Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is

Today I have an interesting conversation with a fellow expat, also new to Paris, that gets me thinking.  I tell him about our apartment saga and expect him to commiserate, but instead he says, "Oh, that's because you have standards."  He got a fine apartment sight unseen, furnished, and not in his first choice location of the 8th, but just one arrondissement away in the 9th.  It's not huge, but he's divorced, and his daughter is only with him part of the week, at which point he can take her by metro just a couple stops to her school.  It is less expensive for him this way -- more affordable than our apartment by a long shot -- and he says he'd much rather save money on his apartment so he can go out and buy fabulous French clothes, eat at cafés frequently, and even pay for a weekly maid and laundry service. 

I get to thinking about this, because I can totally see the logic in it.  And yet, I would much rather save money by not hiring a maid and by doing my own laundry, and eat at home most of the time (much healthier, often just as tasty, and we get to control the timing and speed of the meal).  I like to eat out and make it really count, but not pay 7€ (yes, I finally found the Euro sign), or $10, for a cup of tea and a chunk of bread for breakfast.  I have enough clothes to last a lifetime and, as Anthony will attest, not enough closet space for anything new even if I was tempted by French fashion which (Sacrilege Alert) frankly doesn't excite me any more than my Goodwill wardrobe.  There's a kitchen store that really rocks my world, and if you ever get a gift from me from France, you can bet that's where I'll be getting it, but my kitchen's too small for anything other than a couple modest purchases.

There are three things I could be spending money on: housing, travel, and shopping/dining/drinking out -- city life, I guess you'd call it.  Perhaps having kids and working from home skews my answer toward spending it on housing.  And if it comes down to travel or shopping, it's not even a contest for me.  But you can't take a great view home with you, whereas your clothes, art purchases, jewelry, those are portable.  So, it's made me very curious: how would you allocate your money?  Am I in the minority here?  Would everybody rather spend their hard-earned cash on fabulous fashion and restaurants than a great view?  This is not rhetorical; I'm actually asking.  Think of it as an informal survey.  Inquiring minds like mine want to know.