Reply to How to transition to spending more money

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's hard if frugality is deeply ingrained. I have a hard time spending money as well; I think I'm going to read that Die With Zero book to inspire me. [/quote]

NP. This is the book that changed my life. I have always been frugal and a diligent saver. Always subscribed to "pay yourself first" and the more money I made, the more pressure I felt to save. I read that book two years ago and it drastically improved my life. I still save, but I spend now like never before. After years of doing no home improvements, not traveling much, and living far below our means, I have loosened up. Things I have done:

- Hired a personal chef. As two working parents, meals were a constant stressor. Every day it felt like I was calling my spouse to ask "What are we doing for dinner? Are we picking something up? Are you cooking?" Now we have a chef come once a week and prepare fresh cut fruit, vegetables, breakfasts, lunches for school/work and three dinners. She charges $500/day + the cost of groceries (about $400/week) so it comes to close to $4k/mo but it's been worth it to have this help, especially while our kids are still under our roof.

- Renovated kitchen and hired interior designer. Cost about $350k. Worth it to feel elated in the beauty of our home - definitely increased happiness more than looking at an extra $350k in our brokerage account.

- Took more trips and bigger trips. Splurge on first class experiences.

Die With Zero talks about spending money at the right time in your life. For us, now in our 40s with kids ranging from elementary to high school, it feels like these are our huge spending years, where money can make the most impact. Having nutritious food readily available, having a beautiful home for our family and making memories with our children as they grow up is worth the cost. I really deprived ourselves  of this in favor of aggressive savings for a very long time.

What made me feel better about this is continuously updating our financial plan, showing what the financial future looks like based on keeping our savings rate the same (maxing out retirement plans, contributing a set amount to our brokerage account each month) rather than feeling compelled to keep saving more and more as our income climbs. For the first time, we are instead choosing to increase our standard of living rather than our savings rate and it's been a lot of fun. [/quote]

How did you spend $350K on kitchen renovations and interior design alone?  I've done a high end renovation of a 3.5K sq ft home (everything except windows replaced) and spent about $750K (and I have subzero in the kitchen and tons of cabinets)

But if you have it, spend it and enjoy
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