Frugal Friday- Save to Spend

I just realized my blog turned one month old yesterday!!! 

One of my favorite parts of using coupons and being frugal is that it frees up my money to spend it elsewhere.  What's the fun in pinching pennies if you have none left to do anything with?

 The grocery, health & beauty items, and household budgets are one place anyone can really manipulate.  Our gas/car budget is set and there is really nothing we can do about that.  The husband and I both commute.  So it's not like we can just not buy gas... We have a miscellaneous category that random things and emergencies fall into so that we don't have to pull money out of savings.  Keeping a tight watch on the things that we can help allows us to do fun things together and splurge a little.

image source

One area I splurge in is my hair.  I like to go to a nice salon to get my hair cut and colored.  I've tried going the cheap route in that department, and it never turned out in my favor.  I have fine hair, and I'm picky about the shade of blond that my hair is.  So to me, it is worth it to splurge in the first place.  If not, would you have to pay someone to fix it and pay double?  That has definitely happened to me before.  So I learned to fork up a little more up front so that I can feel good about the way I look.

The husband is really picky about clothes.  So while I can find a $1 pair of jeans, a nice $25 outfit from Loft, and shoes from Payless... The husband only wears certain brands, but they last him for a long time while I change how I dress often.  Now I make sure we buy them when they are on sale or at the outlet, but he's not wearing a shirt from Target.  I think it's a little harder to imitate nice Men's clothes and shoes.  We're both ok with it since we plan for it.      

Another area we splurge in is our entertainment budget.  This probably sounds like a lot of money, but we each get $100/week cash to spend on whatever we want.  I call this "play money."  We go out the eat together on the weekends, go out with friends, go to the movies, eat lunch with co-workers occasionally, take trips (Vegas in November), and go shopping.  When the $200 total runs out... That's it! 

NYC 2005

snow-mobiling in SD 2008

TN 2009

Destin 2011

So you're probably thinking... If you're so frugal why do you waste $800-$1000/month on eating out, etc... But to us, right now, that is what's important.  We don't have kids yet.  So why not have fun and make memories together and with our friends while we have our freedom (ha)?!  Once we start a family that money will go to daycare, diapers, and food.... So I want to enjoy it now.

So while I am really picky about how much I will fork out on groceries, household products, and health & beauty items I have the freedom to have fun with my friends and husband while we can!   

So what do you splurge on?  Do you budget for your splurges?
Happy Friday!
XO-Heather