You work your whole life to be able to afford a little frivolity. If you’re just going to stand in your own way to deny yourself all but the essentials, that’s no way to live.

Budgets (formal or informal)!

• Have I covered all of my expenses? Yes.
• Have I properly funded my savings (retirement, emergency fund, other savings goals)? Yes.
• Do I have money left over? Yes!

Permission to spend granted!

Further before I buy something I’ll write it down on a list and essentially not buy it for a period of time (7 days? 30 days, a year?). I’ll come back to that list and gauge my interest again. Many, MANY times (most?) I don’t care about the thing anymore so I don’t spend the money.

Then I’ll usually try to get the cheaper version (possibly used) of the thing first to make sure it still holds my interest in using it before I would justify buying the more expensive one. So many times the cheaper version does everything I need and I never need to buy the expensive version. When I do exceed the capabilities of the cheap version, and it is still holding my interest, I can then justify spending on the expensive (new?) version. Example: I wanted a bicycle to ride around the neighborhood for fitness and enjoyment. I looked at higher end brands and models, but first I bought a $200 Big Box Store Schwinn. I’m still using that same bicycle 6 years later with no need to replace it. One note, about two years into ownership I took it to an actual bicycle store for a tune up. The cost was about $80, I think. I wish I had done that on day 1! The bike’s brakes worked much better and the gear shifting were MUCH improved! Prior to the service, I would regularly have the chain come off from bad shifts. The last time that happened was 3 years ago prior to the service.

I put most of those types of “wants” on a timer. As in I put the link on a wishlist. If a week or two later I still actively want it and think about it and it’s within my fun money budget then I get it. More often than not I have the impulse just in the moment and forget about it again 1-2 days later.

As long as my bills are paid and I have a steady income, if I want something, I’ll usually buy it. If its something more frivolous or expensive, like the e-scooter I bought myself last year, I’ll just wait for a good sale/deal. But if its something relatively cheap (like under $100), I usually just get it.

I don’t want kids and I have no hope to ever owning a home where I live. Probably unlikely to retire unless I keep pushing at this job I have and hate but has a great pension. Might as well use my money while I can.

I have been trying to tighten up my finances though since, y’know, everything. But it’s tough when I’ve become accustomed to spoiling myself.

I have high hopes the boardgames I’ve been buying lately will see the light of a game table at least once

I want it and I have money for it. That’s all the justification I need.

I give myself some amount per month to spend no questions asked, so I don’t have to feel guilty about it. If it’s more than what I give myself in a month then I either save for a while or if I have the money upfront and it needs to be bought now I diminish the amount I give myself for the next X months to compensate.

A friend of mine retired and later told me he has too much money saved and he wished he had spent it more when he was younger.

I have actually found valid reasons to own a motorcycle:

• any trip on the bike is 60 % less gas than by car

• my occasional commute from rural to city: car needs to be put in a garage for 25 € / 8 hrs. Bike rides up the elevator to the office, free.

• riding saves up the car for the winter, when it’s most needed.

• bike maintenance is cheap and diy-able.

• the pleasure of riding: priceless.

I have a fun budget. A % of my monthly surplus goes I to it, and everything (excluding food) that I want rather than need come out of that pot.

I then have no guilt over spending my fun money, unless I think I could have more fun using it for something else.

I ask myself: can I afford it? Do I already have something similar? Do I see myself using it often? That last question is where you need to be honest with yourself, because it’s easy to find yourself neglecting a new purchase after the initial excitement wears off.

Depending on what the item is, you can sample or borrow/rent it to see if it sticks. You can also set a “waiting period” for yourself, and buy it if you still want it after that period ends. Sometimes the craving passes by then.

You have to find pleasures in life too, so if you can fit it into your budget and think you will get good use out of it, why not get it?

You have a nice day/night too!

I make a wishlist. In Excel. With a due date. For small things, six weeks wait.

For something like a motorcycle, six months wait.

Then if I still want it when that day comes I buy it

At one point I had a change jar. At the end of my day all my pocket change went in the jar and I forgot about it. This had multiple benefits: any purchase I made during the day took at least five bucks out of my pocket (no $1 or $2 notes in my country), so I had to think about it carefully. I always had money in the house, but in a form that made it inconvenient to spend. And after a couple years of ignoring the jar, I had about $200 that was outside my normal budget. I could spend it how I wanted! If I felt like buying a couple hundred bucks worth of jellybeans, I could do it without guilt.

Now I’m no longer single. My wife steals my change to buy leftover fabric swatches at car boot sales. That makes it harder but man, I deserve a Lego pirate ship.

Always have an internal dialogue argument with myself.

I don’t. I get things I want if they will not jepordize things I need. So there needs to be excess slack in the budget.