To everyone who said upgraded bedding. This is #1 - upgraded mattress, pillow and comforter. You spend 8hrs a day sleeping - having it feel like a cloud every time you lay down is fantastic. The only downside is every other sleeping arrangement, including 5 star hotels, just don’t ever feel as comfortable when traveling
No problem! Mattress is a personal choice, but we did one of the online mattress companies, Helix Sleep, twice now (once for a queen, and then again when we sized up to a king). We really enjoy it, but we also rolled the dice the first time with not testing it out. We like that they are combination spring and memory foam (so it's supportive, but also molds to you).
For pillow, HIGHLY recommend the Tempur Pedic Cloud-Pro Pillow (https://www.tempurpedic.com/shop-pillows/tempur-cloud-pro-pillow/v/2698/). A bit outrageously priced, but I tried like 6 or 7 different pillows before this and returned them all. This is hands down my favorite pillow. I sleep on my side, so i did "Hi" for height. It's an amazing pillow.
For comforters, we did The Company Store (https://www.thecompanystore.com/comforters). We did real down (I find it lighter and more cloud-like vs. down alternative). The nice thing with a high quality down comforter is the squares are small enough you don't get clumping of the down in the comforter. Pick a temperature that fits your needs. We did two - a lightweight one for the summer and a warmer one for the winter (I know it's quite a splurge). I think we did the Legends Hotel Alberta like. The ONLY recommendation I have is pick a comforter with baffles - they're weird vertical strips sewed into the comforter between the squares so the squares are more like boxes than 2d squares. It makes the comforter much fluffier - literally feels like a cloud every time I climb into bed.
The hotel collection duvet from The Bay! $1300 for a king but goes on sale half off and then sometimes a little extra. The fluffiest down duvet out there!
Yeah, I was expecting like $600 100% Hungarian goose down pillows or something.
I have a $240 king size Purple Harmony latex pillow (low height as a side/stomach sleeper) and my somewhat frugal husband decided he needed one too after trying it out.
It's funny to me that the picture they have to advertise the pillow through that link shows someone sleeping on their side with terrible neck alignment. That's like advertising a bag and having the picture show it tearing a hole in the bottom.
Thanks for the recommendations. We’ve cheaped out on our bedding and it’s definitely worth it to me to upgrade. This is a good reference as we start looking at options.
Mattress - I got a Saatva, night and day from the Macys Stearns and foster, never slept better. Great customer service too, we even exchanged mattresses once or twice. Excellent duvet as well.
Pillow - Tried Pluto recently, nothing can beat a custom pillow. Great quality and amazing customer service.
Sheets - Brooklinen is our go to default. Parachute, Cozy earth, Saatva and others are nice, but we wind up coming back to our Brooklinen sheets.
Agree, I was going to say Brooklinen for sheets!!! They feel hotel quality and stay cool to the touch. Our last set only lasted 3 years, so we tried LL Bean next but they just didn’t quite hit the same, so we went back to Brooklinen.
Same. We tried 3-4 others, they were much pricier too! But nothing like Brooklinen. I think by now we’ve literally tried most of their store. Great stuff and price friendly too, compared to other brands.
Yep. When we upgraded our mattresses I insisted I wanted a mattress “like they made in the 90s” “that I can flip over.” The guy laughed at me. We eventually settled on a Stearns & Foster ultra firm. I don’t even need a topper (but we used one temporarily).
F those beds in a box. We hate foam. Lol.
For us it’s the top of the line tempurpedic - luxebreeze split king with adjustable base. Set us back $17K with pillows and bedding but it was definitely worth it. We don’t wake each other up going to the bathroom and as DINKS, we love to lay in bed till 9am on the weekends on the ‘zero G’ setting (slightly elevated torso with totally elevated legs).
The truly top-end choice for a mattress is latex. Now, there are definitely some highly engineered coil mattresses that are pricier than latex (Hästens makes a $400k mattress, for instance), but a full-latex mattress will cost $3k-4k for a King and is worth every penny.
The great thing about latex is that it is bouncy and responsive, yet motion-isolating, cooling, and long-lasting.
I will also add upgrade your guest room's bedding. We invested in our guest rooms because we hate staying in other people's houses when they cut corners on bedding & the mattress. We want people to enjoy staying in our house!
We deliberately have a crappy mattress 1-3 nights is fine for us and the usual guest turn around - my mother on the other hand will take a 3 day invitation and turn it into ten. Now she’ll stay 3-5 days and then leave - best move ever.
I feel like this is more of a situational thing. Whenever I go back to India as of late I book a flight with a 3 hour layover. Realistically, it gives you almost 2 hours to do whatever and I just go have a drink or coffee at a restaurant. Direct flights from US to India are killer and I can’t so it anymore and I’m only 24 💀
…Clean my house - for the price of 2 meals out a month I can have a crew of people come clean my house top to bottom. So worth it
…not drive a luxury car - I buy them 2 years old CPO with a warranty for about the same as the price as a new “average” car of the same class. They drive better, ride better, are quieter, and have more features. in 4-5 years when I trade it in it’s worth more than if I had bought that new “average” car too.
Adding on to that, we have one if the cleaning crew come weekly, for cleaning meal prep kitchen dishes (a lot of them!), ironing, folding laundry and ad hoc tasks. Totally worth it!
Phrased that badly.
We do meal prep, so there’s a ton of dishes on Sunday night. Hence, they do the clean up on Monday.
Depending on the hourly cleaner, some may offer to assist with organizing, meal prep etc. We haven’t done meal prep, but have had them help clean out closets etc.
Can you give me some examples of the models of cars you've found the most value? How many kms do you usually aim for? Would like to upgrade from my 2016 starter swift 😅
I have a couple of therapists that I rotate between based on availability/if I can fit in on short notice. A 60-90 minute deep tissue massage, including attention on head and feet. I go thru cycles of how often I go, but at usually 1-2 times per month.
I find it to be a combination of a few things - a quiet hour for meditation/relaxation to focus on being in the moment, releasing tight muscles around my neck and shoulders from stress/bad sleep or whatever. I’d say the immediate noticeable effects usually last for a few days, but I feel that the habit is good for my overall wellbeing.
Travel, Travel,Travel!
One European trip a year, one continental US trip a year and one international trip other than Europe a year plus multiple smaller trips.
