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Contest: What’s Your Splurge?

What’s the best book you’ll read this year? The Times says it’s The TENTH OF DECEMBER, a new collection of stories by George Saunders. I was fortunate to attend a library event recently where Saunders read a short piece and talked about writing. I was struck not only with his wit and intelligence, but great humanity. This book is wonderful and can be yours, if you submit the winning entry for our contest.

To enter, answer the question: what’s your splurge? This is partly inspired by one of the stories from the collection in which a father wins some lottery money and splurges on his family. Also, I’ll be announcing the winner on tax day, April 15. So share with us one thing you dream of splurging on. (The scale of the splurge is up to you.) Submit your entry using the Comments section. Include your first name. If you win, we’ll email for your U.S. shipping address, and telephone number. By submitting you’ll become an FPS subscriber (if you’re not already). Please submit only one splurge per entry, though feel free to enter as often as you like. Deadline is April 10, 2013.

Discussion

47 comments for “Contest: What’s Your Splurge?”

  1. Anna says:

    When I have a little money I buy books.

  2. Emily says:

    My next splurge is happening in one month. I am taking my mother and her best friend to Palm Springs for a spa weekend (the best friend’s son lives on the east coast), and to see my brother, who hasn’t been able to come to mother’s day in 10 years because he lives in SoCal.

    Neither of them know where we are going, the day we fly down is when they learn what city we are going to, and from that they will figure out that we are going to see my brother (her son), and will unfold the spa/dinner/fancyhotel surprises over the weekend.

    Hopefully neither of them read this blog and spoil the surprise.

  3. Lew says:

    Splurged on NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament tickets for my mom (87) and me this past weekend. She’s a FANATIC UConn women’s hoops fan and she got to see “my girls” up close (about 15 rows from the floor). She loved it. Next splurges (assuming $$ keep coming in): Tango lessons, tennis lessons and the big splurge next year: Trip to the World Cup in Brazil.

  4. Paulette says:

    I’m turning 50 next year and I would love to do something big to celebrate it for me and my mom, who will be 79 and righth now is still mobile to get around and do things. If I came into money, I woukd splurge on a big weekend trip in Boston, a weekend stay at the Lenox, take in a show at the theater district, maybe dinner at the Top of the Hub restaurant at the Prudential Center…who better to celebrate one’s 50th with than the woman responsible for bringing me into this world? I plan to do something like what I wrote above, but if I had mega money, I could afford the Lenox! (it’s a very nice hotel in Boston’s Back Bay).

    • wendy says:

      I adore staying at nice hotels. It makes the world of difference to my enjoying a trip. Your excursion with Mom sounds like something great to strive for.

  5. @sarahspy says:

    i would really like to visit Greece! i am slowly saving money, bit by bit, to fund this trip 🙂

  6. I splurge on lingerie for myself. Regularly. I splurge on my nieces with trips to Europe. Took one to London and Paris last Month for her 21st birthday. She came home with a broader perspective and a larger wardrobe thanks to Aunt Beth.

  7. Robert says:

    Depending on how much I have to use, mine would be a nice lunch at a Chinese restaurant for my mother and myself. I would also indulge in buying a ton of books to read.

  8. April says:

    I splurged some of my tax refund this year on an iRobot vacuum. I totally love it!

  9. kay says:

    Hawaiian Host chocolate covered macadamia nuts. More expensive than regular chocolate. More cholesterol than regular chocolate. More delicious than regular chocolate. Its a splurge in more ways than one. I have one everyday after dinner!

  10. PerryLab says:

    I don’t have the money right now, but when I do I like to splurge on nice office furniture. Fancy adjustable office chairs, elegant unobtrusive strong desks, tables, etc.

    I really like working with things that are adjustable, without a lot of support beams (the structure is inherently strong), and that feel really solid.

    Good post.

    • wendy says:

      A few years ago, one of my great splurges was an Aeron Chair. It could be the best money I’ve ever spent.

  11. Emily says:

    There are lean years, when I just take them to lunch on Mother’s Day, and there are better years, and sometimes there are years that you just say To Hell With It All and give them a Mother’s Day they’ll never forget. That is 2013.

  12. Bonnie K. says:

    My splurge would be to travel. My mother is from England; so, I want to see the area she grew up plus many of the historical landmarks and gardens. My husband also wants to visit Ireland and Wales. He’s especially interested in visiting the whiskey distilleries and Guinness. After traveling, then I would splurge on many books and have a library room built for my books and reading pleasure.

