What's your Secret Spending Vice?????

Secret Spending Vice - something you probably don't need but you spend way too much money on buying the stuff.

Mine use to be clothes, but since my weight gain I haven't been buying clothes of lately. Fortunately I've lost 20lbs and I'm discovering hidden secrets in my closets full of clothes that I can now wear again. And my style never goes out of style since I usually buy classic pieces that you can wear forever.

So my spending vice has switched to 2 other areas:

Books and Makeup.

I love shopping for books and I have a major library of books, many which I'm not sure if I'll ever get to reading. Books that I love to buy are Policial/Progressive Books, Travel Books, Anything by V.C. Andrews (although her stuff has gone down in quality - but it's a holdover from my childhood days), Atlases (including antiques) and classic literature.

My other spending vice is makeup. I have enough makeup that if I never bought another thing of makeup again I'd probably have enough to last me the rest of my life (except maybe a fresh tube of mascara every couple of months). I love finding funky colors of eyeshadow (and I use them all) and lipsticks (I use most of them although my mother takes the ones I grow bored with). And I like the good brands of makeup; although I've found alternative ways of buying them so I'm not draining my bank account.

So what are your secret spending vices - things you really don't need but love to go shopping and buying for.

anything that holds my crap. I have so many it's insane!

I waste so much money of diffferent lipgloss.. mascara, sparkle powder etc..it's horrible.

And I always hear i wear too much of it

my vice is movies, i got a pretty good DVD collection

Makeup is a waste. You don't need it.

Spoken like the old married phart I am, but true none the less.

Thats pretty sweet thing to say, but its pretty funny to use makeup

to schmeer greasy goo all over your lips every ten minutes can literally change your life.

I have all the colors. Slap it on first thing in the morning, good for the rest of the day, even right through meals.

There is a lipstick god, I think...

Lipfinity, how I love thee.

I rationalize by buying the drugstore brands. But I buy so much I might as well buy the department store stuff.

I rationalize by buying the drugstore brands. But I buy so much I might as well buy the department store stuff.

THAT I HAD TO HAVE.Since I am not rich I have a thing where I go to the lib. once a week to stop this, but this week I bought 3 on the internet. I am not sure what I am going to do about this.This has been a life long thing.I need boots and I buy a book. It is really bad.

boy am I glad I stumbled upon this thread...:bounce: :bounce:

Last year (2002) it was photography. $5k in digital photography gear later, I have a semi-respectable setup.

This year it was scuba. Over $2k spent, but I've got gear I really like.

Don't get me wrong, I continue to use both the photography equipment and the dive gear and I'm glad I bought it. I just seem to have very little control when it comes to hobby purchases.

SOmetimes I'm reduced to sneaking them into the house so my wife doesn't complain. She doesn't mind the spending as much as "Where are we going to put those?!?!?!" "How much music do we actually need?"

n/t

The golf equipment has died down a little recently. I'm actually pretty happy with the stuff I have. But I'm always on the market for a good sale on closeouts and I scour the used equipment stores for certain specific items.

Music...I have more music than I know what to do with. I only have two ears and who knows how many cds. I just bought 3 this weekend. :crazy:

Clothes. With my weight loss, my wardrobe doubled, but it was also OLD and somewhat out of date. So, I'm trying to update my wardrobe little by little while keeping the total clothes amount down to a manageable level by donating what I don't wear to charity.

My music vice is a little different than yours, though. Mine is equipment i don't need. I'm thinking about buying another guitar (a relatively cheap one) just to set it up for slide guitar. I don't need it, i just want it.

I'm not as bad with clothes as i used to be, but it's still a constant battle to keep the checkbook in my pocket.

Oh well.
The Professor

One of the implacable truisms of golf.

If you are consistently chunking chip shots, it's your wedge. Get a new one. :D

That's the one thing i barely ever buy. I've had 2 in 10 years, and the first one was a $15 blade putter. I changed because it was getting so beat up (it was cheaply made). I bought a centershafted Taylor and that's that.

My real vices are wedges and fairway woods. (Although i've had my Adams woods for quite a long time.) I make up for it all by buying cheap golf balls. As long as they're soft, i'll use 'em.
The Professor

I have two.

1. Titleist Scotty Cameron Laguna Oil finish, purchased with trade-in funds. I love used golf club stores.
2. Odyssey White Hot #1. Also purchased used.