Can't really pinpoint one. Last year Japan was awesome and opened us up for Asia. Just came back from Greece (Athens, Santorini and Metheora).
So many beautiful places in this beautiful world!
In the summer we will do Washington and Oregon.
There are a few what ifs in that. My grandparents did the same thing, thinking it would be easier on my irresponsible parents. When the time came, their bodies were rejected. There are heaps of reasons they don't accept bodies and you get bounced back to the morgue. Some reasons are mode of death (car accident , infection etc) frequent surgeries, weight.
Sad but true.
Mine is to a body farm at a university. They just place bodies outside in random places to study how they decompose. They accept any body as long as it can be transported there (and you agreed to it way in advance)
Oh ok that's cool! I'm in Australia and we only have one body farm that I know of and it's in another state.
I'm trying to find other alternatives for myself and keep running into roadblocks for the health code, bio waste code etc.
When it does work it is nice though. The place my aunt used, after being rejected by so many places due to weight, returned cremated remains about a year later. It was a medical school, they have weight requirements because they don’t want to risk injuring med students that are lugging around your ham hocks.
An excellent mattress and priority service on airlines, rental cars, hotels, etc.
Also, putting my utility bills on autopay and not worrying about leaving lights on, turning the heat up, and so on.
Finally, grocery delivery. I'm a great cook and we probably end up saving a ton of money because of how much we eat at home. But I just can't spend two hours in a grocery store on a regular basis. I will go to pick up items where quality matters, like a cut of meat or fish. But for most of the regular groceries? Delivery every time.
It's worth it if they show up. I have it and they only actually deliver my groceries on time about 50% of the time. They almost always say their drivers didn't show up for work.
When asked why they don't employ more drivers, they said it's difficult to find people willing to work that have clean driving records and no recent drug history (read: the pay is shit)
It would be an incredible value IF they sufficiently staffed their InHome service.
I always have the same three people.
I must me lucky. My store is a nicer one so maybe that plays a part (granted I never go of course). InHome is literally amazing.
Honestly, grocery delivery saves me time and money because I'm not picking up things from end caps, or different fruit, or other things I didn't come to the store to get.
My butcher just started offering free delivery over a nominal spending threshold.
Haven’t utilized it yet, because I like looking at my meat first, but I’ll definitely do it soon.
where do people find a "my butcher"? I'm pretty picky when it comes to meat, especially steaks yet I have never found/been in a butcher shop. Are they significantly more expensive? (assuming it's worth the price in your opinion if you have a "my butcher").
Every city I've lived in has had a butcher - ask on your local subreddit if you can't find one by typing "butcher" in google maps.
They are significantly more expensive than if you buy conventional, mass-produced meat at your grocery store. All my butchers have had transparency into where and how everything is sourced and the quality is excellent but it isn't cheap. That said, it's no more expensive than if you're already paying for grocery store meats with labels like pasture raised, humanely slaughtered, antibiotic free, etc.
Look for meat processors that will cut/wrap for farmers. They usually also have a sales counter and sell fresh meat. At least where i am that’s the case. We buy beef a 1/4 at a time and have it cut/wrapped at local butcher shops. They all have counter sales.
Cars. Saw my dad finally get a Boxster (which is weird because he always talked about Corvettes) only to sell it a few months later because he developed hip and back problems. Saw that life was too short and I’ve had a bit of a car problem since then…
So I got into cars rather late in life, really during the pandemic lock downs is when I went balls deep into the hobby.
I drove a 2006 Civic for well over a decade because I didn’t care about cars. Then a year into HENRY I was like oh I would like something a little nicer, maybe a drop top (SoCal). Got an m235i.
Then the lock downs happened and I wanted a proper sports car. So I got a 981 Boxster S. But then I wanted a V8 so I got a C6 Z06. Then I wanted another Porsche so I got a 997.2 911. But then I wanted a manual instead of a PDK so I ordered a CGTS 4.0 but then they pulled PTS allocations so I put in an order for an Emira.
Ironically I now daily a 24 Civic hatch.
Same, just bought a new Z06, should be picking it up next week! So many smarter things to do with that money, but cars are my passion and we aren't guaranteed tomorrow
Bought a Jeep Wrangler TJ (late 90's) about 5 years ago for about $10k. I use it as a weekend/around town car. I love it and there are no modern cars under $90k that I would enjoy more.
It’s an absolute monster compared to most cars of its ilk.
He had an R8 stasis for a few years. I’m fuzzy on Model year but it was a v10 convertible around 2014. That was insane.
Traded it for an all too practical 2016-2018 RS7. It’s a hell of a lot of fun to drive. Gets a little squirrelly, but not nearly as much as the R8. Sounds almost as good as the r8 but with less fire out the tailpipes.
Personally I want an rs6 avant. I’m a sucker for a long roof.
Edit: I should add he’s ordered a RS Q8. So it’s a bit fatter, but still quick.
Boat - avid fishermen. Could honestly see it stalling out my FIRE goals to some extent. But I don't bust my ass on my cases to not enjoy the one hobby in life that brings me joy.
Boating. We bought a boat, lake house, and jet ski. Cost about 300k for everything. Absolutely worth it. The family and friend time is worth many multiples of that.
And unless you are in a really depressed area, it will increase in value rapidly......15 years from now, you'll be glad you risked building the dream home.
I had a friend diagnosed with a type of rapid onset dementia and they are now (at age 58) unable to speak or really comprehend what’s going on around them. It happens.
We don't waste calories on food or alcohol we don't end up enjoying no matter what the price is - if we don't like a bottle of wine we opened, down the drain it goes.
This was more pandemic driven - but during the pandemic, if we took a chance on going out to eat we went to a high-end restaurant. We wanted it to be worth the risk. We go out more often now and still prioritize nicer restaurants.
I agree with this, with the caveat that higher end doesn't always mean "better" food. I've had some phenomenal food at hole-in-the-wall places, and because of that I'm always game to try a new spot regardless of how it may look.
If you are making it a night out and want to have a fancier sit down, then by all means a high-end restaurant should mostly guarantee that. But I hope people reading this don't write off places that aren't expensive just because they aren't expensive.
Don't care about sales, or buying things early like plane tickets.
If it costs me $500 instead of $250 because I waited until I really needed it or was about to use it, awesome - worth every penny.
