Fess up to your Un-mustachian Christmas Purchases!

[rantk81]

Times to fess up!  What did you blow money on?

[rantk81]

I bought the new Apple TV.

I wasn't planning on buying it, as I have a perfectly functional 3rd generation Apple TV that I have been using for many years.  However, a good friend of mine told me that he was planning on buying the older generation of Apple TV.  Instead of letting him buy it, I offered to give him my 3rd gen Apple TV, and I bought the new one for myself.

[Khaetra]

A new camera lens, video games, sexy white controller for my Xbox One and just got back from spending $50 on yarn*.

*yarn was on sale, plus coupon, so I got $120 worth of it for that price.

[Bracken_Joy]

This one wasn't even on purpose: we bought Brother a set of headphones, and then he came home WITH THE SAME HEADPHONES. I will gladly admit to being far too lazy to do an Amazon return, so DH got a nice new set of headphones, and Brother got some wine. Only $20 as they were a Black Friday deal, but they FEEL fancy because they are normally $115.

I also got an Instant Pot. $79 Black Friday deal. I don't think it will get daily use in our house, but for large batches of rice, beans, and applesauce (not together- eew), it's been earning its keep.

[Cassie]

Took family out to eat for xmas eve to the tune of $104.00. I usually always cook on that day so it was very fun!

[mm1970]

Sent spouse to grocery store on Xmas day.

Older lady behind him remarked on his "interesting combination of purchases", but she probably figured it out and was being sarcastic.

Saltines and bleach.

Anybody figure out what our Xmas was like??

[lbmustache]

Sent spouse to grocery store on Xmas day.

Older lady behind him remarked on his "interesting combination of purchases", but she probably figured it out and was being sarcastic.

Saltines and bleach.

Anybody figure out what our Xmas was like??

Full of ... Vomit???


I spent $20 on a box of
See's candies (chocolate). They're amazing, no regrets!!

[southern granny]

Right at $2000 for two children and four grandchildren, but that included season passes to a nearby amusement park and also included a set of new tires for their vehicle.  $300 covers all other gifts .. so total of $2300.  I could have cut back, but I am a Christmas nut.  We did not buy gifts for each other because we both prefer to buy for the children.

[Rural]

I also bought an Instantpot on the Black Friday sale. May get my money's worth out of it. Also may end up spending more on meat, which would not be a win. We'll see.

[gReed Smith]

I bought my wife a fitbit.  It's probably the stupidest product known to mankind, but I couldn't get her nothing and I know she wanted one.

[CopperTex]

I have a really embarrassing one. I bought my son a $400 hoverboard. I have no excuses.

[letired]

I ended up a bit under on my Christmas gift budget (whoooo!), so I splurged and bough myself a new party dress (wore it to midnight mass, will wear again for new years and every even slightly fancy for the forseeable future). I also picked up a hilarious pair of faux-fur ear muffs, because my ears are always cold biking.

Total: ~$42.

[Cypher]

I paid $79 for a pair of cargo pants on clearance.  Marked down from $150.  I like the brand (Nau), style, and I know they will get good use.  That's it for a while with the impulse purchases. 

[Bikefreak]

Burned 100$ of gas visiting familly with the v8 truck.
I will try to get the familly to our house next year to make it cheaper.

[Astatine]

$170 for one night in a hotel for after our upcoming holiday with friends. It's peak season and Friday night =$$$. No regrets. The last 6 months have been rough (cancer treatment) and it's a one off splurge in between chemo and radiation therapy.

[2Birds1Stone]

Didn't blow any money =)

Between gifts, travel, eating out, cooking we spent ~1/2 a weeks worth of net income.

[Kitsunegari]

Burned 40 $ on a set of 6 tapa bowls i wanted since months. Zero regrets, eventi the husband admitted they're cute!

http://www.thebay.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/thebay/pacific-tapas-bowls-mixed-set-of-6-0024-40009467--24

[YogiKitti]

We bought ourselves a victorian lamp.

[big_slacker]

Wifey's gift wasn't gonna be here till next month, I wasn't aware it was coming from DE when I ordered it. So I got her a $20 Football team fleece blanket so she'd have something under the tree. While at the store I also spent $10 on some buy one get one chocolates.