I switch between the two depending on conditions and how I feel.

I used to have too many balls (:7) so I went on a buying moratorium. My current (relatively) cheap favorite is the Top Flite Tour.

I was into fairway woods, too, but I'm stuck on the Taylor Mades for now. Wedges...a couple of mine are getting rusty, and not in a good way. They may need replacing soon. :think:

The rust on a wedge is a marketing trick. The only reason why there's any difference between a rusted wedge and a chrome plated one is that the rusted one is made of a softer metal.

It's not the rust that improves feel. It's the soft metal. Even those should be regularly brushed with a stainless brush to keep the rust off the face, since the rusty surface is hundreds of times more random than the smooth face.

People who have handicaps over 2 (and that includes me) should not be buying a "rusty" wedge thinking that will help their game. You have to be a stud player for those little differences to have an impact.

So, i buy Vokeys, Clevelands or Mizunos in the standard metal with the chrome finish. (I just got a Mizuno, cuz i lost my Vokey 5610. Sob!)
The Professor

I have a Vokey 52 in chrome that I like a lot, but it has a slightly marred face. :-( I also have a Mizuno 56 and 60 (both forged) that are starting to rust a tad in the grooves. So, I think I'm going back to chrome when the time comes...

can't help it, I see a used book store with a good non-fiction section and I am putty in their hands.

n/t

so if you saw a book about atlases (atlasi?) that showed the location of the world's makeup stores you'd be in heaven?

On paper it sounds like heaven, but I prefer an older atlas where I can see how the borders of our world has changed overtime.

:shrug:

When I had my old house, I would buy tons of plants for the yard. Bad vice, because sometimes they didn't get planted. Oops!

Now I am living out in the desert, and I am really good about not spending money. I haven't been buying stuff off the net. When we went on our mini vacation to LA, my husband and I got 100 dollars each spending money and I ended up buying art supplies for my business. My husband bought cd's, that is his spending vice.

n/t

Help me - I'm out of control!

I am always giving in to the siren call of scent...continuing a lifelong search for the perfect one. "Guerlain" is one word that needs to be dropped from my vocabulary:)

Used bookstores are great. Nothing says you can't be frugal in the exercise of your vice.

Everytime I go to NYC, I come back with at least one handbag from a street vendor.

I am not allowed in Sephora. It is just too dangerous.

I tend to bargain hunt for shoes, so my spending is not that bad there.

I used to spend a lot of $$ on clothes but until I lose all my weight (I've lost 30, another 10-15 to go), I won't splurge.

Guns, ammo, gun safes, more guns, more ammo, need a new safe because the other three are full...

Oh yeah! Books, lots and lots of books. Had to move the library to the basement. The first floor joists were giving out. Must have more books...

I almost can not drive past a music store without going in and buying a CD. It is a sickness. My wife chastises me for it. At any given time I have more new CDs than I could possibly ever listen to, but I keep buying.

Speaking of overflow, have you had a chance to listen to the stuff I sent you?

I brought them to the office, but there have been depositions in the conference room next to my office the past two days. I had to stop listening to music in my office. The depositions end today, so I will start listening this afternoon.

I buy minimal makeup and clothes, compared to other women. But I love my entertainment. Oh, and dining out. I love an evening out at a good restaurant with a fussy maitre d' and good sommelier. I enjoy being waited on, so sue me! ;-)

I pay my friends to hold me back from bookstores. Not like I didn't spend five fucking hundred dollars on books for class this semester, NOOOO, I need more.

Seriously, though, I do need to order some books for the winter break, since if I get the war and terrorism philosophy course I'm going for next semester, the professor has agreed to let me semi-design the course with him.

Excuses, excuses... :shrug:

I haunt the local Salvation Army and other thrift stores. I am a die-hard collector and "junktique" fan (trash to treasure and all that) so that is where I spend most of my "vice" $$$$...

I also buy mostly classic pieces but will throw in a few trendy pieces each season. I buy other make-up items but gee, if you saw the amount of lipsticks I own you'd laugh along with my friends. I own at least 15 shades of red.

Wanna make something of it??!!!!
Hey I gotta get back to work, I've got sizzling hot adult amateurs in Miami to support!
:)

Best spending vice yet!

far far FAR too much money dropped on those.