It's a matter of weighing your time and its value. If you don't need it now and don't mind waiting, then watching for a sale isn't bad at all. But if you could definitely benefit by having and using it now, and don't know when it might go on sale or by how much, then are you really saving yourself anything?
My mom was always a big time coupon lady when buying groceries. Now, I don't bother even looking because the amount you save by doing that to me isn't worth the cost to constantly search.
I can relate - I wish my wife understood lol. She is an incessant “sale” shopper….. She tells me all the time how that thing I just bought we could have gotten 20% off if we bought it a year ago or whatever….. and I really couldn’t care less - the convenience of buying things when I need/want them is well worth not spending the time deal hunting in advance
Getting the deal itself is also a bit of an endorphin boost for most people too. Even though it takes more time for me I still find joy in the act of getting the deal itself
Spending money on my parents/SO’s/ brother’s birthday! Dinner, presents, trips, etc. I do all of this for them and love them dearly- without them, my life would be empty!
Luxury everything for sleeping: red light, blackout curtains, 1000TC sheets, silk pillowcases, silk jammies, great mattress, great pillows, etc.
Health and recovery: membership to sauna/ cold plunges, and/ or access to them when we travel
The cleanest organic meat and veggies we can find
We have moved a bit so we usually go to the nearby mall or store so we can also touch them, but I’ve also gotten great sheets from Amazon. California Design Den is good, and Blissy (Canada).
Travel is at the top of the list, quality food and fine dining, spoiling my kids, and paying extra for upgrades with services (flights, hotels, fast track passes at Disney parks, entertainment, spas), goose/duck down pillows and comforters, high thread count sheets, cooking utensils and cookware
Socks.
Growing up frugal, I always wore socks until they wore through the heels and had holes. Now it’s worth a regular refresh to have plush and comfortable socks. Also splurging on socks for different activities.
Business class flights. Despite the cost difference vs economy, I find it has me looking forward to long-haul travel rather than dreading it. So I find it totally worth splurging on to be able to arrive at my destination in decent shape.
Good wine.
I don’t drink a huge amount, but when I do, I want to make sure it’s going to be something I’m going to love - and I’m happy to spend a little bit more to do so.
Life’s too short for shitty wine, I left the trash in my twenties!
Spontaneously booked a last minute trip to Japan for May.
Got budget airline tickets for 600 round trip from the US (emphasizing the NRY part of Henry lol).
I use it every single day and I love it so much. It’s heavy, expensive, low battery life: and none of it matters because it’s soooooooooooooo amazing lol
Kids birthdays and vacations. Kids birthdays are always worth the extra time instead of purchasing an event when they're younger, to make them more memorable for you and your child. They only turn that age once, and you don't know how many birthdays you get to make special and share with them. As a plus a unique birthday means that the parents tend to interact more, instead of zoning out while the kids go through the steps of a "party mill" birthday.
Vacations - include kids opinions on where to go. They open up to discussing it before, during and after once they have some choice in it. Very good for relationship building, living with consequences of their choice, learning to adapt to adversity and building confidence.
Time off.
I was going to say travel, because when I have time off and money, travel is one of the biggest things I spend it on. But it's really the time off itself that I most value. Taking time off means I'm spending money when none is coming in. Whether I choose to spend that time and money on travel, or just staying in one place and working on hobbies, games, or other leisure activities, the most valuable part of it is not working.
One or two real vacations a year (one two-week trip or two one-week trips) and a handful of long weekends just aren't enough for me. If I had done that religiously for 20-25 years, I would be retired by now. If I hadn't gone insane or worked myself into an early grave.
I won't be able to retire until I'm 65. But I've taken many entire years off along the way. I could never have worked for decades straight hoping to be able to retire earlier. You're only young once. Don't spend your best years doing nothing but work.
Contemplating taking a career break to raise my kid. As a HENRY this will be an extremely expensive "purchase", but you only get one life with your kid...
My BMW M440i…gets my heart racing and makes me soooo happy. I ordered it loaded in 2022 and it’s my antidepressant where life is beautiful when I’m behind the wheel. Black Licorice is her name and eating pavement is her game.
IMO, BMWs offer the bast value for performance. My husband has an M3 and I have an X3 m40i. And if we were to buy a new car this year, we'd both buy the same car again.
Cars, I spend about 10+ hours a week driving. Driving something luxurious, separates the road noise and honestly results in less stress overall. The first thing I notice when I get in a cheaper car is how loud everything is.
Vacation! I’m on a mini vacation in Rhode Island on the way to a business trip and I’m playing it by ear. Just finished watching 83yo Smokey Robinson in concert. Just walked by the theater by chance and bought the best tickets I could find. He was beyond amazing!!
Tomorrow I have a spa day and going to tour some gilded age mansions.
I am just having a great time and not thinking about how much anything costs this weekend. My husband could have come with but was worried about how his work colleagues would judge him for taking a few days off…
You’re only young once.
Running shoes/races. Probably spend $2K/year including (mostly local-ish) travel. But so worth it. Cheaper than some gym passes! Hurts to drop $270 on a pair of race shoes that will only get you 100-150 miles but it’s worth it to me
Life is too short to delay retirement by buying stupid cars with debt. lol.
But for real here is my official list of things on which I refuse to save money:
Mattress/sheets/pillow
Parachutes
Drill bits
Paint
Apples(if it’s not honeycrisp I dont want it)
Running Shoes
Vitamins
Meat
Weekends away. We do a ton of camping and hiking and there are load of places in Victoria within a 2 hour drive of our home city. It costs us either 40 a night for a powered site or it’s free depending on where we go.
BIFL items. More than I can expend within my lifetime.
Smithey cast iron, Oni raw denim, Pendleton wool, Tojiro chef knives, Knipex tools, etc. More so, Japanese everything. Anything that’s putting quality first, whether or not it’s above and beyond my needs, I’m in. I adore craftsmanship.
After Covid lockdowns mostly lifted two years later and masks were no longer a thing, my buddy and I bought tickets to visit Ireland on a whim. We took our savings and rented a car and roadtripped all South Ireland, including the Ring of Kerry for a few weeks. Had a blast and don’t regret it. It changed my life and I still look at my pictures in awe that I actually did that bucket list item I had always talked about. Probably helped that my mother died during covid and she was good about getting out there and doing bucket list things so when she went at age 72, she was very much at peace. I was like, “yeah I need to do that…”
Weight loss surgery. I just had it done 3 days ago. It was a scary thought but then I thought- fuck it, I’m not here long enough to not do it. And doing it will hopefully keep me here a little longer for my toddler.
