Season tickets to University of North Carolina basketball.
We won’t talk about how much that sets me back, but there aren’t many pleasures better than walking into Blue Heaven on game day. It’s well worth it for a diehard Tar Heel fan.
Jammer
Entertainment:
I pay, not just for DSL, but for premium DSL: 2.5 Mb/sec.
I buy a lot of DVDs and books, and I pay for both Netflix and World of Warcraft every month. I’m just not a library person, and I can’t be arsed to hit the local Blockbuster to pick up and return movies.
My computer gets a video card upgrade every 12-18 months, and my processor/CPU get upgraded at about the same schedule (though usually at different times than my video card.). I also spend more money on my video card than most people (my latest card cost $265).
Food:
I don’t buy cheap steaks. I don’t like steak a whole lot, so when I do buy it, I buy the good stuff.
We eat low carb, so we buy lots of fresh vegetables and meats. We buy almost all our groceries at CostCo, because their vegetables are usually awesome, but it also means we buy in bulk. Whenever I run to Wal*Mart for something, I’m amazed at the small sizes of the vegetable containers and the poor quality of most of the vegetables. We also buy certain frozen foods that cost more than making them ourselves. Our grocery bill is higher than some people’s rent.
We’re oddly cheap in other areas. We don’t have any household chores done by services; my husband changes the oil in the truck and pays Wal*Mart to dispose of it; we only have one vehicle; and we’ll both wear the same clothes forever before replacing them.
Pens. I use pilot thin ball liners .5. Those, to me are real pens.
Heat. and AC. We keep our house about 77 degrees winter and summer.
Water. We get our cooking and drinking water delivered. Nothing beats distilled water to me, that is my main beverage.
Cocktails. We buy good booze. Not the most expensive, but stuff we like the flavor of and have one cocktail every night. I like brandy crustas and nothing beats a Mai-Tai.
Glassware. The right glass for the right drink. I like plain clear glass glassware, but I want to drink martinis out of a cocktail glass, and sours out of sour glasses. We drink water out of glass glasses too, no plastic! My two year old daughter drinks her beverages out of glass too.
There are two kinds of people in this world. . .
Those who think a friend should take them to the airport because “it’s only an hour of their day.”
And,
Those who think a friend shouldn’t ask in the first place.
I have the overly expensive, high-speed cable internet from Adelphia. Those assholes have a virtual monopoly over here and their service is godawful, but I willingly pay for it.
The second is firearms. I just dropped $1,326 on a pistol that won’t be arriving for about a week (I may post pictures once I get it). On my paycheck, this is an awful lot of money to spend on a toy.
I went on a trip last month, which was a very unusual thing for me to do. I thought I was splurging when I bought some new clothes, I mean, new clothes that did not come from Goodwill. Most of the money was spent on a single suit which cost over $200 (and my mother wound up paying half of that, because she twisted my arm to make me buy it and she felt guilty.) It’s a nice suit, now I just have to pry open my wallet again and have it dry-cleaned!
However, I spent over $400 dollars for tickets to a Broadway show on that same trip without flinching.
You need a more generous group of friends.
I’m not sure if you’re “dissing” me or not, but I am always happy to help my friends in any way possible, and vice versa. Most of us would take a bullet for each other, so once you consider that, helping each other move to save hundreds of dollars on professional movers doesn’t seem like a big deal at all, and nobody thinks twice to ask or agree or volunteer. Besides, a good friend will help you move, but a REALLY good friend will help you move a body.
With you on this one. I like for a hotel to have a dining room, and room service, mostly for the indulgence of having breakfast brought to the room. Other meals I tend to eat out anyway. It doesn’t have to be over the top luxurious, but a bar and restaurant on the premises are nice to have when you arrive at the end of a long journey. And one meets such interesting people in hotel bars.
Recently in Seattle we spent a night at the Vance, which, presumably through some act of bribery, was given three stars by Expedia. To its credit, they do have a cool scheme of decorating the guestroom doors with doorsized photos from the NY Times or something similar, but they have no restaurant, bar, or room service, which I thought were the sine qua non of three stars. Moreover, the bellhop was dressed in ordinary street clothes, so I wondered who this big stranger is who wants my luggage? Nor was there a minibar in a room. We were only in Seattle for 12 hours, or I would have shopped more carefully. In the morning when checking out, the clerk said “You’re all paid up, no incidentals.” Well of course there were no incidentals…they didn’t have a darn thing I could have spent money on!
Incubus, I hear you on the lunch thing. At my office, we don’t have lunch rooms, and because I sensibly have my computer dead center on my desk, so I don’t have to twist my neck to see it, there’s really no convenient place to eat my lunch if I do bring it. So it’s off to the overpriced cafe across the street most days…
I’m willing to spend up to $250 on a pair of shoes, once or twice a year. I have very bad feet. Right now, I’m wearing a pair of Finn Comfort sandals that I paid $230 for, and my feet don’t hurt in them. New Balance trainers work well, too.
