Val-U?

Lifting from Workitmom.com blog post by Miss Britt. Because she's a smartie.

The question is: What's worth your money?
Really, what's worth the time you put in earning that money?

What would you honestly rather have than the time or dollars, and what's not worth the investment of YOU?
Britt's response was that she values, among other things, warmth.  Quality warm clothes, and warm environments. Putting value on a tropical vacation to escape from New Jersey in March is sounding mighty fine this week. Snow? Really?
Excuse me while I grab a sweater.

What's really worth your hard-earned money?
A roof over the heads of me & mine. Dinner on table.  Clothes, toothpaste, electricity, etc., yes, yes...

Me? Um, Dunkin Donuts coffee?

Ok, really? I buy my kids cheapo clothes, because they're only going to grow out of them, even if they do pass them on to someone else.  Same with shoes.  Payless and Target for me & hubby, shoe-wise.  I've worked and conversed with women who would turn up an upper-middle class nose at that thought. On my KIDS' feet??  *Shudder* 

 Bob refuses we refuse to buy smart phones and pay extra for data plans.  Less concerned about the budget, I'm going along with that as a self-imposed guard against the delicious temptation of being online and available 24/7.

We do eat out about once a week, and we adore the diner.
We shop at Walmart, and we budget obsessively carefully for everything, down to the sub-category. .  Ok, Bob does the budget, but I consent to it.  "Anything can be accomplished with a spreadsheet.", that's my  man.  
I think the prices for Jersey shore houses are criminal.
I just had a scandalizing conversation with a work friend who thought $150 for a miracle swimsuit that makes you look 10 pounds thinner is a giant steal.  Hmm, does it take 10 pounds off every limb, and cover me ankle to wrist? No? Put it back on the rack, baby.

It's only a miracle if I actually have this figure when I take it off, too.

I did, however, just drop $113 on French horn repair.  $113 is not a really tiny drop in our obsessive household budget bucket.  But part of my 30-something pre-midlife crisis is realizing that, while I initially didn't miss it, I used to get joy from this beautiful, creative outlet. And hey, the poor thing got neglected.  Babies, they do that to instruments you used to play.

Meet my other "baby".  Holton Farkas, H279. 

We haven't hung out in a while.

We also bought ourselves a really "decent" memory foam mattress pad a few months ago. 
When I do get to nod off, I like to do so with my back cradled by visco-elastic memory foam.  Ahhhh!

I purposefully don't take extra clubs, camp jobs, or summer programs, for which I'd be paid nicely, because I'd rather have that piece of Summer than extra money.  I will do them one day, when my kids aren't little kids.  Right now, Summer is my taste of staying home with my babies.

So... personal creative fulfillment, sleep, and time to just be with my family, workstress-free.  In the world of designer boots and dollar menus, that's what's worth my money.

I'm wondering what other people think is worth theirs.