I buy too many books that I can't possibly read. I have a pile to get through already. But my real vice is auctions. I discovered one that has incredible prices. I try to go only three or four times a year. Last time I bought 10 copper pots, the time before that an old sewing machine, and the time before that a collection of beautiful prints. I really need to stop going. :shrug:

Drugs would be cheaper.

I can't resist.

I have several hundred such items on my amazon.com wish list.

Most are textbooks, a few are well-written lay books.

About infinity as a mathematical and philosophical concept.

I'm a casual math guy, so I appreciate the mass-market approach. But Wallace's writing style is so self-consciously cute and quirky that the irritation of reading the text overshadows the content.

He still has them.. But they are architecture & math & engineering books..

Why he saved them, I'll never know :shrug:.. He graduated in 1965 :)

Especially Taco Bell.

I don't know why!

:-)

CDs (it would take me a year or two to listen to all the ones I already have), stationery and pens, and LeSportSac purses (I have seven of them).

i have over 100 roses, mostly old fashioned species and shrub types,i grow over 25 types of annual flowers each year from seed, i love flowers and nature in general. I am constantly in awe with the natural beauty of the world we live in, hence the first part of my name.

bath products for the stressful days.

Dammmit, I'll tell you when I'm ready to quit!

either than or you got VERY carried away at a Sotheby's auction. :P

Not what you are thinking but they have much cheaper versions.

Now I buy myself spandex pants and parts and presents for my bikes...and an occassional "new to me" bike....

Those keys were getting expensive!

especially since I have two of them.

Like you, I love makeup. I make special trips to the stores to see what the different cosmetic companies are doing for specials at Christmas time. If I walk up to the counter needing mascara and they have a gift with purchase or a 'special purchase' with purchase, I make sure I buy enough to qualify for the special.

I have 2 (yes, 2) gym bags full of eye shadows, lipsticks and blush and this doesn't count the small drawer where I have the stuff I wear daily. Periodically I'll pull one of the gym bags out and it's like finding treasure!

My 2nd is antique costume jewelry. I'm addicted. I blame it all on my aunt since she gave me every piece of costume jewelry she had acquired over her lifetime. I even got some pieces back from her that I had given her when I was a child. I've decided that as I'm now half a decade old I can be somewhat eccentric and wear all sorts of baubles.

Big vice, bad me...

After a few blinds buys, I realized I ought to be more discriminating how I spend, even if they were obscure foreign films not found in the video hire shop. I'm trying to suss out a way to get rid of them and recoup at least cinema admission price.

I read too voraciously to buy books. So after reading them out of the library, I write them down in a notebook. So in a way, I own them.

I get them at thrift stores. Mysteries are my favorite.

for a skinny guy, I sure eat and drink a lot! Also... a regular at DC's cutting-edge marquee restaurant. I love to spoil my dates by ordering a better wine than they've ever had in their lives!

the cutting-edge marquee restaurant? and have you been to Laboratoire Galileo yet?

I'm with you on wine though, I have cases stacked in my small studio, and yet I buy more. My girlfriend is not amused.

I'm hopeless with controlling this one; I see a 600-thread-count set of sheets or a really nice duvet or something and I must have it. I will not sleep on cheap sheets or crummy pillows.

I'm really trying to resist a full-on velvet comforter set. Velvet doesn't work with cats.

I refuse to consider my book-buying a vice. I also spend way too much money on restaurants, but hey, a person's gotta eat, right?

I once bought a 150 count sheet at the Dollar store to make a banner. That was the NASTIEST feeling sheet. I love linens - I think I need some new ones for winter

otherwise, I guess I don't really spend that much. So, why am I replying? Guess I"m bored..

Flip Flops
Bed Linens
Dreamsicles
Anything from Hallmark
Lots and Lots of Cereal.

Duckie

...but I don't really do much shopping anywhere on my income.

Have spent way too much on beer, it's so good though.

Life is too short to drink cheap beer.

odd records, strange vacations, absynth for countless missssstresses.

Ok, I lied about the last one.

Scotch and other whiskies, mostly.

i race them year round. i spent probably 2,000 bucks over the summer on them.. now i'm into the winter stuff, it's much cheaper but today i bought a truck to race next year .. i can't stop!! at least it's fun and i get to relax on the weekend while i spend money on them.

elegant and well-crafted, too. (And yes, I'm a guy, who likes to take care of his feet and be on time!)