currently have.

 

[HappyGal]

Not trying to be funny, a good toilet is worth the money. My home came with the cheap builder-grade toilets that were awful. I gradually invested in and replaced them with nice toilets.

 

[TippyThomas]

Not trying to be funny, a good toilet is worth the money. My home came with the cheap builder-grade toilets that were awful. I gradually invested in and replaced them with nice toilets.

I have to say that I agree. When I bought my home I believe it still had the originals from the build. I had them install new ones before I moved in after the purchase and that was one of the best investments I've ever made. Never really thought of it that way, but you are most certainly right on that one.

 

[Suger Mag]

DVC and travel with family

 

[Wood Nymph]

My big splurge is traveling. It is the one thing I don't skimp on.

My other best spent money is every single dollar I put into my retirement accounts. I only wish I had put more into my Roth IRA. Those funds can be withdrawn tax free.

 

[china mom]

The plan is a short trip, just the wife and me, 1/30-2/2. I like festival of the arts so looking forward to it as well.

I am thinking of coming in for the day on 2/1 for the festival. I'll keep my eye out for someone who looks like Goofy

 

[china mom]

Biggest/best has to be my new patio. I cannot say the number here because DH might see it but I cold have bought two decent midsized cars for the price I paid but I LOVE it. Worth every penny, wish we had done it sooner.

Personal ECV. When I bought it, I considered it a splurge because I did not know my disability would be permanent. It has paid for itself tenfold over what I would have spent renting plus I now need it for the airport and sometimes for local adventures.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Sleep number king split top w/ heated bottom.
And bonus- it fits 2 adults & a Great Dane

We also have that (minus the heat--Central Florida here...). It was a total splurge, but we love, love, love it.

Back in 2015, I saw an article about Angela Lansbury in Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit. Was disappointed that she wasn't coming to Chicago, but she was going to be in DC. After saying "why not?" I planned a weekend trip to DC around the play (and paid premium for super close seats!). Felt like such a jet-setter. It was absolutely FANTASTIC.

Love traveling. DD and I have her graduation "chicks' trip" to Ireland in late June/early July. I splurged a bit on the B&Bs -- and even have a castle stay scheduled for our last night.

 

[Trinity88]

Paying off my mortgage in my early 40s
Family vacations
Kitchen reno (I use it every day and love it every day!)
Paying for whatever my kids were into at the time (dance, soccer, performing arts, etc.)
Retirement savings (haven't retired yet, but happy to know I can)
Good cheese (always worth the money!)

 

[mjkacmom]

DD's 2nd marriage- They put it on themselves, with a LOT of help from DH and me. Best money I spent was $500 for 2 "house elves." These women did everything on wedding day that I didn't have time to do (I was decorating the cake, among other things). They set up tents and tables, decorated, directed band and pizza delivery, set up hors d'oeuvres table, set up the guest book/gift area... all the things that I didn't have time to do. They came at 8am and stayed until the meal was served, and we wouldn't have had the wedding "ready" without them.

The $8K we've spent on DD's new house. In their price range, there weren't any "decent' homes for the money. If we'd given them the cash, it wouldn't have bought them anything different; whatever they bought would still have needed work. By paying for the repairs, appliances, etc., they have a much nicer home than they would have had if they just added that $8K on to their offer.

Our summer week (or 2) at a beach cottage. This is buying me peace of mind for the upcoming year. Not cheap ($2K+ per week), but what is the price of sanity?

Travel in general, although we are pretty frugal about it. We juggle credit cards (paid off in full each month) for the points, so as I type I am sitting in New Orleans; DH's flight was on points and I traveled as his companion, so all we paid in cash was $22.40 each, round trip, in taxes. Not bad for airfare!

For years my sister and I have rented homes at the Jersey shore, last one was $17,000 for the week, goes up every year.

 

[tx911]

I am thinking of coming in for the day on 2/1 for the festival. I'll keep my eye out for someone who looks like Goofy

You should! Me, you and @ClaraOswald can all hang out together!
(we will convert her )

 

[china mom]

You should! Me, you and @ClaraOswald can all hang out together!
(we will convert her )

I will let you know. It all depends on the flight loads. Right now they look pretty good but that doesn't mean much this early out.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Biggest/best has to be my new patio. I cannot say the number here because DH might see it but I cold have bought two decent midsized cars for the price I paid but I LOVE it. Worth every penny, wish we had done it sooner.

