What I pay for and what I don't
I think it's super interesting to read about what people spend their money on and what they don't spend their money on. I find it fascinating to learn about what other people may value that I don't as much; it's all very personal and intentional! This post was inspired by Katherine, who recently shared what she does and does not pay for, and I thought it would be fun to share some of mine! Please feel free to share some of yours, too. :)
WHAT I PAY FOR
Meal kit delivery service / I wrote about our experience with Green Chef last October, and we still get our vegetarian box nearly every week. (I only skip weeks where I'm not crazy about two of the meals or if we'll be out of town.) We're at the point now where we struggle to come up with dinner ideas when we don't have any meals to cook. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, haha! I do know that Green Chef is 100% worth it because it requires no meal planning or grocery shopping, and the food is organic, delicious, and very filling. (On a somewhat related note, I also pay for high quality food for my cats. I switched them from Natural Balance dry and canned wet foods to Halo dry food and Castor & Pollux grain-free wet food pouches.)
Live concerts / Ask my boyfriend and he'll be the first to tell you that I spend a lot of money on concerts! I started going to concerts regularly a few years ago, and now I see my favorites every time they come to town. Honestly, no one comes to Boise...it was so nice living in SLC because I got to see so many of my favorite artists! Now I'm spending money to travel to see my favorites (i.e. we are going to see Taylor Swift in Seattle, and last December we traveled to SLC to see Lady Gaga). BUT, it's all worth it! I'm all about the experience of live music and will pay pretty much anything to see my favorites (including a meet and greet if it's offered), much to my boyfriend's dismay. ;) (He secretly likes it.)
Highlights and hair cuts / I'm paying considerably less on hair maintenance now than I did when I lived in Utah, but it's still a major part of my budget and it's a fun way to treat myself. I didn't get highlights for the longest time because I didn't want to deal with the maintenance, but I settled on partial highlights and it's been a fun way to integrate more blonde while being able to go a couple of months in between sessions and not look silly as my hair grows out.
WHAT I DON'T PAY FOR
Nail services / I can't remember the last time I had a manicure or pedicure done! I thought I would get a pedicure before Florida last summer, but that didn't happen. Then I thought I would get a pedicure before Mexico in December, but that didn't happen either! I also can't remember the last time I even painted either my fingernails or toenails myself. My nail polish is clumping up from not being used, and my nails look blah, but I got to the point where I was sick of dealing with chipped nails (I hate the look of chipped nails in outfit photos) so much that I stopped painting them altogether.
Shipping / You already know that I hate paying for shipping! I don't know why, since it's usually only around $5-10 extra. I just hate tacking more onto the price of an order...or something. In an age of "free shipping with $___+ orders", you can bet I'm hitting that minimum threshold or waiting until a "free shipping on everything" promo before placing an order. In very rare cases do I pay for shipping; I can think of one time I paid for Uniqlo's $7 shipping on a $20 tee (I think I also ordered something else, so the price I paid for shipping was split between the two items). It was worth it, though, since I wear that tee so often!
House cleaner / We currently do all the cleaning ourselves, and as you can probably imagine, our house doesn't stay clean. We are fairly bad at keeping up with it, which is kind of gross to admit. We haven't budgeted for a house cleaner because it's not currently a priority (we are paying off our cars and student loans), but it may become one in the future (especially if we decide to get married!). On the other hand, I do plan to pay for window washing because nothing is worse than trying to take a photo out a dirty window! My parents get their windows cleaned quarterly, and it's so inexpensive that I decided that I'm going to start paying for it.