what things do you spend a silly big amount of money on?

[Newbian]

 

[MrSquished]

audiophile headphone gear/amps/dacs etc//. nothing crazy but about 3K on my current setup.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Ooh, another watch hound--what do you have your eye on?

I'm a total n00b. I have a Tag Heuer Carrera Calibre 5 Day Date now but I'm looking at their 1887 Chronograph movement.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Complete luck.

I happened to be visiting Chicago and wanted to eat at Frontera Grill. That happens to be near Obama's neighborhood and the restaurant of one of his favorite chefs (Rick Bayless from multiple PBS cooking shows such as Mexico: one plate at a time). I didn't know it at the time, but Obama was in town. He was going to a private room in Rick Bayless's fancier restaurant next door.

I was given a crappy seat in the basement of Frontera Grill (I had already waited in line for quite a while and just missed the cutoff for the main floor, or I had to wait a couple more hours to try for the second seating upstairs). Just as the appetizers hit, a bunch of secret security people came in the room and looked around. I figured it was some sting going on. But then shortly later Obama walks in. He was going through the basement to avoid the crowd in the main level. He shook everyone's hands in the room, and went on towards his evening meal. When I left, the entire block was swarming with cops and they were frisking down anyone coming near the place.

I wouldn't have had that experience eating dinner at home.

That's a pretty cool story. It would be an honor to shake the President's hand. :thumbsup:

 

[Charmonium]

Computers I don't need. Now, now. I can hear you complaining from here. 'Everybody here spends ungodly amounts on computers' you say. True, but they at least use them for gaming or something.

Not me. I build multisocket servers with dozens of threads per machine. I try to buy used parts but some stuff I buy new and it's rare that a server costs me under a couple grand.

Hello everyone, I'm a distributed computing junkie and an alcoholic. OK, the alcoholic part isn't really true.

 

[waggy]

have you seen my studio? :sneaky:

lol Do you have a casting couch too?

 

[smackababy]

Sneakers... I have quite the collection of Jordan's and other assorted Nikes. Thankfully, I can wear sneakers to work.

 

[slugg]

i guess i have been pretty crazy with piano costs in the past, though it has been a while

spent 6500$ on my digital piano about 8 years ago, and in the past 2 years paid another 500$ for VSTs

That's really not bad at all. Musical instruments aren't cheap for the good stuff. One (1, uno) of my drum sets is over $13k with its own insurance policy. Granted, it did take me about 13 years to piece it together. That actually puts it at about $1k a year, which is what you seem to be at with your piano expenses. So it looks pretty reasonable to me...

 

[ctk1981]

Watches, guns, knives, MTG (me and both kids play), antiques, safety razor collection and more...hmmm. No wonder I'm broke.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Why Costco doesn't offer this, I'll never now.

Costco once offered hookers that blow, but it didn't sit well with the police.

I tend to overspend to get quality things, but I don't know if its to the point of silliness.

After the hell on earth that was last winter, I pulled the trigger this fall and bought a Klim Jacket and matching bibs. Total cost was ~$750 for what ultimately is a winter jacket and snow pants, but they are so well made that I will probably never have to buy winter outerwear again unless I gain or lose a significant amount of weight.

Pretty soon thought it might be a boat/boating.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

One year budgeted expenditures:

Home: 19% (for 10)
Food: 17% (for 10)
Taxes: 16.5% (Social Security capped just under 5%)
Retirement: 7.5% (matched at 100%)
Other: 6% (clothing, computers, etc)
Utilities: 5% (including X-finity 'triple play')
College Savings: 4% (med-school, law school, or Engineering: or daddy gets a new car!)
Cars: 4% (2) (saved against depreciation)
Vacations: 4% (2: 1 w/ wife, 1 w/ family)
Going Out: 4%
Medical Costs: 3% (max out-of-pocket each year: son with autism treatments)
Retained Earnings: 10%


Anything look particularly off?

 

[skyking]

Materials and tools these days.
I see something I want in my mind and go for it, sometimes far in excess of some off the shelf thing that gets fairly close to my purpose.
It used to be airplane parts and avgas.

 

[stormkroe]

I dropped a little over 160k cash on 10 acres for my windmill battery experiment, then the libs destroyed the canadian (specifically alberta) economy I guess it's going to be just dirt for 4 more years.

 

[jagec]

College Savings: 4% (med-school, law school, or Engineering: or daddy gets a new car!)


Anything look particularly off?

The new car would probably be a better use of your money than law school, these days.

my windmill battery experiment

libs destroyed the canadian economy

 

[CZroe]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2458839

 

[MrPickins]

I don't.

 

[Kyle]

beer wine and golf

 

[brainhulk]

Cars and bikes

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I buy vinyl records to 'have' them, even if I already own the CD or other digital version of the album. It's an addiction for sure that I see no end in sight for. Records cost $20-$50 each new while some collectible ones get easily into the hundred$.

Bought two Floyd albums and a NIN on Saturday. Had lunch with DSotM playing in front of me.

 

[Loop2kil]

Bought two Floyd albums and a NIN on Saturday. Had lunch with DSotM playing in front of me.

I see you're from Atlanta....Wuxtry, Ella Guru, Records Galore, Wax n Facts or Criminal Records? A couple of us vinyl nuts get together and hit 'em all once in awhile.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Sports equipment, music equipment, concert tickets

 

[Exterous]

-Scuba diving
-Not yet but I will be spending a lot of money on a HT room and all the equipment
-Somewhat on vacations. We don't spend an extraordinary amount esp considering how many we take but I can see that changing as my store of points is depleting itself as I rarely travel for work anymore

paying for babysitters to get out and play them

You pay your babysitters to leave and go play board games?

When I worked in retail, it was always kind of shocking to see just how far people lived beyond their means...I'd have people open their wallets to pull out their card to pay and they'd have ten to twenty credit cards in there.

Having a lot of credit cards does not equate to spending beyond your means. I'll have anywhere from 8-14 open cards and carry exactly $0 over every month

I'd much rather shake the US presidents hand

I wonder how many people here have done that. My wife and I were staying at the Willard and their business center is down a long hallway off the main entrance. As I walked down it I was acutely aware of the stares of numerous security personnel stationed all over the place. I couldn't figure out why. I went into the business center, printed out our boarding passes and left. As I was leaving a large group of people was coming down the hall towards me. Turns out if was John Kerry, President Obama and a plethora of secret service. There were a couple of other people standing there and he shook all our hands. The people standing there all seemed like they were there on purpose to shake his hand. I was just some random guy who happened to pick that time to print my boarding pass

I thought it was pretty cool until we had to make a 3 block detour to get to our dinner reservations at the Hamilton (right across the street from the Willard) because they had all the roads and sidewalks closed

 

[slightlyhuman]

vintage fender amps. fuck why do they have to sound soooo good.

 

[SearchMaster]

What things do I spend a silly big amount of money on? My kids.

While my wife and I have newish ('13 and '14) cars, they were both under $30K so not outrageously expensive, and we have gotten >200K miles out of our last 3 vehicles (and another two at >170K) so we keep them a long time. Our house is almost paid off and cost under the national average.

However, my kids play high level travel baseball and that gets expensive. I think my wife calculated that we spent >$10,000 last year just on baseball. Add in car insurance, maintenance, school clothes, etc. and those little bastards cost a fortune

 

[zinfamous]

I dropped a little over 160k cash on 10 acres for my windmill battery experiment, then the libs destroyed the canadian (specifically alberta) economy I guess it's going to be just dirt for 4 more years.

not sure if it works the same way in Canukistan, but down here you can just put some cows on that land and call it farmland.