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What do you spend your money on? House Poor? Car Poor? Drunk poor?

Cuda1447

Cuda1447

Lifer
In my time on these wonderful forums I've read thousands of threads. Some of them talked about finances and whatever the particular topic is. I've read statements about being "house poor" about wasting money on a car. I've seen threads where people spend 2-3k on a gaming computer, or spend 5k on a vacation. Some people go out drinking every weekend spending $150 on a bar tab. Some people every day!

So it got me thinking, what the hell. What AM I supposed to, responsibly, spend my money on? It seems to me, you could say almost everything in life is a waste of money. But hoarding money is a waste too. I work to afford the things in life that I want, not for the sake of having a large bank account (although, I am not saying spend every penny you can, save enough so that you can live comfortably given an emergency).


So what do you spend (waste) your money on? What are you cheap with? I'll start!

- My house is about average, nothing extravagant, but it is in a nice area of decent size. Do I wish it were bigger? Sure. But its plenty big for the wife and I. Nice backyard for our dogs too.

- I spend money on my cars. My wife and I both have new cars. I can't really imagine not having a car payment. I get bored of my car usually 3 years into it and have no problem trading it in and paying on a new one. I get a lot of enjoyment out of them.

- We like to vacation. We try to get on one big trip every year. Bahamas, Canada, Vegas - wherever. Our next one is either Hawaii or Australia I think.

- Electronics. I wouldn't say I spend a LOT of money in this department, but I have a nice enough laptop, nice smartphones etc...

- Athletics. Again, not a huge expense but out of the ordinary for most people. My wife pays for a gym membership. I pay to play in adult soccer and basketball leagues.

- Eating out. This used to be a big expense for us. We have cut back dramatically though. Not due to finances, but due to the fact that eating out makes us fucking sick. Some nice restaurants are alright from time to time. Pizza is fine for me. Fast food is off limits. Basically though, I just feel healthier eating a home cooked meal. Which is weird cause I suck at cooking.


Now for things that I am very cheap with, that a lot of my peers probably spend a lot of money on.

- Alcohol. I don't drink, nor does my wife. Very rarely do we spend money on alcohol.

- Clubs/Partying etc... I think I am still within the age group that a lot of my peers go out on the weekends spending money at clubs/bars etc... I don't spend any money in this area.

- Clothes. I'm pretty frugal when it comes to clothes. I like having nice clothes, but I usually shop for name brand stuff at discount stores like Tj Maxx or outlet stores. I'll spend decent money occasionally here, but most of the time I get a good sale.

- Entertainment going out. Movies, shows, musicals, sporting events etc... The wife and I may go to a hockey game or two a year, but that's about the extent of it. Movies we avoid unless its a really good movie. Maybe once every few months. Outside of that, we are mostly self entertained. We like to hang out with family and friends at home. Ping pong is one of my personal favorites. Board games, watching sports on tv, barbequeing etc.



So I guess I could have less expensive cars and waste more money on alcohol. Spend less on a vacation, but waste more on expensive clothes. Spend less on my house but waste more on having to have the latest and greatest technology. To me, I don't think anything is a waste of money or irresponsible, as long as you keep enough money to pay your bills and store some for an emergency. It's funny when I see people hating on how others spend their money!


What do you guys "waste" money on, or are very frugal with?
 
House poor I suppose, but I'm not really any of them. I'm also a little "drunk" poor sometimes when I go out a lot, because I spend a TON of money sometimes when I go out.
 
I throw most of my money at audio recording equipment and music-related gear. I splurged and bought a large HDTV earlier this year. Other than that, I usually just save. I also consume a lot of whey protein. Oh and sometimes mind altering substances (read MJ)

I'd say those are my money sinks.
 
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right now my wife and i are saving for a down payment on a house, but we're also going and have gone on some nice vacations. when we go on vacation too we aren't frugal at all. we'll pay the extra few hundred to get the ocean front place, and we usually don't do all inclusive because we like to go to nice restaurants and stuff while out.

usually i'll try to save and bring like $3k for a weeks vacation for spending money. typically we'll have left over money, but if we don't i wouldn't even care.

in general i don't buy very much because i don't need very much. i'd much rather go on 2-3 really nice vacations a year than buy a buncha shit i dont really need or care for.

i am actually about to get a car though. i have enough to buy it flat out, but i'm going to be only putting down like $5k and my current cars value into it, because i want the lump sum in my account to be for a house down payment. and my current car has been paid off for a year and a half nearly. but it's starting to give me a few problems, and i'd rather get rid of it now before i have to put money into it. and im going to be going from a VW to an Infiniti so it'll be a nice upgrade. the $300/mo or so a month won't really effect anything in the grand scheme of things.
 
