In advance, I was not sure where to post this; OffMyChest, NoStupidQuestions or here. Decided to do it here because it is mainly a question. However, I thought it do be better explaining it a little as well.
When I was younger, I could not really get the luxuries I wanted. Just like many others, my parents did not have heaps of wealth to spend. I did not have it bad, got a roof above my head, education, food and such. Parents would spend on luxuries if they could. My siblings usually bought the more expensive things (Atari, Nintendo, PS1 and PS2 etc). My parents did purchase PS4 and a decent gaming pc for me back in the day. One time my father told me ‘’if you just show that you are seriously studying and if money allows, I will get you anything in luxury. However, money is the boss’’ (money is the boss as in, only if we got enough money to spent for it and not get into financial issues).
Because of that I have learnt to live kind of frugal in terms of money (for myself). I find it hard to spend money on expensive things. It took months to purchase a great gaming PC and a Steam Deck (loving the heck of it though). However, spending money on my parents (mostly my mother) is no issue. I do it without a thinking, as long as I know it makes them happy.
Now, I always wanted a MacBook since I was a teenager. I can afford to get one, I saved up for it and will not have any financial issues. I budget ever since getting my job, everything is already set (saving up for car stuff, emergency funds for both myself and parents, pension saving and even saved up for new glasses for whenever that’s needed). Yet with all of that, I still feel not comfortable paying a lot for something that’s ‘’not necessary’’ and that’s just a ‘’luxury product’’. I feel like the money, I would spent for the MacBook could better be saved towards either emergency funds or car stuff (car theory exam, the car itself etc).
Now, I’m curious if other people deal (or have dealt) with this and what is this called? How to be more at ease with spending for fun instead of always being on edge.
Note: I checked the rules and it said this is not a support community but that seemed more related to tech-stuff. If it was also meant for this kind of question. Apologies, I will ask in another community.
I have a similar childhood history. One thing that works for me is comparing what the daily use cost for the thing is. Like with a laptop, it may cost $2k, and I may use it almost every day for 5 years, which comes out to a little over one dollar a day which is not too expensive. However, something like a pair of binoculars that may cost like $500, but I only use them 4 times a year for 5 years would be $25 per day that I use them even though they cost 1/4 as much as the laptop.
Also with the laptop, if you use it every day, going from a $1k laptop with a daily use cost of $0.50 a day to $1.00 a day is not a major jump in total daily cost, so going for a more expensive laptop that is going to make your daily experience better may be worth it, whereas going for binoculars that cost twice as much would cost $25 more per use, which is a much more significant dollar amount per use.
Another way to assess the laptop price it is to compare everything else that costs you $1 a day. You may even be able to cut out $1 a day from your budget. Like if you live in a cold climate, just don't warm up your car as long every day. Or buy a small size food thing instead of a large. Or skip eating out one day every two weeks.
I'm sure some folks will disagree with this though process, but it has worked for me, and has helped me assess the value of things in my life that I may not give much thought to because they are not glamorous, like a mattress.