  13. Tess says:

    If my friends and I can get our plans together (fingers crossed!) mine is going to be climbing Kilimanjaro!

  14. Karen says:

    This winter (which still continues), keeping the heat on all day (http://www.scottishpower.com/).

    Followed by (depending on my mood):

    Highland Stoneware (http://www.highlandstoneware.com/).

    Life is Good tee-shirts (http://www.lifeisgood.com/).

    OS maps and walking books (http://www.dash4it.co.uk/)

  15. Karen says:

    Oops, I goofed. I missed the line that said one splurge per entry, sooo sorry! Nothing worse than messing up your very first post. I think I’d have to go for heat being the big splurge.

  16. Rosanne says:

    My personal indulgence that I allow myself every once in a blue moon is buying a few pieces of Heath ceramics for my home. I can hardly ever justify the price, but I just love the feel of their pieces in my hands and I love the simple elegance of their lines.

    My main other splurge, if it can be called that, is to spend money on my sister who gets by on earning next to nothing as an income but won’t ever accept direct money from family to help her out – which lets me go completely overboard whenever there is the slightest reason for a gift for her. It is one of the most rewarding ways I spend extra money as it always seems to be so much more valuable in her hands given that I know she can’t afford much herself.

    • wendy says:

      There’s a Heath ceramics store not far from me, and I love going inside and touching it all. A worthy splurge.

  17. Stephanie says:

    An everyday luxury or splurge is a Cherry Limeade from Sonic. It always makes me smile and it is half-price bwteen 2-4 in the afternoon. A “yay you make it through the day” treat for myself. If the soda kills me at least I will be moderately happy about it.

  18. Kate P says:

    My once- to twice-a-month splurge is the coffee I buy myself on my way to my weekend side job at the public library.

    (Most of the time I mix Hazelnut and Dark Roast, but if by some miracle there’s Kona, I do a silent happy dance and mix that with the Hazelnut!)

  19. Sinead says:

    Dinner at a different Michelin star restaurant twice a year. Full tasting menu with different wines at each course. The memories live on and on …

  20. kaye says:

    i would take my mother to the blue ridge mountains for an entire summer. she is in her 60s and still clocking 60-70 hour weeks at the inner-city school she has been working at for almost five years. She purposefully chose to transfer from a school with more resources to this school to help build a community of compassionate scholars in a part of town most people would rather forget exists at all. anyway, she works really hard and is there from early in the morning to late at night, she brings lunches for her students who do not have any, she encourages them to never settle, to always work hard and think hard and be of service–all without ever complaining about the millions of completely legimate complaints she and every teacher could easily verbalize due to inadequate funding, teaching to a test, etc.

    anyway, because of all of this, i would whisk her (and my amazingly talented sister who is also a teacher) away to my mother’s favorite place for the summer: the blue ridge mountains, somewhere within driving distance of DC for days in town. we would stay in a cozy cabin with a big kitchen and lots of windows and a porch with comfy chairs so we could all sit in the sun and read and doze and look at the mountains.

    i feel fortunate that i can actually accomplish this for a shorter weeklong trip this summer, but my absolute ultimate splurge would be the one just described: a tribute to her lifetime of public service and putting others first. the ultimate splurge!

    sidenote: i loved reading everyone’s comments, i hope everyone gets to treat themselves to some variation of their ultimate splurge this year!

  21. Meghan says:

    I always wanted to take my mother to Paris.

    Then a few weeks ago, she told me that she would want to spend two days in Paris and then a week in Rome.

    So now, I want to take my mother to Paris, and then Rome.

  22. Kate P says:

    I forgot to add my “dream” splurge–music. I would go to town on iTunes and download everything I ever loved. Even the guilty pleasure stuff. That’s been the toughest thing to go without, making less money, because I’m a singer.

  23. Beth says:

    The splurge I dream about? If I win the lottery? Pay off my mortgage, pay off my kids grad school debt, and then see the world, one city at a time…

  24. Nicole says:

    Three years ago, I left CA where I’d lived all my life so that I could move to the DC metro area and experience 2 things I’d always dreamed of experiencing- the beauty of autumn, and attending the ballet regularly. Now, I splurge on 1st tier balcony seats at the Kennedy Center whenever the NYCB, ABT, or Mariinsky is in town, and go on long walks during autumn.

    • wendy says:

      I’ve never been at the Kennedy Center, and that’s a dream of mine too. Glad you’re getting to live it.

  25. Dana says:

    My splurge is time alone with healthy doses of silence.

  26. Christine says:

    My splurge is a new book.

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