On Mondays, I generally take my Mom grocery shopping and sometimes add on a field trip. When it comes to groceries, she prefers the ‘premium’ grocery store in our area – Lunds & Byerlys.
They have a terrific, but pricey selection of foods – with wonderful produce, an amazing bakery, and carpeted aisles. It really is a pleasure to shop there – quiet, not crowded, and the best of everything in each aisle. They bag your groceries & take them out to your car. The store is beautifully arranged and celebrates the seasons & holidays throughout the year.
You pay for that pleasure, ambiance, and quality, of course. I’m guessing that it is about 10-20% higher for a bagful than the MegaCorp grocery store my wife and I usually go to.
With the 40-year high inflation in food over the last few years, my Mom asked me if she should be cutting back on her grocery budget. She worries if she is overspending and I help her with her finances. My advice was for her to simply enjoy herself – and the wonderful store.
She has enough saved away – and my Dad made sure his pension & investments set her up well. The last thing she needs to worry about is something as small as where she shops for her groceries. I’ll guess that what she spends more for shopping here is probably less than what she regularly earns in interest from her savings account.
In fact, as we were turning the aisles together today, I thought “I could get used to this, too!” I usually pick up a few things when I’m there, but don’t do big stock-up trips at Byerlys. That said, I doubt our financial planner would even notice the change in our retirement savings portfolio if we came here more regularly. We might as well enjoy ourselves and also help this locally-owned, family-run store. They’ll benefit and we’ll benefit – instead of the big grocery MegaCorp we usually shop at.
What small splurges have you worked into your routine recently?
Image: Lunds & Byerlys
MrFireStation 
My small splurge this year includes getting a grocery store membership and having most of my groceries delivered, which saves a lot of time. We are also going to more concerts and movies than ever this year.
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I haven’t gotten into grocery delivery (or pick-up), yet. I have a friend that runs the operations for the service for Target Corporation and she tells me that is the future. Having worked in the grocery industry, I still like wandering around in the stores!
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Here are a couple more comparable splurges that I would not have spent on while I was saving for retirement and have come to the realization that I can loosen up on the purse strings.
Right after retiring, I adopted a male Doberman who had trouble getting into fights with other dogs including our female Rottweiler. I hired a personal dog trainer for $200 per hour. I had everyone in the family participate. Within a half hour of meeting the trainer, she had me walking the troubled Doberman through a pet store full of other dogs, and everyone was commenting how well behaved the Doberman was. Only took three sessions. This training brought both the Doberman and me joy instead of another rehoming. We are good buddies now.
I have also always been a penny pincher with air conditioning to avoid the very high electricity rates that are a function of California governmental mismanagement of technology they don’t understand. This summer I just let it rip to be comfortable. The cost came in at actually $200 cheaper than the previous year’s AC four month season. Electric rates were actually up at least 10% year over year, while AC consumed per hour of operation was down due to an upgrade in equipment. Air Conditioning 24 X 7 without opening windows and turning fans on resulted in a bill that was $160 lower than the previous year’s season. The old me would have squeezed every last penny.
Good for your Mother enjoying her retirement and success and good for you helping her feel comfortable enough to do this!
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Klaus the Doberman, of course!
We took little Riley to training at the local PetSmart when he was little. We did two training series. He’s not exceptional, but he’s trained pretty well. A private trainer would have made a big difference.
We’re one of those households that turns on the AC in April, and turn it off in October. There are only a few nights a year when we open the windows. I honestly have no idea what it costs us extra, since we’ve never done it any other way!
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My splurges are quality travel. We are on a Viking cruise from Tokyo to Hong Kong and we flew Business Class. This is our fourth Viking Cruise and have two more booked. This is expensive, but my consulting income takes care of the guilt that otherwise would be present.
Another splurge is funding flights for our children to visit us.
These are not small splurges, but to my wife and I, they are the splurge we have as otherwise our needs are very simple.
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I hear such great things about Viking. We’re signed up for the Danube Waltz in April 2025 from Passau to Budapest. Also, looking into a New Zealand / Australia Viking Ocean Cruise that a friend did at the end of last year. If we did NZ + AUS, I think I would splurge for the business class seats to get there. 🙂
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We did the Auckland to Sydney segment last December arriving in Sydney January 1. No, we did not enter the harbour to see the fireworks the night before. Note emphasis on the spelling with a “u” since we are speaking of a British Colony
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