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[quote=Anonymous]I'm getting a promotion at work, and one of the things I've learned is that I have to plan out how I'll spend at least a portion of the raise to make it worth the stress that comes with a step up. For most of my career up until last year, I just saved every raise, which served me well, but it was getting to the point where I was imbalanced between saving & enjoying - not enough enjoying. Outsourcing has made my life much better in other areas (cleaning, lawn care, vacation planning, home improvements). I'm considering spending the bulk of this raise on chef services to prepare our dinners, which also would leave leftovers for lunches.

Seems like cost would be about $1200/month above what we currently spend on groceries. Definitely spendy. But I also value having healthy balanced "home cooked" meals versus Costco prepared stuff and eating out. I've been doing some of the Plated/Hello Fresh boxes and also have done bulk meal prep in the past -- I just get so sick of the time invested in menu planning, shopping, and a whole weekend spent prepping & freezing. And I'd much rather be able to go workout after work versus spending my time cooking to get dinner ready by a reasonable hour.

HHI is $240K ($150K me, $90K DH) + potential bonuses of $35K (me). Not a huge income by DCUM standards, but very comfortable for our area, which is much lower COL than DC. For reference, the "rich" suburbs near us have a median HHI of around $105K and median home prices around $400K. Everything else is in order financially and our annual living expenses are about $60K and that's with good vacations and pretty much spending however we want. No debt, our house is paid off, $80K in cash savings, retirement is more than on track plus investments outside retirement, no children/no plans for kids. It makes me a little sick to think about what that $$ spent on a chef could turn into if invested, but what's the point if you're never willing to spend it? But then I also think, if something happens to one of us or our jobs, I'll regret I don't have that money stashed away.

When would you be comfortable spending an extra, unnecessary $1200/month to outsource a service that you could do yourself but are just totally sick of? [/quote]

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