Personal ECV. When I bought it, I considered it a splurge because I did not know my disability would be permanent. It has paid for itself tenfold over what I would have spent renting plus I now need it for the airport and sometimes for local adventures.

A nice outdoor space is always worth the money, I think. Our house already had a patio/small deck when we moved in. But we added comfortable furniture and a pergola for shade. Plus a Solo Stove firepit. It's a really nice place to relax. We hope to expand the deck eventually. And add a swim spa.

You should! Me, you and @ClaraOswald can all hang out together!
(we will convert her )

I've already left my conservative days in the past, sorry!

 

[china mom]

A nice outdoor space is always worth the money, I think. Our house already had a patio/small deck when we moved in. But we added comfortable furniture and a pergola for shade. Plus a Solo Stove firepit. It's a really nice place to relax. We hope to expand the deck eventually. And add a swim spa.



I've already left my conservative days in the past, sorry!

That reminded me. My actual best, best money spent was making the bathroom in the attached apartment handicapped friendly and adding a porch with a handicapped ramp to that side of the house. It was done for my mother but came in handy for me after each of my three foot reconstructions.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Garth brooks concert seats on row 10.. $ you don’t want to know

Wonder when that was because his concert series in 2017 was all one price, the system randomized where your tickets were including the floor. While it was obviously a gamble I very much appreciated that the tickets were all the same. Of course resellers could price it for whatever but Garth had said he wanted the tickets to be all the same price.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

1) Building our house in 2014.

We had gotten married in 2013 and started looking at lots that fall. At that time our metro was in a buyer's market and we talked about how our debt was concentrated on student loans and then my husband had a car payment, it was the time to do it if we wanted to do it. I didn't really want a starter home (our rental house was one) I wanted to grow into our home not out of our home. While we can look back and say we wish we would have splurge $1K for berber carpet for example we did try to do something things that we knew after the fact would be difficult to do and ones we ultimately didn't think we could deal with out (such as adding two windows in the basement as the only natural light was the egress window) and moving the fireplace from the wall to the center of the house to create a dual sided fireplace and lessening the effect of an open concept home.

By mid-way through the building process pricing was going up and the market was shifting, in 2015 the market shifted to being a seller's market and has been ever since and the pricing would have priced us out even existing homes would have struggled to find something anything anywhere near decent-ish for the price we built our house on. That was luck though in getting in at the right time.

2) With that I'd say paying for our own wedding and honeymoon. That was money well spent especially as I've seen how people in my husband's family and now my sister-in-law is dealing with plans. We did things ourselves like the save the dates and the invitations and the program, made our own wedding favors and center pieces and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Our honeymoon was a great splurge too. It was very freeing to be able to make the decisions for our wedding on our own without any sort of expectation based on monetary contributions.

3) I'd also say our Ninja Foodi we got last year. Bought it on sale at Target (which I believe it's a version they sell there but the larger capacity one is the exact same you can purchase directly from Ninja) for $100 and we've used it quite a lot. I wasn't completely sold on spending money on a new kitchen appliance (because like many people we have ones we don't use very often and other ones we do use all the time) but with that deal it was at a sweet spot. I've found a few recipes still cook better in an actual crock pot for slow cooking, which the Foodi can do, but otherwise it's done a great job and hasn't gone to the appliance graveyard yet lol.

 

[NannyBeBe]

The $30,000+ cash that I paid for the 2006 Honda Odyssey that I still drive. She has never let me down and the only big money I spent on her was when pack rats ate the wires. She has about 112,000 miles on her and I hope to take her to 300,000.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Travel, the memories will last us forever (well hopefully unless we get forgetful in our old age). But I do Shutterfly albums and DH does videos of our trips, so if we get forgetful we could relive through those.

 

[holden]

Leaving out travel, vacation home, etc....

The best "thing" I've spent more than I should have on is our Delonghi Dinamica Plus espresso/coffee maker (on sale for around $1400). It cost a crazy amount of money, but DH and I agree it is probably the best item we have ever purchased. We use it every day, and all of our neighbors/friends stop by for a coffee, espresso, macchiato, latte, etc.