What are your spending vices?

[maunaloa]

... I bring a huge bag of toys for all the park kids to play with. ...

IMPRESSIVE! You compensate for three naked foreigners a year trying to steal beer from a 7-11 at midnight.
Really, I am sincerely impressed.

[divea]

... I bring a huge bag of toys for all the park kids to play with. ...

IMPRESSIVE! You compensate for three naked foreigners a year trying to steal beer from a 7-11 at midnight.

He is truly impressive....a super cool dad

[rob_the_canuck]

I used to spend a fair chunck of cash, about $4000 or so, a month on toys like Transformers, action figures and Gundam kits. Now though, I spend a conisderably less money a month on PS3 games.

Oh, and my wife. I usually drop an obscene drop of money of her for special occassions.

[tommy525]

i buy a few watches a year, but lucky not expensive ones, so bout only 300 USD a year on watches.

And worse I buy a new 100 to 150 dollar camera every six months and then i give them away because i tire of them so fast.

I eat out more then i should but at student priced restaurants only

Most of my disposable income is disposed of by my GF.
im frugal bordering on CHEAP

[headhonchoII]

Would never have guessed from that antique computer thread of yours. Still I like you didn't just throw it away for a new one.

[tommy525]

Would never have guessed from that antique computer thread of yours. Still I like you didn't just throw it away for a new one.

That antique computer of mine has found a very useful niche in my living room. It is now exclusively for use as a Pandora internet radio. I have it hooked up to a nice set of computer speakers by Logitech that are far better then its 50 dollar price would suggest, although that being said i did see a nice BOSE set up that is alarmingly good, I say alarming because I am alarmed I may be buying it eventually. It can also play cds should i desire. Its simply turn on with the Lucid Puppy Linux cd in the cd drive and then remove said startup cd and replace with music cd. Or play Pandora music to my hearts content. Very useful.

I must solve my camera dilemma though. The last few years have largely consisted of me thinking that yet another 100 or so dollar camera will take fabulous pictures of the likes of an SLR and yet be small and nimble for travelling. But alas, having tried Leica lens in Lumix cams, Carl Zeiss lens in SOny, Canon , Nikon ,Olympus etc I have yet to find a camera that has the image producing capability of an SLR> in a tiny body. And thus dejected I soon part ways with yet another el cheapo pocket cam.

I suppose there are two further solutions that are worth trying. But due to their price tags I shall have to wait for more disposable income to float my way.

I am thinking of the new Nikon 1 , I think they call it. 600 dollars or so. Seems to have the ability of an SLR and yet be quite compact. OR for that level of money perhaps a real LEICA point and shoot (although still made by panasonic).

I just want the image quality of an SLR but i refuse to lug that size of cam around.

currently , would you believe I am totally camera less (well except for an antique Sony V8 that i refuse to part with because quite simply, modern vidcams are less then ideal except when priced near a thousand dollars) ?

[Taiwan Luthiers]

When it comes to camera, body size and image quality often works against each other. If you want professional quality pictures, you will need a normal DSLR. If you want portability, then you will want a compact. While compacts have been getting better they can never be as good as a SLR. You can't always have your cake and eat it...

That said I just go with an iphone or other smartphone, because you get a decent camera that you will ALWAYS have with you, plus you have a phone and media player and portable computer all rolled into one. It saves a great deal of pocket space and when it gets hot in Taiwan, the less you have in your pocket, the better. Might seem expensive but then you don't have to get the latest as soon as it comes out.

I am still using a Canon 400D, it does what I need it to do and lenses lasts forever anyways.

[Rabidpie]

If it reached the level of vice, I would buy something like this:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products ... kware-set/
or a full set (like a dozen or more) Shun knives.

However, I've got ordinary pots, and have limited myself to just three Shun knives so far, and we need good tools in the kitchen, given how much we cook. So I don't think I've reached vice level yet. A set of a dozen would be vice level.

I did drop a pretty penny on one luthier classical guitar. But I play every day, and a bad guitar makes me cringe. The other guitars are dirt cheap. Won't be buying any more guitars, like, ever. So that's not really an ongoing vice.

We eat well, but don't spend extravagantly on ingredients. We cook with real saffron, real vanilla, and some organic ingredients -- but we also economize a lot.

That's all I can think of. I don't know whether any of the above sound excessive to others.

2,800 USD!??!?! WHOA

[Jack Burton]

I am incredibly lucky. My girlfriend loves the same things I do. Nothing makes her happier than second hand bookstores, dark chocolate or playing those machines that drop out balls with toys inside. No diamonds or expensive clothes or trips to the hair salon:D

I think I saw a photo of you once wearing a helmet with ears. Pretty cool. where did you get the ears?

me, I buy books, cameras, bicycles, sometimes computer games. but books and travel mostly.

[flike]

Wine, which in my case is less expensive than one might think due to my lack of a suitable wine cellar. So I keep only 40-60 bottles on hand at any one time (although they are fine wines, mostly from California and mostly acquired via Lot18).

Lately I've decided that I was completely wrong about champagne (in my ignorance I had dismissed it as a wine category made up by French producers located too far North to grow anything good). So now I'm going through about 75cl of champagne or Champagne- style wines per week, averaging about US$50 per bottle. (The French producer GH Mumm has been in Napa since the 1970s, and are producing some very fine sparklers there, btw). Since last Christmas I've spent as much as US$137 and as little as $17, averaging something like $50, I think.