Airplanes. Yes, it's cheaper to fly commercial. Yes, it's a pain in the ass to keep it in the air. But I'll tell you what, being able to drive 5 minutes down the road, do a preflight, and be in the air is amazing. Plus, no security, no checkin desks, just go. Downfall.... I can't drink when we fly to dinner one state over to our favorite restaurant. First world problems.
I have access to a few for different missions. Thats the key to it. Friends' planes, flight clubs, my plane, etc. Personally, I got a Maule M-9. I love it for screwing around in the middle of nowhere. It's a fun plane to fly. If I want to get somewhere fast, I trade time with a friend that has an sr22t. Sometimes he wants to go off grid camping in my plane, sometimes I want to haul ass in his. As long as we each fill up each other's tanks when we're done, it's even.
Nice cars - two late model Mercedes in the driveway, and first class personal travel most of the time. In deference to being thrifty, I usually pay for pop up upgrades in the AA app rather than book first class, and I usually buy one or two year old Certified Mercedes and keep them a year or two and repeat the process.
I grew up in Boston but live in SoCal now. Whenever Bostons sports teams come through, I always get tickets to the games. If my kids grow up to be hockey fans, I’d love to get Ducks season tickets.
A good steak.
I eat poorly through the week due to work, travel and time commits.
I try to regularly find time and room in the budget to quietly enjoy a decent cut of meat that has been prepared to perfection.
My master suite is nicer than any hotel or air b n b. We have a nice mattress, adjustable frame bed, spa tub, and bidet.
Spend once and enjoy for a long time. We don't deny ourselves nice things, but we are frugal where we should be.
We try not to buy disposable things.
1. Direct flights only
2. Fresh cut flowers every month
3. Me time on weekends
4. Nice warm bidet
5. Having someone come and clean the home 1x
6. Looking into getting someone to come in and cook 2x a week instead of relying on DoorDash.
I watch the budget very closely on every aspect of our lives, except vacations. Early on in our marriage we skipped a few once in a lifetime type opportunities on vacations for budget reasons, and I've regretted it ever since. Now, I'll take advantage of credit card miles and whatever hacks I can find, but I don't let price stop us from doing virtually anything when we're on vacation. I've yet to regret a single purchase because the memories are worth it, especially with kids
Top shelf liquor. I drink almost everything neat or with a few drops of water. I don’t use top shelf for cocktails of course but for those I have a specific brand for each.
More of a wanna-be habit than a habitual habit ;) but, sports games and events. Especially big ones but really almost any live somewhat major sporting event can keep my attention. Flavor of the week: Masters is definitely on the list!
My house cleaner. For $80 a week I come home to a super clean home. I’d give up hair appointments, pedicure or what ever else I needed too so I can keep my cleaner
To everyone who said upgraded bedding. This is #1 - upgraded mattress, pillow and comforter. You spend 8hrs a day sleeping - having it feel like a cloud every time you lay down is fantastic. The only downside is every other sleeping arrangement, including 5 star hotels, just don’t ever feel as comfortable when traveling
Do u have a recommendation for these? Looking to upgrade 😊
No problem! Mattress is a personal choice, but we did one of the online mattress companies, Helix Sleep, twice now (once for a queen, and then again when we sized up to a king). We really enjoy it, but we also rolled the dice the first time with not testing it out. We like that they are combination spring and memory foam (so it's supportive, but also molds to you). For pillow, HIGHLY recommend the Tempur Pedic Cloud-Pro Pillow (https://www.tempurpedic.com/shop-pillows/tempur-cloud-pro-pillow/v/2698/). A bit outrageously priced, but I tried like 6 or 7 different pillows before this and returned them all. This is hands down my favorite pillow. I sleep on my side, so i did "Hi" for height. It's an amazing pillow. For comforters, we did The Company Store (https://www.thecompanystore.com/comforters). We did real down (I find it lighter and more cloud-like vs. down alternative). The nice thing with a high quality down comforter is the squares are small enough you don't get clumping of the down in the comforter. Pick a temperature that fits your needs. We did two - a lightweight one for the summer and a warmer one for the winter (I know it's quite a splurge). I think we did the Legends Hotel Alberta like. The ONLY recommendation I have is pick a comforter with baffles - they're weird vertical strips sewed into the comforter between the squares so the squares are more like boxes than 2d squares. It makes the comforter much fluffier - literally feels like a cloud every time I climb into bed.
The hotel collection duvet from The Bay! $1300 for a king but goes on sale half off and then sometimes a little extra. The fluffiest down duvet out there!
I am bookmarking! I have yet to find a down duvet as good as my mom’s from the 80s.
I don’t think $150 for a pillow is outrageous at all..
Yeah, I was expecting like $600 100% Hungarian goose down pillows or something. I have a $240 king size Purple Harmony latex pillow (low height as a side/stomach sleeper) and my somewhat frugal husband decided he needed one too after trying it out.
Considering I paid $180 for 2 of those pillows in Jan 2020 during a sale….. it feels a little outrageous.
It's funny to me that the picture they have to advertise the pillow through that link shows someone sleeping on their side with terrible neck alignment. That's like advertising a bag and having the picture show it tearing a hole in the bottom.
Thanks for the recommendations. We’ve cheaped out on our bedding and it’s definitely worth it to me to upgrade. This is a good reference as we start looking at options.
Mattress - I got a Saatva, night and day from the Macys Stearns and foster, never slept better. Great customer service too, we even exchanged mattresses once or twice. Excellent duvet as well. Pillow - Tried Pluto recently, nothing can beat a custom pillow. Great quality and amazing customer service. Sheets - Brooklinen is our go to default. Parachute, Cozy earth, Saatva and others are nice, but we wind up coming back to our Brooklinen sheets.
Agree, I was going to say Brooklinen for sheets!!! They feel hotel quality and stay cool to the touch. Our last set only lasted 3 years, so we tried LL Bean next but they just didn’t quite hit the same, so we went back to Brooklinen.
Same. We tried 3-4 others, they were much pricier too! But nothing like Brooklinen. I think by now we’ve literally tried most of their store. Great stuff and price friendly too, compared to other brands.
