Thursday, July 12, 2007

Life's Big and Little Extravagances

As a follow-up to today's articles on Mattresses and Parking (see previous post), the NY Times website opened up the question to readers: What is your biggest extravagance?

A selection from the over 500 responses:


I don’t wear designer clothes, but I do buy designer glasses frames, because I wear them everyday.

— Posted by Manda


Treating my kids to pizza for dinner (delivered, of course)!

— Posted by Alissa


A $60,000 bed, sitting in my garage parking place.

— Posted by Dennis


My new seafoam green Vespa Granturismo 200L.

— Posted by Debbie


I left my job, sold my house and moved to a tiny 5th floor walk-up in Paris.

-Posted by Mary


A $1,000 cashmere coat that I bought 15 years ago. It still looks good, and it keeps me warm when I have to be in NYC or anywhere else it snows during the winter.

— Posted by Nick in SF


A new book or a movie rental. Although I have my mind set on a $300 Amish-made rocking chair.

— Posted by Gary


It happened last May when I went to Indonesia for the Asian Universities Debate Championship. The registration fee and air fare plus allowance was already worth a whole semester’s tuition and it was spent for only a week. But it was worth it because I got to debate with debaters from 7 countries in Asia and I had fun with my fellow debaters from the Philippines. =)

— Posted by Emarrah Contessa


My fancy gym membership and a cleaning lady every other week. Both I consider “wellness premiums”, since together they cost less than health insurance, which I can’t afford. My sense of well-being increases exponentially when I’ve had a great workout and I come home to a clean apartment.

— Posted by Jack


The luxury of anwering this question while right next to it is the article about the desperate circumstances for those still stranded by Katrina and the gov’t/nation that has failed them. Oh, and the Times Select account that serves it all up.

— Posted by Laurie Bell


I took $8,000 out of my retirement fund and built a home theater in the basement. The big extravagance however is paying the cable/internet bill.

— Posted by John Kessler


Books. Hundreds of books, new and used, old and modern. I hoard books and surround myself with them.

— Posted by PoesChylde


Paper cups

— Posted by CDH

2 comments:

Single Ma said...

Sad thing is, poor John Kessler thinks his "big extravagance" is paying the cable/internet bill. He has no idea how much he REALLY loss/sacrificed by using his retirement fund to build a home theater in his basement.

Financial Phoenix said...

I TOTALLY relate to the books. When I was in school and deciding between paying the rent or electricity somehow I always found my way to Half Price Bookstore. I can't help it!