Well, you know what they say about a country with a big ecological footprint…
Big ecological shoes?
You make excellent points, Starving. My husband and I are way in debt (mostly caused by circumstances beyond our control - layoffs, etc.), and we are working our fannies off to get out of debt, because we realize what a precarious life that is. I have a great knack for stretching a dollar (I credit my Mennonite mother for that - these are people who make the Scottish look profligate), but some things truly are worth the extra money.
Cell phone.
I don’t have health insurance but I don’t have any debts and I have a nice amount in savings. I don’t even own a credit card, so overspending on one is hardly an issue. You might figure that I would buy health insurance before I bought a cell phone but I had a problem where I wasn’t getting messages and it was screwing up my work and friends relationships. The roomies kept answering the home phone and not properly relaying the messages to me which was frustrating my bosses who kept forgetting I had a home phone and not a cell despite me reminding them 2938542 times. I am paying $45 a month when I could have gotten a cheaper plan instead of one that included text messaging and picture sending but the ability to keep up with my work place and have better contact with my friends is worth it to me.
Along those same lines, concerts shouldn’t be worth the money to me, nor should ‘partying’ where I spend an entire weekend drinking, clubbing, eating out and engaging in other activities that typically cost money. I view both of those activities as ‘beneficial me’ time and since I don’t have insurance, anything to help manage my clinical depression is not a waste of money.
Most of the posts in this thread mention that friends and relatives make negative comments and judgements against the luxuries that people here enjoy. My sister and I have our luxuries, but we don’t tell my mom how much some things cost, or we’ll never hear the end of how “stupid” we are or “you could get the same thing at Kmart” blather. Our answer is “The Pricing Principle”. Whenever I buy anything that my mom asks how much I spent, I take 50% off the price I paid, then reveal that I paid 10% of that figure. My mom is happy that I’m being frugal, I’m happy that she’s off my back and my dad’s happy that we’re not screaming at each other. I also just don’t tell her everything I do. She can’t condemn what she doesn’t know about.
Maybe if you all are tired of judgemental friends and relatives, just don’t tell them what they don’t need to know. Or just lie.
I don’t know if you can or not. He will let me use his credit card for Amazon stuff sometimes, but he thinks that he’s gonna get his identity stolen if he uses it for the Straight Dope 
. Yeah, he actually said that.
I haven’t gotten the impression in this thread that a lot of people are getting much serious flak about anything. It’s just the kind of “how can you spend money on that?” stuff that happens between people every now and then. Frankly, I find it kind of sad that telling your mom how much you really spend on things would create such a hostile situation that you’d rather lie to keep the peace. I may get crap from family about my rent and cable bill, but never to the point where we’d be screaming at each other – because when push comes to shove, everyone understands that it’s my money.
Ahhh, ok, there’s the disconnect: I didn’t realize you were using his credit card for the Amazon stuff. Gotcha. 
Books. I’ve been reading an hour before bed since I was eight, and now I just don’t feel comfortable sleeping before reading something new. The thing is I’m a pretty fast reader, and while I do often re-read my books (my HHGtTG collection and Nabokovs are in tatters) I find myself unable to do this at bedtime.
Clothes. I see no reason to dress like crap just because everyone else at university does. I’ve seen a professor walking around campus in shorts and flip flops, for Og’s sake!
I used to rack up huge bills on music, too, the stuff you don’t find on P2P networks, but I’ve built a collection large enough that I can cycle through it without ever getting bored.
Also, bodybuilding. My protein quota, given my weight and metabolism, is about 250 grams a day. I have shakes for half of that, but the other half comes from real food, and three steaks a day can be pretty expensive. Add that cost to the $200 a month for supplements and you end up with a sizeable bill.
My folks are good about this kind of thing, though, so there’s never been any negativity from them. Not that they’d qualify, anyway - my dad collects antiques (he’s got several Ching Imperial Edicts stored away somewhere) and my mother splurges heavily on her children (clothes, food, gadgets, etc).
My husband and I like to splurge on quality food (especially produce) and eating out. I buy cherries and nectarines when I can get them no matter what the price. We both enjoy a good steak, some fine cheddar and nice bottle of Perrier or Port to wash it down.
We also eat out at least once a week, sometimes as often as twice. In our defense the restaurants we patronize come from the local Entertainment book and usually have some coupon attached.
I’m very frugal in other areas. I’m currently wearing my $10 K-Mart $10 and the matching pants and top I got for $2 at a yard sale.
I write with fountain pens that cost about eight bucks apiece that take ink cartridges that cost about four bucks for five carts. One cart usually lasts around 2 weeks.
I could write with a Bic pen that costs a quarter, but I write so much I get writer’s cramp if I use a plain ball point. The flow of liquid ink keeps me from bearing down and writing with a lot of pressure. So it’s worth it.
