Show and Tell Tuesday

Linking up with Andrea for another year of Show and Tell Tuesday.

The first topic is Steal and Splurge - What we save on and what we splurge on.

Saving

I found this to be a hard topic to talk about, I don't really try to seek out deals and I'm really terrible at not knowing how much anything costs (Dave will concur).  I'll be excited to read what other people have to say in this link up. 

When I think of saving, I think about the money we put aside each paycheque for various things.  The old adage of "pay yourself first" is alive and well in this house, thanks to Dave. 

I don't really think about it as saving money but I guess that's what I'm doing - I only get my hair done about twice a year, and I don't get regular pedicures or facials.  I don't buy a lot of clothes for myself.  We don't have a cleaning lady.  We cook most of our meals at home and buy coffee from Starbucks or other coffee shops only every couple of days, not everyday.  Dave does a lot of repairs and other things around the house himself, but that's not really to save money, it's more because he enjoys it. 

Splurge

We like to spend our money on travelling and food.  We put money away each paycheque for travel and when we go away we stay at nice places (not extravagant, but not budget), and we don't worry too much about what we spend on food, etc.  We worried about money when we went on our honeymoon and I think we would have had an even better time if we hadn't.  

We buy our meat at the butcher, which is definitely more expensive than the grocery store, but worth it to us.  I usually buy the name brand for other groceries as well.  Occasionally the store brand will be acceptable but rarely, and when I do try it, I remember that it is better to just go with the brand name (like for ketchup, spaghetti sauce, plum sauce, etc.). 

We buy the nice toilet paper.  We buy our coffee beans at local coffee shops or Starbucks.  I've started spending a bit more on wine at the liquor store.  I've decided life's too short to use cheap toilet paper and drink bad coffee and wine.  

Stay tuned for these topics coming up this year: