It’s important to be financially responsible, to save for the future and make good decisions when it comes to our money.
It’s also important to balance those responsibilities with having a little fun, rewarding ourselves for our hard work, and generally making the journey to financial security worth taking.
If you’re looking to feel better about your own relationship with debt and progress, here are 18 people who bought themselves something really nice – and didn’t end up regretting it at all.
18. If you like to work with your hands.
Spending hundreds of euros on broken musical instruments because they were pretty.
I have since bought spare parts and started repairing them.
I found my destiny.
17. Not a bad price for a changed life.
Just shy of $20,000 to go to Antarctica traveling solo (small cruise ship). More than I’ve spent on every other vacation I’ve taken combined.
Was one of the best trips of my life. It also gave me enough space and clarity to realize how toxic my ex was to me so that I could find the strength to leave not long after I got back.
I’ll always want to go back to Antarctica. The inner peace I found there changed my life.
16. It really is the little things.
My Couch. I moved out of my moms house last year (2019 so no covid) and I always wanted a good couch. I tested so much. I went to so many furniture stores. Looked at so many different models. And then choose mine.
Its actually from Ikea. Three seats and long enough to let someone sleep on it. In a grey but I saw they were also having a black cover so I am thinking about getting that one. Extremely comfortable. I wanted a couch where you could chill out and love how fluffy it is without losing the ability to sit on it.
In some couches you are not able to lean on the back and still have a straight back. You can sit on the back board and the armrests. They are flat so you can also put a cup of tea on them.
Its also not too low so you dont feel like sitting on the ground (which I do strangely often compared to my love for this couch) but you can let yourself fall onto that damn thing! It also looks easy and simple.
So I dont want the suggestion of someone who tried a LOT of couches and happens to be me then buy the Vimle couch from Ikea.
15. A surprise pleasure.
I spent $300 on a mule. An actual living, 4 hooved, long-eared mule. We raise cattle, so a protection mule was a good excuse. But, really, I just fell in love with him. He’s huge and sassy.
He’ll steal your hat and run away. He’s got a Ninja mode where he can sneak up on you, just to breathe down your neck or startle you. He does keep the coyotes away.
However, he has proved himself priceless because he eats thistle. When we got the lease on the land for our cattle the pastures had been neglected and were in bad shape. Thistle is a spiky plant that spreads across the pasture, choking out grasses. Cow’s won’t eat it. It’s really hard to get rid of.
To our surprise, the mule cleared out nearly all the thistle in a matter of months. He would eat the flowers out of the center. He saved us an enormous amount of money and labor. We were able to avoid using chemical weed killers, which we really didn’t want to do. Probably the best investment in our whole cattle raising experience.
14. Confidence is key.
I’ve been a fat guy all my life. Like, really fat. Dressing comfortably was always my preference because being stylish just isn’t an option at my size. This was always a source of anxiety at any social event that required dressing up.
When I realized I had 4 weddings of close friends all coming up within the year, I decided to bite the bullet and get some decent “formal” clothes. I spent $800 on a suit jacket, $250 on two pairs of dress pants, a little over $300 for 3 shirts and 3 silk ties that were between $70 and $100 each. I stood for all my measurements and had everything tailored to my exact specifications.
Did a fitting and had a second round of alterations on the pants so they actually looked decent, even though I wore them under my gut. People were floored when I showed up to the first wedding. I received so many compliments and actual double takes. Being introduced to new people felt completely different. I felt impressive.
Some of those weddings were the best times of my life and it was due, in no small part, to how those clothes looked and made me feel. Some of those friends have big pictures from their weddings hanging on their walls, and I don’t cringe in embarrassment when I see myself in them.
Those clothes cost more than I had/have ever spent on clothing in any ten year period, and they were worth every penny.
13. Never underestimate something that deals with poop.
My Litter Robot.
Yes, I spent $600 on a cat shi**er, but my house never smells.
Also, I don’t have to scoop litter, and I only have to empty the drawer once a week.