All told it wasn't that bad compared to previous years considering we were hosting the fam.

[meadow lark]

My wife and I wanted a new bed.  $400 for mattress, $99 for heated mattress pad, $200 for blankets, sheets, comforter.  $55 memory foam topper.  $50 for bed frame.  $70 for under bed storage, $90 for 2 new lamps.  Yes.  Almost $1000.  I hang my head in shame.

[ketchup]

About 50 miles of driving round trip to visit family. Just over one gallon of gas.

Also bought a ham for $10.66 of yum. Plus a few bucks on sweet potatoes and squash.

Zero on gifts or decorations because fuck the system.

[Tabitha]

Replacement memory foam pillow for him.
Heavy duty three hole punch for her.
So romantic we are!
(Semi-)mandatory gifts for friends were re-gifts of ridiculous bounty received at the office. It was hard not to open at least some of the chocolates, but we held out.
Best gift received was a touching sentiment in a card.

[gimp]

Bought myself liquor.

Mmmm... ardbeg. :)

[mxt0133]

New Iphone 6S for myself, with the $650 ATT Access credit, I expect it to cost me $300 out of pocket. $25 Starbucks gift card for my wife.  $8 1.5L Beer Christmas Edition after Christmas, normally $16.  $70 in concession food, double face punch on that one, at the movies for Star Wars for neighbors that paid for my ticket when we watched it together.  Dinner for my brother's family as they just welcomed a new baby on the 24th.

[JetBlast]

Most Un-mustachian: A Lego set, and not a limited edition one that you might be able to resell at a profit. Seriously, how do they get us to pay that much for cheap plastic blocks?

Most Mustachian: Sawzall for projects around the house.

[11ducks]

A team Gryffindor Quidditch t-shirt? (In my defense, they were sold out of Ravenclaw ones)

[Dollar Slice]

I went a little overbudget for my brother's gift ($99) because I found a really expensive thing on clearance (thank you Slickdeals) that I knew he'd been wanting for years.

The really unmustachian one was Christmas Eve though... dropped about $135 on a night out. Went to a concert ($25) and got a soft drink ($6 with tip) and only stayed for the first band because it was such an intensely weird scene. I didn't really mind since that was the band I mostly wanted to see and I have medical issues with standing for a long time. After I left, since my friend was bartending a 12-hour shift all by himself I went and picked up some take-out food for us both ($20 because the cheap places were all closed) and went to his bar. It was very very chill because of the holiday, and he was playing music I like, so I ended up staying for six hours, dropping $35 on drinks and chipping in $12 towards a small-hours-of-the-morning pizza delivery. I left around 3:30AM and took a taxi ($35 with tip), because if you're ever going to throw away money on a taxi it should be at 3:30AM on Christmas when you're semi-shitfaced.

And now that I just typed that out and made myself remember it all, I should probably enter some cash transactions into Mint... ;-)

[Bobberth]

We probably spent close to $3k this year. As for the un-mustachian part, that was maybe $100-$150 of crap the kids specifically asked for. How can we spend so much and still be mustachian? Because it's the value you receive compared to the cost. My wife and I used to backpack but that morphed into car camping when we had kids. Last year our kids did great hiking through the mountains so we feel they (mainly the youngest one) are finally old enough to handle backpacking. We have planned a trip through the Grand Canyon next year. We could have purchased everything we needed spread out over months but decided to get more excitement out of it by letting them unwrap it for Christmas. The biggest cost were backpacks for a family of 5 and upgraded items like an additional tent and cooking for 5 instead of 2 like we used to do. The bonus is that back/bike/kayak-packing is part of my plans for RE so these expenses also knock a few things off my pre-retirement wishlist.

We also spent a good chunk on a Sphero and a 3D pen for the kids. Our kids are very artistic and the 3D pen will help to foster their creativity in a new way. The Sphero is what they are using in their technology class at school and it has the opportunity to introduce programming in a fun way. I plan on heading out to Menard's and buy some supplies to build a maze table to work on programming the Sphero to navigate a maze. Once the table is made, that will be about $250 total for those gifts and totally worth it.

