9 Things We Don’t Mind Splurging On

Over the past few months, I’ve been diving into older posts here on Making Sense of Cents to clean them up, add images, and so on.

While doing this I came across a post I published on splurges and I realized that it was time for an update. While I haven’t changed significantly in the past few years, my spending behaviors have changed at least somewhat.

Lately, we have been much more frugal, more minimalist, and we have been analyzing nearly everything that we spend money on. Over the past year we have realized that we have been rather wasteful and we are trying to change that.

While we are still aiming to be frugal, there are still many things in life that we splurge on.

They may make life better, easier, or a little more fun. While I am all about saving money, I do believe that money can be enjoyed as well as long as you are still saving for what is important in life (such as retirement, paying off debt, etc.).

This is something that has taken me quite some time to fully grasp. For many years, I was all about saving every last penny and not enjoying anything. I would second guess every purchase and I had a bad relationship with money.

Things are much different now though. I now know how to control money instead of it controlling me. I also have learned how to use it to better my life instead of it holding me back. Due to this, I have realized that not all splurges are bad, as long as you are realistic about them.

Below are nine things we don’t mind splurging on.

1. A new car.

Okay, many probably will not agree with me since this is a personal finance blog after all, but I do not mind splurging on our car.

We have changed a little in this area though. We are now a one car family, so our car costs were recently slashed in half. It was a definite splurge having two cars, and it was wasteful as well.

The reason for our new car is that we drive A LOT. Between May, June, and July, we will log slightly over 225 hours just from long road trips. That just includes going to and from our main destinations.

Yes, I just said 225 HOURS!

Having something dependable that we know will make it on a long trip is extremely important to us. We also want something comfortable, something safe, a car that gets good gas mileage, and more. Also, since Wes used to be a new car salesman, we know how to get a new car for cheap and they are usually cheaper than or similar to a car that is just a few years old (yes, this is true), so that’s why we usually go new. Lastly, we are also able to fit a new car into our budget, so we are being realistic about the cost as well.

Due to the reasons above, we have no problem with splurging on our car.

2. Travel.

Travel is something that I will never mind splurging on.

While we do go on many affordable trips by using credit card rewards to our advantage, travel is something that we enjoy and we do spend money on it as well.

3. Outdoor gear.

We have spent a good amount of money on outdoor gear (bikes, rock climbing gear, camping items, hiking gear, etc.) in the past few years. We try to only buy high quality items that we know will last and will be useful, so the costs can quickly add up.

There’s nothing much else for us to buy now that the large upfront costs are over, so this means that we can do many fun things outside for free. Yes, we will have to replace and maintain certain items eventually, but for the most part everything should last a long time.

4. Dogs.

My blog receives a lot of odd search engine hits, such as:

how much is a dog worth;
how much to spend on a sick dog;
how much is too much to spend on your dog;
why do people pay money to keep their dogs alive;
spending $200 on my dog’s surgery, is it worth it?;
thousand dollar vet bill or put dog to sleep.

I personally know someone who put their dog to sleep due to just a $150 vet bill (I can’t remember if it was $50 or $150), and that really makes me sad to even think about.

To me, our dogs are well worth it.

They are a part of our family and if I knew that just a little bit of money would make them all better, I would do it.

5. Rock climbing gym memberships.

We spend exactly $99 a month on our rock climbing gym memberships altogether. This includes unlimited climbing, discounted classes, unlimited yoga, a “normal” gym, and more.

While just a year ago I probably would have believed that spending $99 would be crazy, it brings us a lot of entertainment each month (we go multiple times each week) and we also get a great workout in.

6. A comfy mattress.

We used to sleep on a super cheap mattress that we bought when we first bought our house and were on a budget.

Our old mattress was something that we would complain about All. The. Time. In fact, when we recently went back to St. Louis and stayed in our old house, we had to sleep on that mattress and we could not believe that we slept on that for so many years. It felt impossible to even go to sleep in the first place because it felt like the mattress springs were jabbing us.

Late last year though, we got a new mattress. I love sleeping on it and you pretty much have to tear me away from my bed. I never wake up in pain anymore and I actually get a deep sleep in now.

A good mattress is well worth the cost. They aren’t even that expensive either!

7. Lawn maintenance.

After multiple lawn mowers breaking after the first use (extreme bad luck) and companies never once honoring their warranty (or even their return policy), we started to get our lawn professionally mowed. Our home in St. Louis had grass that grew very slowly so it was always cheap there.

Here in Colorado, we’ve been hit with over 100 degree temperatures EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past 26 days so mowing would be fairly miserable.

We also just don’t like mowing the lawn. We want sand at our next place for this very reason.

Due to these reasons, we pay for someone to mow our lawn. It’s a task we dislike, so outsourcing it makes sense to us.

8. Internet.

This isn’t exactly a splurge, but I have been told time after time that I could just get free internet at a library, a cafe, and so on.

Having internet is a need for me though, so I do not see this changing any time soon. I need it to run my business and without it I would be wasting a ton of time running over to the library whenever I need to get something done.

9. Dental care.

Around every 6-7 months, we go to the dentist for a regular cleaning. I also floss and use mouthwash once a day, and I brush twice a day.

My dad would always say that teeth were extremely important and if there was one thing that he was going to pay for, that it would be teeth.

Haha, that has just always stuck with me. I would much rather pay for affordable preventative care now then for something extremely expensive to come up later.

We also don’t have dental insurance, so making sure that our teeth are healthy is extremely important. It will save us money and teeth in the long run by doing this.

What do you splurge on? How much does your splurge cost you?

Michelle S