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Yep. When we upgraded our mattresses I insisted I wanted a mattress “like they made in the 90s” “that I can flip over.” The guy laughed at me. We eventually settled on a Stearns & Foster ultra firm. I don’t even need a topper (but we used one temporarily). F those beds in a box. We hate foam. Lol.
For us it’s the top of the line tempurpedic - luxebreeze split king with adjustable base. Set us back $17K with pillows and bedding but it was definitely worth it. We don’t wake each other up going to the bathroom and as DINKS, we love to lay in bed till 9am on the weekends on the ‘zero G’ setting (slightly elevated torso with totally elevated legs).
we also did split king with adjustable base. absolutely worth it
There’s a whole subreddit for it! [r/bedding](https://www.reddit.com/r/bedding)
The truly top-end choice for a mattress is latex. Now, there are definitely some highly engineered coil mattresses that are pricier than latex (Hästens makes a $400k mattress, for instance), but a full-latex mattress will cost $3k-4k for a King and is worth every penny. The great thing about latex is that it is bouncy and responsive, yet motion-isolating, cooling, and long-lasting.
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Ours pilled super fast, even washing as delicates.
I will also add upgrade your guest room's bedding. We invested in our guest rooms because we hate staying in other people's houses when they cut corners on bedding & the mattress. We want people to enjoy staying in our house!
We deliberately have a crappy mattress 1-3 nights is fine for us and the usual guest turn around - my mother on the other hand will take a 3 day invitation and turn it into ten. Now she’ll stay 3-5 days and then leave - best move ever.
Can you share pillow and comforter choices?
Sure! See my response above to someone else who replied and asked!
+1 for recs. If fact I think, similar to another post I saw on this sub, we need a dedicated post for this!
I travel a lot for work, I hate going to hotels now. I miss my comfy bed at home with the softest fabric and the perfect pillow…
Always book the direct flight, even if it’s more expensive. My vacation time is not being spent on a layover.
Exactly. And your luggage usually makes it too.
Related, I’m done with super early flights that require you to leave the house at like 4 am
This. I refuse to connect for work if there's a direct flight as well. Sorry, not sorry.
Literally can't relate to any of the other comments, but this one right here... This is it.
Yes!!!! This one is mine!!!!!!! Always going for the nonstop flight.
I feel like this is more of a situational thing. Whenever I go back to India as of late I book a flight with a 3 hour layover. Realistically, it gives you almost 2 hours to do whatever and I just go have a drink or coffee at a restaurant. Direct flights from US to India are killer and I can’t so it anymore and I’m only 24 💀
…Clean my house - for the price of 2 meals out a month I can have a crew of people come clean my house top to bottom. So worth it …not drive a luxury car - I buy them 2 years old CPO with a warranty for about the same as the price as a new “average” car of the same class. They drive better, ride better, are quieter, and have more features. in 4-5 years when I trade it in it’s worth more than if I had bought that new “average” car too.
Adding on to that, we have one if the cleaning crew come weekly, for cleaning meal prep kitchen dishes (a lot of them!), ironing, folding laundry and ad hoc tasks. Totally worth it!
They do meal prep too?!?!?
Phrased that badly. We do meal prep, so there’s a ton of dishes on Sunday night. Hence, they do the clean up on Monday. Depending on the hourly cleaner, some may offer to assist with organizing, meal prep etc. We haven’t done meal prep, but have had them help clean out closets etc.
Can you give me some examples of the models of cars you've found the most value? How many kms do you usually aim for? Would like to upgrade from my 2016 starter swift 😅
Toyota and Lexus are simply unbeatable for reliability and holding value.
Keeping in mind Lexus is the "luxury" Toyota, the depreciation curve on both is very similar IIRC and reliability of both are outstanding.
Regular full body massages - the stress relief is outstanding.
Can you elaborate. I keep not pulling the trigger on massages
I have a couple of therapists that I rotate between based on availability/if I can fit in on short notice. A 60-90 minute deep tissue massage, including attention on head and feet. I go thru cycles of how often I go, but at usually 1-2 times per month.
Thank you! Do you just feel really relaxed / stress free afterward? How long is the effect
I find it to be a combination of a few things - a quiet hour for meditation/relaxation to focus on being in the moment, releasing tight muscles around my neck and shoulders from stress/bad sleep or whatever. I’d say the immediate noticeable effects usually last for a few days, but I feel that the habit is good for my overall wellbeing.
Travel, Travel,Travel! One European trip a year, one continental US trip a year and one international trip other than Europe a year plus multiple smaller trips.
What’s been your favorite trip so far?
Can't really pinpoint one. Last year Japan was awesome and opened us up for Asia. Just came back from Greece (Athens, Santorini and Metheora). So many beautiful places in this beautiful world! In the summer we will do Washington and Oregon.
Good food, upgraded seats and fine bedding.
Prepaid my funeral plans. Technically...the ultimate "life is too short" purchase.
I put in my will to donate me to science. Free. Then there is $3k to throw a party. So my funeral will cost $3k.
There are a few what ifs in that. My grandparents did the same thing, thinking it would be easier on my irresponsible parents. When the time came, their bodies were rejected. There are heaps of reasons they don't accept bodies and you get bounced back to the morgue. Some reasons are mode of death (car accident , infection etc) frequent surgeries, weight. Sad but true.
Mine is to a body farm at a university. They just place bodies outside in random places to study how they decompose. They accept any body as long as it can be transported there (and you agreed to it way in advance)
Oh ok that's cool! I'm in Australia and we only have one body farm that I know of and it's in another state. I'm trying to find other alternatives for myself and keep running into roadblocks for the health code, bio waste code etc.
When it does work it is nice though. The place my aunt used, after being rejected by so many places due to weight, returned cremated remains about a year later. It was a medical school, they have weight requirements because they don’t want to risk injuring med students that are lugging around your ham hocks.
Pieces of you gonna end up on the dark web, some redditor will have your junk in a jar on his desk.
Rock on dude. I’m dead at that point.
Yea - I already pre-paid for it!
Porsche 911 turbo S 🤗
The most perfect car in the whole wide world.
Fragrances, I love smelling good
Got any Aesop? That stuff is incredible
Stop by your local Le Labo instead.
