Where we Splurge
April 2, 2008 by Deborah Ng
Filed under Simple Pleasures
Ok, so we’re not entirely cheap. There’s one area where we splurge and it’s not a necessity at all. We hire someone to mow our lawn. I know!
When we moved here six years ago my husband was commuting 2 hours each way to his job in the city and I had a five week old, it was late July and the last thing either of us wanted to do with our spare time was hop on a lawn tractor. Plus, after buying a house and paint and other supplies, we really didn’t want to spend more for said tractor. We received a recommendation for someone who mows lawns, got an estimate, and eventually hired him.
The next summer my husband wasn’t commuting but our son was a year old and we were enjoying our family time together. Still, neither of us wanted to do the lawn. Six years later we still haven’t purchased the tractor but we do have a lawn service. We do the extra stuff - seeding and yard cleanup - ourselves. We’ll gladly spend $35 for someone to mow our lawn if it means we get to spend more time together at the reservoir or barbecuing.
What’s your splurge?
Image:stock.xchnge
LRN
Oh, I so wish my husband would chill and allow us to pay somebody to mow our lawn. He doesn’t like to do it and therefore kind of fusses about it. We are now empty nesters and so maybe next year I can sweet talk him into it.
Great place to splurge if you ask me.
My husband loves mowing the lawn because no one is allowed near him while he’s doing it. It’s the weed whacking he’s not so thrilled with and I can’t do it because there’s too much poison ivy.
I have found if I KILL the yard early in the season, there is no need to mow. It has been an effective strategy for the last five years.
N@
We used to do that…but then the yard guy kept throwing weed seeds into my flower bed so it became cost effective to do it ourselves
We splurge on wine and dinner. It’s a little luxury every couple of weeks that makes life bright–love a good date night!
I think I will go ahead and bite the bullet and hire someone to clean our house. I hate doing it, and I do it poorly. And I would be so much happier and more productive if I didnt’ have to worry about it all the time. And I think it will actually save me thousands of dollars in court costs and lawyer fees because I’m going to leave this jerk if he doesn’t stop bugging me about it. He knew I wasn’t Martha Stewart when he married me. What makes him think I will magically change?
Right now our big splurge is on date nights. We make it a priority to just be us once in a while. Next year, when I start working a lot more, I’m going to splurge on someone to come in and clean my house every other week.
Our big splurge is on chef cutlery by Wustof and All-Clad Copper Core cooking pans. We can only buy like, 1, every-other month. But we’re building our collection. Our Wustof 3″ paring knife from the Sonoma Williams store was $50. I’ve since figured out it was cheaper to order them online. I absolutely love the Copper Core pans! The regular copper ones are supposed to be good, too, but I find them to be way too heavy for me. We didn’t get to purchase anything new this month - we’re budgeting $200 in May for a skillet! It’s worth it to us because we like to cook (we are frugal - we do NOT eat out) and we appreciate good equipment that lasts a lifetime.
Unfortunately, we don’t really have anything to splurge on.
When we had extra money, it was probably on going out to eat. Now my husband is unemployed and we are watching all our money very closely.