Decent chocolate - Lake Champlain, Green & Black’s Mayan Gold – stuff that costs $2.50 a bar but is so full of flavor a little square is enough for a day’s fix.
Essie nail polish - I’m a total convert. If I’m going to spend the time to paint my toenails, I want it to last. Essie polishes don’t oxidize, so the colors stay true as long as you wear them. It’s also more scratch resistant, I think.
Quality handbags/wallets/backpacks - not only do they last longer, but I get so much satisfaction from a beautifully constructed handbag.
A friend of mine just bought his second house. He was moving. He asked me and another of our buddies, “come out on Saturday. We’ll paint. I’ll order us some pizza. I’ve already got the kegerator set up.” (yes, literally, payment was “pizza and beer”)
Read what I wrote earlier in this thread. I PAY people to paint MY house.
And he knows it, and that’s what I told him, “I pay people to paint my house. Logically, I’d hire a guy at $50 an hour to help you paint before I’d come help you myself.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like painting your house. We’re hanging out, having beers.”
Nope. It is like painting my house. What I do on Saturday is ride my bike, read the paper, do the crossword, take a nap, and watch a ballgame. That’s why I work all week.
If you value your friend’s time, you don’t ask in the first place because you know that then you’re just transferring the decision onto him.
[sorry for the hijack. this is probably suitable for it’s own IMHO thread.]
I’m not dissing you.
Of course a friend will help you move. That’s exactly why I don’t ask them to.
Wine. I live in an area where it’s possible to get decent wine in every price range, but I will pay extra for a really good bottle of red wine.
The spa- I set aside a certain amount for my monthly spa time. Sounds crazy (to my mom, at least) but if I don’t do anything that’s just for me every once in a while, I start getting resentful and feeling like I’m knocking myself out for no reward.
I’m halfway with Trunk on this one. I wouldn’t dream of asking a friend to take me to the airport, for example. Not in a million years. There are limo services for that. On the other hand, assuming my schedule allows for it, I’d take a friend to the airport in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t even think twice about it.
There’s no way in hell I’m painting anyone’s house, though. Screw that noise.
Along with apparantly 90% of people here, I pay for cable, despite the gouging (I have both internet service and HD digital cable.)
A subsription to City of Heroes. I paid $50 for the game initially, and I continue to pay $20 a month to play it. Most people think continuing to pay for a game you already bought it stupid. Seeing as it has been out for a year now, I have sunk almost $300 into this game, and will play for a good while longer.
That’s really about it.
I will gladly pay for a Limo to the airport, but not a cab. It is about the same price around here.
What is more, where I last worked, taking a taxi to and from the airport was just not done. The office was close enough to the airport that the cabbie would literally throw a fit if you got in the can and told him your destination; I heard tales of then getting out throwing down their hat and jumping on it. There was a company car to use if you wanted, but usually we just used our own to pick up or drop people off at the airport. It was a nice break in the day.
I’d gladly do the same for a friend.
Not only is it an imposition, but…there’s already plenty of traffic in and around the airport. Take a shuttle or a taxi, that’s what they’re there for.
That is a wonderful way to put it.
I don’t feel it’s right to ask my friends to help me move, because I am imposing on them for something I can pay for. If someone asks me to help, and they can well afford movers but simply don’t want to pay for movers, then no, I am not available. My time is worth WAY more than pizza and beer.
I would definitely take someone who was visiting me back to the airport (and would have picked them up too). I would not ask someone to take me to my own airport, for my own trip, so that I can save a cab fare. It’s taking their precious free time to do something I can easily pay for.
There’s a difference between doing favors for people who need a favor, and enabling lazy and/or cheap people who don’t want to pay for the services they use. I am simply of the mind that people who can afford services should pay for them instead of, in essence, having their friends pay for the equivalent in the value of their own time.
My folks and I decided years ago never to pick up or drop off at airports ever again. It’s a damn hassle that people could avoid if they’d just book a shuttle.
Other stuff I’ll pay for that some folks won’t:
Decent shoes are a priority. Screw PayLess; nothing I had from there ever lasted more than three months. I buy shoes from Zappos dot com now and they last for years.
Good produce, like what they have at Trader Joe's. I've tried the cheaper stuff at most grocery stores and it's inedible.
Valet parking. Saves time and effort and legs.But if pitching in for everyone in your group works for anyone, then have at it.
Just remember, the day that nobody shows up to help you, after you have helped everyone else, will be the day you’ll see my point of view! 