Definitely worth it to me.
12. With his own two hands.
Finally found the motorcycle I wanted years ago but could not get. It was not running, but after around dumping $3,500 into it and doing a full frame up restoration and custom job on it.
I have the bike I wanted years ago, but better. Yes I did everything myself, full paint job Tank frame fenders everything. I also did a full engine rebuild, remade the wiring harness, everything was all done in house.
So I put a touch over 3K into a bike that is only worth about $1,500. on a good day, but hell it is mine and I built it.
11. Definitely got his money’s worth.
I spent too much money on a big treadmill for a very small apartment.
But I’ve ran 15-25 km on it every week for the past several years and it’s been incredibly helpful both physically and mentally.
10. This actually sounds lovely.
$120 for a towel heater.
I will never dry off with a cold towel again.
9. Happiness is priceless.
Art work.
Can I always afford it? No.
But my walls are full of original, 90% local art.
They make me happy to look at, I’m sure I made the artist happy too.
8. This is just the best story.
I went to a Renaissance Fair with my husband and some friends. It was his first time, and he’s a pretty introverted person, so while he has fun watching everyone else dress up and act all goofy and old-timey, he doesn’t really participate.
When we went to buy our first beer, the wench tried to sell him on one of those big mugs that looks like it’s carved out of wood but it’s just plastic. It cost $100. Yes, you get free refills, but we were not planning on drinking $100 worth of beer that day.
I could tell by the look on his face that he wanted it- he looked like a little kid at Disney World. Without thinking, I whipped out my credit card and dropped $100 on a shitty plastic mug.
All day, he walked around proudly with his mug. He even took some big gulps and cheered “huzzah” once or twice. This might not seem like much but for my quiet, gentle giant, it is huge. I manage the finances in our relationship and I am CONSTANTLY cracking down on wasteful spending, so I think we were both amazed I made such a dumb purchase.
Four years later, we still have that mug. He gets a big grin every time he sees it and teases me about my irresponsible impulse. And every time I see it, I just think about how much I love that big galoot…
7. You can’t put a price on beauty.
$800 for a front seat helicopter tour of Kauai for me and my wife!
Totally worth it!
6. Hours of entertainment.
Lego Death Star.
5. They bring people together!
board games, they are expensive, but they bring much joy
4. Experiences, not things.
I spent $3000 for my wife to meet the backstreet boys and get front row seats.
It is the best thing that has ever happened to her and the smile on her face after the show and look of pure bliss in someone who suffers often from anxiety was worth every cent.
3. Neither of you will forget it.
A quick 7 day trip to Maui in February a couple years ago with one of my teenage daughters. Work was grinding me down and I needed a break.
My wife and the rest of the family couldn’t go, they were working or in school. The tickets were expensive, $850 each for bare-bones economy narrow rock hard seats, it was a 12 hour flight that was packed to the brim – I was getting bedsores by the time we arrived.
We rented snorkeling gear and a car, and spent every day from dawn to dusk snorkeling, sitting on the beaches and hiking in the mountains; we did the Hana road, the Seven Sacred Pools and the Haleakalā volcano national park at sunset, and took tons of photos. We ate spam musubi for breakfast, poke and somen noodles for lunch and loco moko for supper. Slept like babies with the windows open wide in the cool nighttime breezes.
The best way to blow $5,000 EVER. So much what I needed at that point in my life.
2. Now that’s an apology.
I got into a stupid fight with my brother, so I found a game he had pledged on kickstarter (Space Haven) and saw that for 360 dollars I could write a premade character bio that would randomly show up.
So I pledged it and wrote a character bio with his name and made him a flaming asshole. I have never played this game and don’t want to.
1. If you use it every day, good decision.
GE Opal nugget ice maker.
Dang thing cost more than my car payment but, man oh man, I love nugget ice and I use it the heck out of it every day.
I need to get better about picking and choosing my splurges, but I don’t plan on not making any, either.
What’s your favorite expensive purchase? Tell us about it in the comments!