My wife did add to the total cost quite a bit by surprising me with a hand carved kayak paddle to commemorate a 340 mile kayak race I did really well in this summer. Not only is the paddle hand made but it is hand carved with all of the checkpoints and landmarks along the way and added in the big storm that hit and the hallucinations I had from paddling through the night. It was $750 and I never would have agreed to spending that much on it but it is a super-personalized hand made work of art and now that she got it for me anyway, I LOVE IT!

[Jack]

I bought my wife a refurbished Nexus 5 (to replace her Galaxy S (the original, as opposed to 2 through 6), since it's so old it's no longer supported by several apps she needs).

I bought myself a very nice Pedro's bicycle repair stand off Craigslist. At $130, it's a huge amount of money for a bike repair stand, but it's incredibly sturdy. At least I didn't pay the $300 MSRP...

I haven't yet, but I'm also planning on spending a non-zero amount of money on entertainment this week: my wife and I are thinking about going to see the Christmas lights at the botanical garden, and going to the theater to see Star Wars.

Most Un-mustachian: A Lego set, and not a limited edition one that you might be able to resell at a profit. Seriously, how do they get us to pay that much for cheap plastic blocks?

Legos are made to surprisingly precise tolerances. The cost isn't in the plastic; it's in the tooling. (That said, I'm sure they have a very healthy profit margin too.)

[horsepoor]

I bought my horses a water heater.  That is an actual thing.  It is propane-powered and was on sale for $199 including a hand-truck style cart to move it around with.  Hopefully they'll appreciate not being hosed off with cold well water anymore.

And I bought myself a new Samsung tablet.  The old one has been getting slower and more unresponsive recently and I had enough Amazon credits to make the out of pocket price a little more palatable.

[Cassie]

The only reason we spend so little at xmas now is because kids are grownups, many people we bought for like parents are dead, have no grandkids and 7 years during the recession all our friends decided that we should just get together with good food which has worked out great.  If I still had kids at home my spending would be totally different.

[MisterTwoForty]

I purchased a $300 sonar unit for my fishing boat.  The one on it from purchase had been broken for over a year.  The local sporting goods store had one for 1/2 off that I'd been looking at for months.  Aside from the gift to myself, we spent about $500 in total for gifts across about 14 people.

[Money Badger]

Most notable gift to myself:   A Mike Rowe "Freddy and the Biped 2016" Presidential campaign T-shirt for $30.    Half is a donation to the Mike Rowe Works foundation.   At least it's for a cause I believe in...

[mm1970]

Sent spouse to grocery store on Xmas day.

Older lady behind him remarked on his "interesting combination of purchases", but she probably figured it out and was being sarcastic.

Saltines and bleach.

Anybody figure out what our Xmas was like??

Full of ... Vomit???


I spent $20 on a box of
See's candies (chocolate). They're amazing, no regrets!!

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!  Toddler got sick the Saturday before Xmas, 9 year old on Xmas eve. Spouse and I just waiting for our turn.

We also bought See's candy (well, "Santa" did).

Sweatpants, pj's, jeans, video game, books.

[obstinate]

The flights home were more than twice the cost of the gifts we gave. My wife went a little overboard with the presents. All told it might have been $400 all in. I think the round trip tickets were $600 each.

On the plus side, we're drinking a ton of dad's good wine, so we have that going for us. We're going to propose designated giftees next year to cut down on costs (everyone gets assigned one other person to give a gift to).

[SwordGuy]

We've been splurging a bit on ourselves for the last month.   

New dishes and glasses, some new furniture items, books, jewelry and pottery making stuff, and stuff for the kids and grandkids.  Plus a big cash bonus for our handicapped daughter's caregiver.   It's been about 10 years since we last got new dishes and glass sets (other than free coffee mugs from various companies).   The furniture wasn't that expensive and we rarely buy furniture that didn't come from the thrift shop.

I don't feel bad about it.  Our next year's income went up $10,000 a year from our own efforts and another $20,000+ a year from my inheritance last month.

And our net worth went up about $100,000 from our own efforts and way more from my inheritance.

[libertarian4321]

A 60" TV.  Nothing terribly exotic, no "4K" or any of that, but the damned thing seems huge compared to our old 42" TV. 

I told my wife I was buying it so we could save money by watching movies at home rather than the theater, but she knows the real reason I bought it was to watch basketball and football.