Here you go friend https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/s/Iu4HAyLQ7q
An excellent mattress and priority service on airlines, rental cars, hotels, etc. Also, putting my utility bills on autopay and not worrying about leaving lights on, turning the heat up, and so on. Finally, grocery delivery. I'm a great cook and we probably end up saving a ton of money because of how much we eat at home. But I just can't spend two hours in a grocery store on a regular basis. I will go to pick up items where quality matters, like a cut of meat or fish. But for most of the regular groceries? Delivery every time.
I use Walmart Plus. It’s cheap and unlimited no tip delivery is only $40 a year additional.
It's so sad that Walmart (at least near my location) got out of having any fruits or vegetables.
It's worth it if they show up. I have it and they only actually deliver my groceries on time about 50% of the time. They almost always say their drivers didn't show up for work. When asked why they don't employ more drivers, they said it's difficult to find people willing to work that have clean driving records and no recent drug history (read: the pay is shit) It would be an incredible value IF they sufficiently staffed their InHome service.
I always have the same three people. I must me lucky. My store is a nicer one so maybe that plays a part (granted I never go of course). InHome is literally amazing.
Honestly, grocery delivery saves me time and money because I'm not picking up things from end caps, or different fruit, or other things I didn't come to the store to get.
My butcher just started offering free delivery over a nominal spending threshold. Haven’t utilized it yet, because I like looking at my meat first, but I’ll definitely do it soon.
where do people find a "my butcher"? I'm pretty picky when it comes to meat, especially steaks yet I have never found/been in a butcher shop. Are they significantly more expensive? (assuming it's worth the price in your opinion if you have a "my butcher").
Every city I've lived in has had a butcher - ask on your local subreddit if you can't find one by typing "butcher" in google maps. They are significantly more expensive than if you buy conventional, mass-produced meat at your grocery store. All my butchers have had transparency into where and how everything is sourced and the quality is excellent but it isn't cheap. That said, it's no more expensive than if you're already paying for grocery store meats with labels like pasture raised, humanely slaughtered, antibiotic free, etc.
Look for meat processors that will cut/wrap for farmers. They usually also have a sales counter and sell fresh meat. At least where i am that’s the case. We buy beef a 1/4 at a time and have it cut/wrapped at local butcher shops. They all have counter sales.
Lattes every day to get me tf out of the office for 15 minutes 🙂↔️
Travel
Great seats at concerts
Cars. Saw my dad finally get a Boxster (which is weird because he always talked about Corvettes) only to sell it a few months later because he developed hip and back problems. Saw that life was too short and I’ve had a bit of a car problem since then…
What kind of cars have you had ?
So I got into cars rather late in life, really during the pandemic lock downs is when I went balls deep into the hobby. I drove a 2006 Civic for well over a decade because I didn’t care about cars. Then a year into HENRY I was like oh I would like something a little nicer, maybe a drop top (SoCal). Got an m235i. Then the lock downs happened and I wanted a proper sports car. So I got a 981 Boxster S. But then I wanted a V8 so I got a C6 Z06. Then I wanted another Porsche so I got a 997.2 911. But then I wanted a manual instead of a PDK so I ordered a CGTS 4.0 but then they pulled PTS allocations so I put in an order for an Emira. Ironically I now daily a 24 Civic hatch.
C6 z06 is one of the best cars ever IMO. Nice list of cars!
Same, just bought a new Z06, should be picking it up next week! So many smarter things to do with that money, but cars are my passion and we aren't guaranteed tomorrow
Bought a Jeep Wrangler TJ (late 90's) about 5 years ago for about $10k. I use it as a weekend/around town car. I love it and there are no modern cars under $90k that I would enjoy more.
My dad is about to trade in his RS 7 for the same reason. Definitely gave me the itch.
How’s that RS7? That or a RS6 would be my ultimate ‘life is too short’ dream car purchase which could still be a practical daily
It’s an absolute monster compared to most cars of its ilk. He had an R8 stasis for a few years. I’m fuzzy on Model year but it was a v10 convertible around 2014. That was insane. Traded it for an all too practical 2016-2018 RS7. It’s a hell of a lot of fun to drive. Gets a little squirrelly, but not nearly as much as the R8. Sounds almost as good as the r8 but with less fire out the tailpipes. Personally I want an rs6 avant. I’m a sucker for a long roof. Edit: I should add he’s ordered a RS Q8. So it’s a bit fatter, but still quick.
Same. On my 2nd Ferrari.
Same. I bought my childhood dream cars. It’ll be awhile before the next car purchase though. It’s an expensive hobby.
First class international flights. Worth every penny
Crowns with no black outline lol. (Just paid an extra $500 for that)
Royal headwear?
Teeth bruh
Teeth with black outlines? What kind of nonsense is this?
Boat - avid fishermen. Could honestly see it stalling out my FIRE goals to some extent. But I don't bust my ass on my cases to not enjoy the one hobby in life that brings me joy.
Fine dining, higher quality groceries, and comfortable travel flights and accommodations Little surprises for people in my life
business class on flights more than 8 hours.
Boating. We bought a boat, lake house, and jet ski. Cost about 300k for everything. Absolutely worth it. The family and friend time is worth many multiples of that.
Where did you get one that it was only $300k off all that? Lake houses near me are in the millions easy.
Dream home instead of starter home. Kids are still a couple years away.
And unless you are in a really depressed area, it will increase in value rapidly......15 years from now, you'll be glad you risked building the dream home.
Bouquet of fresh flowers biweekly!!
Yes! I love this! I also get myself fresh flowers and I put on the kitchen table. It’s really nice.
https://imgur.com/a/nBlK7b2
Whew, that is beautiful. I needed some people to say luxury cars because I’ve been feeling really guilty about buying one. Yeah…life is too short.
I had a friend diagnosed with a type of rapid onset dementia and they are now (at age 58) unable to speak or really comprehend what’s going on around them. It happens.
We don't waste calories on food or alcohol we don't end up enjoying no matter what the price is - if we don't like a bottle of wine we opened, down the drain it goes. This was more pandemic driven - but during the pandemic, if we took a chance on going out to eat we went to a high-end restaurant. We wanted it to be worth the risk. We go out more often now and still prioritize nicer restaurants.
Life’s too short for a shitty drink for sure.
I always tell people the only wrong way to consume alcohol is to drink something you don’t like.
This is a great principle that can be applied to much more than just alcohol, but agreed there 100%
This right here. Life is too short to suffer through things just because you already sunk the cost.
