Biggest purchase that was out of your income level?

[Singuy]

125k CC debt! WOW. Did you not make as much as you do now because I am having a hard time wrapping my head around you spending every penny of what you made PLUS financing everything. I mean the car is only a 33k BMW. You make like 500k+/year!

[HundredK]

This is embarrassing:

$125k credit card debt
$45k auto loans
-$3k / month net (expenses were $3k greater than income / month)

I bought a $33k BMW and financed it.

Top that.

Tomhole, I knew it, you ARE my hero! My situation, currently not so far away from where yours was. Let's just say my screen name doesn't refer to the amount I have in a savings account, heh.

[snafu]

Moved from Low cost city to super High COLA for dream job. Salary looked ok, really high for original location but dismal in large, expensive city. Bought an affordable house based on good mortgage terms but it was in a small satellite city so we spent our free time commuting to Everything! All the reasons we wanted to live in large city were erased by the difficulties in getting there and getting home.

DKs had their 1st experience with school bussing and we paid huge fees for ghastly service. Buying groceries was like shopping at Costco the week before Christmas! Never enough tills, never enough staff, never enough merchandise, vast swaths of 'sold out.' How much can you carry home on a packed to the gills subway? We had a car but there was never anyplace to park, the NIMBYs stopped all new, proposed transportation services for the past 20 years.

DH was seconded to another city and we were both over thee moon to get out!

[disneysteve]

My wife's engagement ring.

[Thrif-t]

We had a Disney Cruise booked in 2012 that we had saved 3 years to be able to afford. My nephew planned his wedding (first grandkid to get married) the same week we'd be gone so we had to move it out a year. The price went up 2k. At that point, we were so excited to go I just sucked it up, but it really was an extravagant vacation for us and very much out of our league.

Looking back I'm so glad we got to have that experience.

[FLA]

took too many trips to Disney despite going the cheapest way possible. We have great memories but it would've served us better to go once and put the rest in a college acct

[disneysteve]

took too many trips to Disney

I don't understand what those words mean

[GoodSteward]

I bought my first house 15 years ago for $342K when I was only making $70K a year with 5% down and the interest rate being around 7%. Luckily, the interest rates went down, so I refinanced a few times, and also my income more than doubled. The house is now worth over $800K and I owe only $250K. What looked like a bad idea at the time, turned into the best purchase I've ever made. Sometimes it's worth taking a risk.

hey...hush...reread the OP. Yur doin it wrong. We are here to laugh at one another in this thread. :P

The scene of the (spending) crime: a boutique store in the lobby of a high class hotel
The time: the late-80's
The object of my desire: a Coach handbag

My IT job is with a certain high-end luggage company. I have many thousands of dollars worth of luggage for just hundreds in my closet. I have given away many thousands of dollars worth as well.

This is embarrassing:

$125k credit card debt
$45k auto loans
-$3k / month net (expenses were $3k greater than income / month)

I bought a $33k BMW and financed it.

Top that.

You win!

[corn18]

125k CC debt! WOW. Did you not make as much as you do now because I am having a hard time wrapping my head around you spending every penny of what you made PLUS financing everything. I mean the car is only a 33k BMW. You make like 500k+/year!

I didn't make nearly what I am making now. But as I made more, I spent more, so it was still getting worse. Once I got the spending under control, my income allowed me to dig out fast. Now I'm saving like crazy to catch up with the retirement plan.

Tom

[tripods68]

I guess Tomhole beat us ALL

We bought a $800 blender mixer that we used once or twice 13 years ago.

[DaveInPgh]

I guess Tomhole beat us ALL

We bought a $800 blender mixer that we used once or twice 13 years ago.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I guess Tomhole beat us ALL

We bought a $800 blender mixer that we used once or twice 13 years ago.

Somehow this makes me laugh nervously and repeatedly. I really don't know why because my mixer is a hand-held cheapy ($20?) that we inherited from my brother-in-law. Still, the ludicrousness of $800 to mix three cakes touches something in me. I might need psycho-analysis.

Sorry, folks, but I can't think of having bought anything beyond my means-- unless I go all the way back to my high school days when to have bought several candy bars was beyond my means, and, to get out of it, I had to buy a bunch more and sell them marked up to make up the loss. There's more to the story and I think I told it here fairly recently, but let's just say that even going over my means by a couple dollars was a self-convicting matter back then.

[DaveInPgh]

Somehow this makes me laugh nervously and repeatedly. I really don't know why because my mixer is a hand-held cheapy ($20?) that we inherited from my brother-in-law.

Well their's is Gold Plated and even came with a display case!