[dontwannaworkforever]

Bought wife a designer bag and wallet when she already has those things!

I got grand theft auto 5...

meh.

[h82goslw]

I have a really embarrassing one. I bought my son a $400 hoverboard. I have no excuses.

Got my kids one of these as well.  They LOVE it.  Good thing was I got it for free on Amazon using CC points.

Bought wife a designer bag and wallet when she already has those things!

I got grand theft auto 5...

meh.

Also got this for my kids....also for free using points.  They hate having to share game time with me as I find this game fascinating.  Inappropriate but fascinating.

[Geostache]

An impulse purchase of an astronaut costume for my toddler after a visit to the Air and Space museum. Two days after Christmas. Total cost: $85.00.

I usually pass clothes on to friends after our kids outgrow them. I think these will have to be sold. o_O

[Jack]

I have a really embarrassing one. I bought my son a $400 hoverboard. I have no excuses.

Got my kids one of these as well.  They LOVE it.  Good thing was I got it for free on Amazon using CC points.

Aren't you worried about it burning your house down?

[andy85]

$100 palm router

but, for me, this should be "fess up to your un-mustachian purchase every single fkn time you step foot into a hardware store"...i may need help (only semi-serious)

[hollis]

Drove over 300 miles visiting my parents / family and my fiance parents / family (a total of 3 back and forth trips of ~65mi).

Haven't figured out the total but, it might have been my most expensive Christmas to date.

[Scubanewbie]

Drove over 300 miles visiting my parents / family and my fiance parents / family (a total of 3 back and forth trips of ~65mi).

Yeah, I was thinking this was us too.  About the same number of miles and also 3 times since I wanted to go for Christmas Eve service (back home) + be at our house for Christmas morning + back to their house for Christmas Day dinner + back to our house + back to their house while they watch mini-mustaches while I work (kind of) today.

In terms of gifts I have no regrets.  We buy semi-useful gifts like (fun) pajamas and soaps plus a few fun but expensive gifts like Legos and I'm at peace with it.  I don't do the "let's go buy Legos for the heck of it" so I don't mind that Christmas/birthdays are fun.  That said, still only maybe $250 on the kids combined as they're still young and are impressed by less expensive stuff.

I like the idea of buying camping stuff as a big "ta-da", will definitely consider for future years.

[FIRE Artist]

An impulse purchase of an astronaut costume for my toddler after a visit to the Air and Space museum. Two days after Christmas. Total cost: $85.00.

I usually pass clothes on to friends after our kids outgrow them. I think these will have to be sold. o_O

Sounds cute, and something worth saving as a momento, it might be nice framed, kinda like people do here with a child's hockey jersey once outgrown. 

[MM_MG]

Beef tenderloin to serve for Christmas dinner...$103.72 at Costco.

But it was delicious! 

[Money Mouse]

I spent $80 on a 12 pound ham for Xmas day dinner (from a totally awesome local butcher shop).

So.

Good.

I regret nothing. Nothing.

[runningthroughFIRE]

It's not necessarily for Christmas, but I did buy the 3 core rulebooks for D&D 5th edition for myself a bit ago.  I paid for them with CC cash back, but I wouldn't regret it even if I didn't.  I'm also going to order a webcam soon so I can do video calls with my friends when we play (they're out of state).  The real unmustachian part is that they're sitting on my coffee table and distracting the crap out of me when I should be getting work done.

[Geostache]

An impulse purchase of an astronaut costume for my toddler after a visit to the Air and Space museum. Two days after Christmas. Total cost: $85.00.

I usually pass clothes on to friends after our kids outgrow them. I think these will have to be sold. o_O

Sounds cute, and something worth saving as a momento, it might be nice framed, kinda like people do here with a child's hockey jersey once outgrown.

It's adorable. Her brother got one from their grandmother, too (to replace the too-big one she purchased him for Christmas), so they got to wear them together. I like the idea of framing them. Or, I could always chock it up to a sunk cost, appreciate that they enjoyed them so much, and pass them on for our friends' kids to enjoy.

[pdxbator]

$1000 CASH - I am fortunate that I have my needs met and am able to save. My family on the other hand....not good at saving....some with lower income jobs etc. So I just doled out the 100 dollar bills to various people.