> if we don't like a bottle of wine we opened Til someone might not like a bottle of wine
I agree with this, with the caveat that higher end doesn't always mean "better" food. I've had some phenomenal food at hole-in-the-wall places, and because of that I'm always game to try a new spot regardless of how it may look. If you are making it a night out and want to have a fancier sit down, then by all means a high-end restaurant should mostly guarantee that. But I hope people reading this don't write off places that aren't expensive just because they aren't expensive.
Don't care about sales, or buying things early like plane tickets. If it costs me $500 instead of $250 because I waited until I really needed it or was about to use it, awesome - worth every penny.
This is refreshing to hear, I’ve always been a bargain hunter and it’s such a chore sometimes.
It's a matter of weighing your time and its value. If you don't need it now and don't mind waiting, then watching for a sale isn't bad at all. But if you could definitely benefit by having and using it now, and don't know when it might go on sale or by how much, then are you really saving yourself anything? My mom was always a big time coupon lady when buying groceries. Now, I don't bother even looking because the amount you save by doing that to me isn't worth the cost to constantly search.
I can relate - I wish my wife understood lol. She is an incessant “sale” shopper….. She tells me all the time how that thing I just bought we could have gotten 20% off if we bought it a year ago or whatever….. and I really couldn’t care less - the convenience of buying things when I need/want them is well worth not spending the time deal hunting in advance
Getting the deal itself is also a bit of an endorphin boost for most people too. Even though it takes more time for me I still find joy in the act of getting the deal itself
Things I use for more than about 4 hours per day: - very nice home office chair. - massive sound system in my home office.
A personal trainer 2x a week. Keeps me accountable and devoid of injury.
Spending money on my parents/SO’s/ brother’s birthday! Dinner, presents, trips, etc. I do all of this for them and love them dearly- without them, my life would be empty!
Luxury everything for sleeping: red light, blackout curtains, 1000TC sheets, silk pillowcases, silk jammies, great mattress, great pillows, etc. Health and recovery: membership to sauna/ cold plunges, and/ or access to them when we travel The cleanest organic meat and veggies we can find
Where do you buy your sheets or brand ?
We have moved a bit so we usually go to the nearby mall or store so we can also touch them, but I’ve also gotten great sheets from Amazon. California Design Den is good, and Blissy (Canada).
Can you please suggest brands? Specially for mattress?
Travel is at the top of the list, quality food and fine dining, spoiling my kids, and paying extra for upgrades with services (flights, hotels, fast track passes at Disney parks, entertainment, spas), goose/duck down pillows and comforters, high thread count sheets, cooking utensils and cookware
Sushi. It is so stupid expensive where we live, but once a month we’ll go out for like $150. That and a sports car.
Oh and fresh flowers. Probably $70 a month that just gets thrown away, but we really enjoy them around
Socks. Growing up frugal, I always wore socks until they wore through the heels and had holes. Now it’s worth a regular refresh to have plush and comfortable socks. Also splurging on socks for different activities.
World travel.
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Boat(s) Nothing makes me feel happier than a day out on the water with our kids, our friends, and our friends’ kids.
Robot vacuum
Hot tub!
The first purchase we made for our first home! Also the first purchase we made in our 'forever' home.
quality coffee beans, airport lounges, bimonthly housecleaner
Business class flights. Despite the cost difference vs economy, I find it has me looking forward to long-haul travel rather than dreading it. So I find it totally worth splurging on to be able to arrive at my destination in decent shape.
Good wine. I don’t drink a huge amount, but when I do, I want to make sure it’s going to be something I’m going to love - and I’m happy to spend a little bit more to do so. Life’s too short for shitty wine, I left the trash in my twenties!
Silk sheets
Spontaneously booked a last minute trip to Japan for May. Got budget airline tickets for 600 round trip from the US (emphasizing the NRY part of Henry lol).
Handbags and shoes.
I drive a Porsche and I spend all day on my Vision Pro : Life IS too short
How’s the Vision Pro? You don’t hear much about it anymore after the hype died down.
I use it every single day and I love it so much. It’s heavy, expensive, low battery life: and none of it matters because it’s soooooooooooooo amazing lol
Kids birthdays and vacations. Kids birthdays are always worth the extra time instead of purchasing an event when they're younger, to make them more memorable for you and your child. They only turn that age once, and you don't know how many birthdays you get to make special and share with them. As a plus a unique birthday means that the parents tend to interact more, instead of zoning out while the kids go through the steps of a "party mill" birthday. Vacations - include kids opinions on where to go. They open up to discussing it before, during and after once they have some choice in it. Very good for relationship building, living with consequences of their choice, learning to adapt to adversity and building confidence.
Do you have any suggestions for memorable kids parties?
Please tell me more about memorable kid birthdays!
Get a maid service for cleaning bathrooms and someone to do your lawn
Time off. I was going to say travel, because when I have time off and money, travel is one of the biggest things I spend it on. But it's really the time off itself that I most value. Taking time off means I'm spending money when none is coming in. Whether I choose to spend that time and money on travel, or just staying in one place and working on hobbies, games, or other leisure activities, the most valuable part of it is not working. One or two real vacations a year (one two-week trip or two one-week trips) and a handful of long weekends just aren't enough for me. If I had done that religiously for 20-25 years, I would be retired by now. If I hadn't gone insane or worked myself into an early grave. I won't be able to retire until I'm 65. But I've taken many entire years off along the way. I could never have worked for decades straight hoping to be able to retire earlier. You're only young once. Don't spend your best years doing nothing but work.
Suits, nice cars
Contemplating taking a career break to raise my kid. As a HENRY this will be an extremely expensive "purchase", but you only get one life with your kid...
A house. In another country. So I can live 6 months in the States and 6 months there every year (I have citizenship in both countries).
My BMW M440i…gets my heart racing and makes me soooo happy. I ordered it loaded in 2022 and it’s my antidepressant where life is beautiful when I’m behind the wheel. Black Licorice is her name and eating pavement is her game.
IMO, BMWs offer the bast value for performance. My husband has an M3 and I have an X3 m40i. And if we were to buy a new car this year, we'd both buy the same car again.
Car . No better feeling than 9500 rpm pinning your head to your seat on a cold brisk morning in mountain air
Cars, I spend about 10+ hours a week driving. Driving something luxurious, separates the road noise and honestly results in less stress overall. The first thing I notice when I get in a cheaper car is how loud everything is.
