what's your budget weakness?

[schmcktgt]

Trips to Disney.

Me too! But it's totally worth it. Sometimes I have to ask myself "would I rather spend this $ at Disney?" Most of the time, the answer is YES! The joy I get from a Disney trip outweighs the daily splurges I gave up.

 

[lizerbug]

I love this thread. My weakness is travel, specifically Disney World. It started in 2003 when I asked my then 13 year old daughter if she wanted to go since we had never been. We started planning and that was the beginning of the WDW obsession for us both

My only problem is that my boyfriend, even though he went with me last year (just the 2 of us) and we had a spectacular time, does not share my obsession. What to do? He has discovered that he enjoys traveling and he wants to go everywhere and see everything. Sounds great except when it means I won't be able to go to WDW as often as I want to

But I'm still planning the next trip................

 

[dreamin_disney]

eating out is my budget weakness

 

[LeslieLou]

It sounds like there are a lot of similarities among the budget minded!

My biggest weakness is vacations - I've got 3 planned this year. I work hard to make them cost effective, but it's still a lot of dough! DH and I work tirelessly, and outside of vacations it's a rarity I feel relaxed

Then, there's my husband...he's a spender (I like to think he balances me out )

Then, there's all those sale racks calling to me. I buy my kids clothes in off seasons, household items when big lots has 20% off, Christmas presents when I see the right thing on clearance.

All this spending is helping me stay in budget, right!?

 

[nighttowll]

1. Eating out
2. Books
3. Art / craft supplies
4. Pajamas

 

[ThisIsTheYear]

1. Takeout

2. My kids: activities, clothes, birthday parties, fun (theme parks, beach, etc).

I'm frugal with EVERYTHING else.

 

[mouselike-harrier]

-Disney anything
-Travel

These are huge budget breakers for me. My Mom died young and I justify it all with "I never expected to live this long and I want memories with my kids". But really, we all love it so much!!

 

[SEA333]

My biggest weakness by far is my kids' activities. I'll go to the ends of the earth to figure out a way to let them experience a new class or sport or camp.

 

[kinntj]

My kids: sports, activities, and clothes.
Then vacations!

 

[wallawallakids]

Craigslist. I am not good at passing up a deal when I see it on there!!

For my DH it is Starbucks. Man can not pass one without getting a coffee. And there is a Starbucks on every corner.

 

[FINFAN]

my kids (who are not little, lol)
DS has a jeep and jeep owners, you KNOW where I am coming from DS never asks for $ to "keep tweaking" it, but I find myself passing $ along to help out. Mostly 'cause I think I love it as much as he does.
DD has moved cross country 2x's in 2 years. I always seem to find "things she needs" when out and about. She travels light and a lot gets left back to GoodWill when she changes locations. I like helping out, kinda makes me feel like I'm there with her in a way.
Vera Bradley...Lordy it's a good thing I have an Outlet very close for my purchases (or maybe NOT a good thing ,lol)

ETA: 3 wick candles and hand soaps from BBW. I was the girl who would never justify spending $8-10 on a candle or $2.50+ on a single bottle of hand soap...but for these? All common $ense out the window. Like Vera, there's crack in these products, I'm convinced!

and travel. I love FL and out West. Seeing as how I live outside Chicago, it takes some $ cash to get to either one...sometimes I am impatient on waiting for that cash before traveling

 

[threeboysmom]

Clothes clothes clothes. For MYSELF.

I have zero will power if I walk into Ann Taylor or really any women's clothing store.

I seriously cannot walk back out empty-handed. I need to stop trusting myself when I say, "oh, I just want to go in and look..." Yeah right girl!

 

[kerplop]

Food delivery. We get home from work and we're exhausted, so the last thing we want to do is cook and so the call gets made. And it's so bad for us!

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

concert tickets - I see about 20 shows a year, and have to travel to some

last year alone -
Los Angeles twice
San Francisco once
Sacramento once
New York once
Las Vegas once

all the rest were local to Chicago

 

[melissalee]

Kitchen gadgets and kitchen stuff in general.
Wine. I love to buy good wine. DH and I have a nice little stash.
Eating out. We actually have cut back to about twice a month. It helps that we have been planning a menu out every week so it's cut back in the spontaneous out to eat nights.

We are redoing our kitchen and floors so trying to restrain our shopping in every aspect.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

Definitely going out to eat. We usually go out to eat on my DH days off and I will about once a week when I don't want to cook.

 

[Kimmers127]

Mine are Disney trips, and books. The books are insane, I'm a total hoarder. Our condo is full to bursting with bookshelves and I have probably a dozen big boxes of books in storage too. Plus I probably buy at least 1 - 3 books each week. I have a Kindle which I am trying to use more but if it's a book I love, I want a paper copy. I do buy a lot of my books used on Amazon so really they're more of a space issue than a money issue but it's definitely an area where I just cannot curb myself. As for Disney, I'd go 5 times a year if we could swing it (we did one year, it was so irresponsible but it was amazing). We live in CT, so we usually shoot for twice a year. DH wants to start going other places too - I'm like, well I guess these "other" trips will be our 3rd trip per year, because no way can I drop below two Disney trips!!

 

[Kimmers127]

Oh also eating out. We do way too much of that. Trying to cut back, both to save money and because DH and I are each trying to lose about 25 pounds, and eating out a few times a week is totally counterproductive to that. We do enjoy eating out, but a lot if times we do it out of just not wanting or having time to cook. Also, I started eating vegetarian in January and DH is a pretty picky water so finding common meals has been a challenge, and making two dinners for two people feels ridiculous. Last week I found a bunch of recipes I wanted to try and then spent all day Sunday cooking for the week and it's worked well so far! Sometimes we're heating up different things but at least we're eating together and most of the cooking has already been done.

 

[AndreaDM]

Travel, we will cut back in almost every other area to be able to travel. Also we will never be that family to give up cable, we love our tv! Of course if there was a job loss or something we would, but have no plans to cancel it.