"I realise I can not keep up with folks on vacation, so I don't even try,"
I hear ya on that. I spend way more, eat out way more, do a lot more moving around when I have visitors. I've been "accused" of staying in my yard "too much" - but that's because it always costs when you leave the yard, lol. Its all a balancing act. A lot of my friends that come down at this point have been down several times and are totally cool with doing and being without Les and I in tow.
As far as personal little things we all splurge on (aside from our vacations of course), that's the joy of life...if you love your manis and pedis, go for it and go for it as much as you can! Spoil yourself with Coach of LV bags or in my case tonnage of make up and party dresses.
Funny Wit and I are talking about our "retirement" being our homes - in the last two weeks I had my big ceiling fan break as well as my hot water heater. It took reading this thread over again to let me appreciate home-ownership instead of cursing it, lol.
The way I look at it is - to pay for my hot water heater I need to book just one job. So that's what I'm going to do!