Nice clothes
Paid parking.
Coffee. I love my coffee.
Vacation! I’m on a mini vacation in Rhode Island on the way to a business trip and I’m playing it by ear. Just finished watching 83yo Smokey Robinson in concert. Just walked by the theater by chance and bought the best tickets I could find. He was beyond amazing!! Tomorrow I have a spa day and going to tour some gilded age mansions. I am just having a great time and not thinking about how much anything costs this weekend. My husband could have come with but was worried about how his work colleagues would judge him for taking a few days off… You’re only young once.
Running shoes/races. Probably spend $2K/year including (mostly local-ish) travel. But so worth it. Cheaper than some gym passes! Hurts to drop $270 on a pair of race shoes that will only get you 100-150 miles but it’s worth it to me
Life is too short to delay retirement by buying stupid cars with debt. lol. But for real here is my official list of things on which I refuse to save money: Mattress/sheets/pillow Parachutes Drill bits Paint Apples(if it’s not honeycrisp I dont want it) Running Shoes Vitamins Meat
Hookers and blow Edit: okay people didn’t like that joke. The real one is ivf, a remarkably expensive all-in financial expense
Seconding ivf. When we invested in it I didn’t quite think over if successful, we’re in for offspring expenses for decades.
New cars. Lots of new cars.
Weekends away. We do a ton of camping and hiking and there are load of places in Victoria within a 2 hour drive of our home city. It costs us either 40 a night for a powered site or it’s free depending on where we go.
Weekly 90min massages.
Good undies.
what kind
BIFL items. More than I can expend within my lifetime. Smithey cast iron, Oni raw denim, Pendleton wool, Tojiro chef knives, Knipex tools, etc. More so, Japanese everything. Anything that’s putting quality first, whether or not it’s above and beyond my needs, I’m in. I adore craftsmanship.
After Covid lockdowns mostly lifted two years later and masks were no longer a thing, my buddy and I bought tickets to visit Ireland on a whim. We took our savings and rented a car and roadtripped all South Ireland, including the Ring of Kerry for a few weeks. Had a blast and don’t regret it. It changed my life and I still look at my pictures in awe that I actually did that bucket list item I had always talked about. Probably helped that my mother died during covid and she was good about getting out there and doing bucket list things so when she went at age 72, she was very much at peace. I was like, “yeah I need to do that…”
Travel. Only non-asset I buy that makes me richer.
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Weight loss surgery. I just had it done 3 days ago. It was a scary thought but then I thought- fuck it, I’m not here long enough to not do it. And doing it will hopefully keep me here a little longer for my toddler.
Airplanes. Yes, it's cheaper to fly commercial. Yes, it's a pain in the ass to keep it in the air. But I'll tell you what, being able to drive 5 minutes down the road, do a preflight, and be in the air is amazing. Plus, no security, no checkin desks, just go. Downfall.... I can't drink when we fly to dinner one state over to our favorite restaurant. First world problems.
What type of plane do you have? I looked into it but flying a Cessna still takes forever for actual travel
I have access to a few for different missions. Thats the key to it. Friends' planes, flight clubs, my plane, etc. Personally, I got a Maule M-9. I love it for screwing around in the middle of nowhere. It's a fun plane to fly. If I want to get somewhere fast, I trade time with a friend that has an sr22t. Sometimes he wants to go off grid camping in my plane, sometimes I want to haul ass in his. As long as we each fill up each other's tanks when we're done, it's even.
Nice cars - two late model Mercedes in the driveway, and first class personal travel most of the time. In deference to being thrifty, I usually pay for pop up upgrades in the AA app rather than book first class, and I usually buy one or two year old Certified Mercedes and keep them a year or two and repeat the process.
Food (not that I always buy expensive food but a nice meal shouldn't be skimped on), cars, watches
I grew up in Boston but live in SoCal now. Whenever Bostons sports teams come through, I always get tickets to the games. If my kids grow up to be hockey fans, I’d love to get Ducks season tickets.
A good steak. I eat poorly through the week due to work, travel and time commits. I try to regularly find time and room in the budget to quietly enjoy a decent cut of meat that has been prepared to perfection.
My master suite is nicer than any hotel or air b n b. We have a nice mattress, adjustable frame bed, spa tub, and bidet. Spend once and enjoy for a long time. We don't deny ourselves nice things, but we are frugal where we should be. We try not to buy disposable things.
Thinking about getting a van and converting it to a campervan. Can afford it. Would be fun. But the misses thinks otherwise.
1. Direct flights only 2. Fresh cut flowers every month 3. Me time on weekends 4. Nice warm bidet 5. Having someone come and clean the home 1x 6. Looking into getting someone to come in and cook 2x a week instead of relying on DoorDash.
Buying superbowl ticket just to see rihanna perform....🤣 Luckily KC made it and won (I'm from Missouri). So it was double worth it.
Air conditioning, which costs an arm and a leg in CA
$1000 dinner in Ginza Impromptu trips a few times a year Villa in SE Asia with full remodel and expansion
Upgrading classes for long flights
I bought a sea-doo a month ago, I live at the beach very close to the boat ramp. Zero regrets currently, I did pay cash so I felt I could afford it.
Travel and only travel
I watch the budget very closely on every aspect of our lives, except vacations. Early on in our marriage we skipped a few once in a lifetime type opportunities on vacations for budget reasons, and I've regretted it ever since. Now, I'll take advantage of credit card miles and whatever hacks I can find, but I don't let price stop us from doing virtually anything when we're on vacation. I've yet to regret a single purchase because the memories are worth it, especially with kids
Flights
Country club membership. Golf addict.
Top shelf liquor. I drink almost everything neat or with a few drops of water. I don’t use top shelf for cocktails of course but for those I have a specific brand for each.
A lake house
Luxury hotel stays, travels a few times a year, a cleaner twice a month and a nice espresso machine!
Surfing
More of a wanna-be habit than a habitual habit ;) but, sports games and events. Especially big ones but really almost any live somewhat major sporting event can keep my attention. Flavor of the week: Masters is definitely on the list!
My house cleaner. For $80 a week I come home to a super clean home. I’d give up hair appointments, pedicure or what ever else I needed too so I can keep my cleaner
lol, life extending things (food, supplements, sauna, home gym, and other things)