If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

do you still indulge in other luxuries?

Going out to eat?
Shopping (for unnecessary items)
Vacations?

DH and I love to travel. We haven't done much traveling recently (besides trips back to NY and a long weekend in San Francisco last year) because we are saving up money for all of our IF treatments. Sometimes I feel like I compare the costs... Okay a trip is $___ and another FET costs $___ and then I can't imagine spending the money. Or the same for unnecessary shopping luxuries. A few years back, I'd think nothing of saving up money for a new Gucci bag or whatever... now I think - Well that would be ___% of another cycle.

We still go out to eat every Friday night... and I can definitely live without another Gucci bag or new pair of shoes or new clothes...

but I'm just torn when it comes to vacationing.

What are your thoughts on these things?

Re: If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

Going out to eat and shopping are one thing, no I wouldn't buy a new flat screen TV or a large purchase. And now, I wouldn't make any big vacation plans. I don't like to live in debt that can't be paid off quickly, other than my house or a car.

But everyone's financial situation is different. I am sure I was of no help whatsoever!!!

But here's all my support for you anyway!

Re: If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

We still go out to eat, but I don't shop like I used to. Target has become my bff.

As for vacations, it's been almost two years, and we MIGHT go on a trip to FL, but nothing extravagant since we've already dipped into our vaca fund for this past cycle.

Re: If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

We haven't been on vacation in a few years but we do go away for a few days here and there. Also we do treat ourselves to shopping (DH did just buy a flat screen!) but we are generally very careful with our spending which allows us some treats every so often.
It definitely is not easy. I don't buy much for myself at all.

Re: If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

We go out to eat but not as much as we used to. And we are frugal about it.

Trips are totally out of the question. It's impossible.

No new clothes for us. But once the new season comes around we are going to get a few very cheap clothing items.

Re: If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

Re: If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

We paid OOP for everything. We put it all on a 0% credit card and worked our tails off to get it paid off quickly. I looked at it like a big car payment (yeah, BIG!!). Luckily we were able to pay it off within a few months, but we really cut back on trips, going out to dinner and buying big things. Our vacations since then have just been small trips to places we can drive to.

Re: If you pay OOP for IF treatments...

We paid OOP for all of our IF treatments. We did the same as the pp & put it on a 0% AMEX card. We are still paying it off monthly but have made it a point to cut back in other aspects of our lives. We didn't overindulge before we started with the IF but we were more conscious of the $$ spent since we knew we had this big bill to pay off.