My major "wastes" have been in the past:
Guns and gun related purchases
Wine
Car parts/mods
Watches
Random electronics
Booze

I usually justified my purchases by saying I was getting a great deal. ie I only bought things on clearance/deep discounts ($700 dslr for $300, $400 tablet for $75, $500 watch for $300, etc). Guns I bought because they provided me lots of enjoyment.

I bought the majority of these items when I had a decent full time job and then went into a high paying internship, but then I had a year of a crappy part time job and I ended up killing myself into credit card debt.

Now I have a new, much better paying full time job and i'm being very frugal and putting every dollar I have into paying off my debt. Once I finish that I'll probably have to buy a new car so I'll just go back into another (but better controlled) cycle. I do every now and again have a spontaneous purchase (spent ~150 on wine last weekend while wine tasting, bought a PS3 which had been on the purchase list for a couple of months but had had a hard time pulling the trigger on, etc)

My justification is I might as well spend money on things I enjoy (typically objects rather than experiences)
 
save you time and just don't bother earning too much money in the first place, if you are going to misappropriate it anyway
 
Food.

I am one of those whacky organic food people and I absolutely love food and want to have the best food available so I treat myself to expensive meats and fish alot so I waste a ton of dough on food. I rarely ever eat out at restaurants though, it's mostly for home. I cant imagine how much money Id waste if I ate equivalently at restaurants...
 
Most would probably term us "house poor." We have a nice, large house on a 1.5 acre lot with a pool and huge 1000 sq. ft. covered patio.

Our cars are pretty average, but they are paid for and dependable. We did spend a bit on a sports car a few weeks back, but it wasn't really an expensive purchase. We take at least one decent beach vacation a year, and a couple of weekend trips to see friends.

We are comfortable and really have no money headaches, but we try to save as much as possible by being thrifty and not over-indulging ourselves with excessive stuff.
 
"I must have gone through $10 million during my career. Part of the loot went for gambling, part for horses and part for women. The rest I spent foolishly."

George Raft
 
FoBoT said:
save you time and just don't bother earning too much money in the first place, if you are going to misappropriate it anyway
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what to make of this comment, but I suspect you are looking down on the people who spend money on things that you deem inappropriate. If that is the case, I find your way of thinking highly entertaining.
 
Wife, our little son and I own an average sized house with two dogs. We don't make an extraordinary amount but luckily our house is not busting our bank.

We own both our cars and always have a savings account for the next car. We own a 2003 Civic (~80K miles) and a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee (~60K miles).

Most of our money is wasted on international travel, Every 2 years we try to take a big trip somewhere. Heading to South Korea later this year. Went to India 2 years ago and toured Europe 2 years before that.
 
I didn't know what house poor was until some friends invited us over after they bought a new house. They had bed sheets covering the windows and cardboard boxes as end tables. They both had good jobs but they were broke.
 
Cuda1447 said:
I'm not sure what to make of this comment, but I suspect you are looking down on the people who spend money on things that you deem inappropriate. If that is the case, I find your way of thinking highly entertaining.
Click to expand...

i don't care what others spend their money on, not my busyness

my point was, if YOU feel you are wasting your OWN money and yet you KEEP on doing it, then , what is the point of it all?
 
Investments -401K, MMF's, Stocks

Bar tabs - not real big on eating out but we do love to this the bar 3X a week for a few drinks to unwind.

Electronics - but bigger & better is not something weupgrade often. I would like to go to a full 7.1 system from my current 5.1 but don't really have the room space for the additional speakers and the misses prefers the not in your face looks of the 5.1.
 
Spend a large portion of my money on the house, retirement fund, karate lessons for my son and I, games (both console and computer), and computer hardware.

I spend very little on eating out and entertainment. I eat out maybe 1-2 times a week, but there are many weeks that we eat at home for every single meal. I only have an HDTV antennae, don't subscribe to cable or satellite, and I don't buy much music or movies. I go out to drink with friends maybe 1-2 times a month, although I have been known to show up with a 6 pack of beer and just chill with friends randomly 4-5 times a month. I have two young sons (ages 5 and 8) and a wife who keep me pretty busy and entertained.
 
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