Does anyone else have certain areas of their lives that are more spiritual ...
... spend to express your spirit?
I absolutely understand being out in nature as spiritual. That's the closest this atheist gets to a church. I have had some costly outdoor gear.
"Expressing your spirit" does not require any expense, however. This is where you're drawing criticism - that language is pulled straight from ad copy, the idea that your identity is for sale & you won't -
can't - live it out properly without the right accoutrements.
It is very worth internalizing that you cannot "spend to express your spirit" because your spirit has nothing to do with the economy that humans have in the last dozen centuries mapped onto the natural world by carving it up to say each owns this much. You can spend to improve your sensory experiences, you can spend to access resources like environments that have been fenced off from free human use or which are distant from you geographically, you can give to others & causes according to your values, but you cannot "spend to express your spirit." Banish the idea from your mental vocabulary & become free.
After all, the most natural experience would be hiking entirely naked, & making your pilgrimages on foot, wouldn't it?
With that out of the way - there may & probably ideally would be areas of any person's life where they choose to dispense freely of resources, of course. Finding joy in things is worthwhile. Picking out the things which to you are most meaningful to spend lavishly on, & eschewing the rest, is usually the best way to get the most out of your money. Unseasoned food & plain water will sustain a body, but I delight in saffron & cardamom, bright coffee & fine tea. We all know someone who would go to the ends of the earth for their preferred music (& has.)
If you use the term "spiritual" in reference to material luxuries, because of the meaning of the term in prevailing (consumer marketing) culture, I think you will alienate those I suspect you're seeking community with, & inadvertently surround yourself with consumerists instead.