There are a few pens I’m looking into that cost way more than that. Maybe for my birthday…
Robin
Another entry for maid. I hire a maid service once a month; it isn’t cheap, but I am a terrible housekeeper. She’s an unbelievably hardworking recent arrival from Honduras (she scrubs things that I didn’t know were here), I am a homegrown slob, she needs money and I need a house I won’t be embarassed to let people enter so it all works out. (I wish that she would moonlight from her agency as I could pay her less but she’d clear more, but I understand… I usually give her a $20 tip even though I’m not supposed to and she takes it even though she’s not supposed to, and it’s still worth every penny.)
Hie thee to Nordstrom and have the fitting lady help you. Trust me on this. I have a couple bras from there that I spent an ungodly amount of money on, but they’re totally worth it.
I totally forgot shoes. I wear 9.5AAA. I have flat feet. I have a near magical ability to destroy shoes in an incredibly short period of time. Damn right I spend the extra money to find shoes that a. fit me b. are comfortable, and c. will last more than a couple months.
Organically grown food. Organic everything as much as possible. Thank goodness for Whole Foods.
I’ve been buying a lot of expensive yarn lately. I get a 20% discount since I work at a knitting store but it’s still way more expensive than the stuff you’d get at Michael’s. I figure it’s worth it because I usually sink a month into a project, so I might as well use the best materials. I put good craftsmanship into my knitting, so why wreck it by using sub-par materials? But still, it’s hard parting with that money.
I’m also addicted to Jones soda which is a total ripoff at $1 per 12 oz bottle but so good. I only drink it once a week though.
Our ADSL connection costs us $80 per month. We could get the same speed for a fair bit less through a competitor, but we stick with the company we’re using because they’ve been incredibly reliable and are so gosh-darned fast at responding to any queries. Even the ones that turn out not to be their problem (for example, I had trouble connecting to City of Heroes after a big update and the tech staff at CoH said it was *obviously * my ISP. Turns out it was nothing of the sort, but I couldn’t fault the effort Aardvark put into trying to determine the cause of the problem - unlike the CoH people who only looked into it when their boards became a seething mass of flames from people all over the world with the same concerns…)
Longest I’ve ever waited on a turnaround email from Tech Support? 15 minutes. Normally they’ve responded within 5 minutes, and they’re actually helpful, friendly, and have never once tried the ‘Oh, it’s your (generic blanket get-out-of-work-free excuse of the day)’ tactic. And they’re well-trained too - no mucking around, they ask pertinent questions and give an accurate answer.
Admittedly, I’ve actually only used their tech support maybe once a year for the last 5 years, but on those occasions I’ve needed help, it’s been completely worth it, and I’m happy to pay a bit above the market rate for the service and reliability.
Again pens and books. Old books.
But my Saturday flutter on the horses as well. I enjoy it, and it is not as though I am betting a sheep station. It keeps me off the streets.
And I agree with Miss Bunny. I don’t help people paint, move, or lappreciate bum prints on my floor where they may have slept.
She believes you when you tell her your $200 super-lux sheet set was $10
I’m an engineer, but I spend all my spare time playing music.
I play in a couple of different duets, as well as solo. My friends joke about how many high-end guitars I have. Mitigating factors: I play a wide range of guitar styles (fingerpicking, bottleneck slide, Dobro, electric lap steel, etc), and I’m always learning new things. So most of my guitars aren’t interchangeable. Also, I play lefty, which makes it pretty much impossible for me to borrow a friend’s guitar for a week to see if I like it.
I do play for money, which more than supports my ‘habit’. Plus, the fact that I earn money playing enables me to deduct the cost of the guitars, plus travel expenses and the like.
Now THIS I don’t get.
I always tell myself that I’m a terrible housekeeper because I have a full-time job, and I’d do a much better job around the house if I didn’t. In fact, I have no plans to be a stay-at-home mom for any length of time because I’m such a bad housekeeper, and it’s far better for me to be making money at a job and having someone come to clean so we don’t descend into total squalor.
But what’s her excuse?
I don’t think it’s strange. If I had the money I’d gladly pay someone to clean while I sat around eating bonbons, even if I didn’t work at all. That’s my dream in life, actually.
Booze - I figure if i can’t enjoy drinking it why drink it, so i have my list of brands i like. None of which are cheap, but i like the taste. This also goes for wine or beer. Not that cost = quality (there are some great less expensive wines) but i find that a lot of my tastes just heppen to cost more (and I don’t drink coors, bud or those types. Their flavor doesn’t appeal to me).
DSL
Coffee and Tea - I only buy specific loose leaf teas and only coffee from certain roasters. I don’t guzzle coffee though and my wife doesn’t drink it so a pound of the good stuff can last me a month or more.