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Everyone prioritizes differently. What strikes one individual as frivolous spending may be important to another. Personally, we tend to live simply, (especially since I currently stay home, and we survive off my husband's moderate income), and value an ability to save for our futures (emergency fund, education, retirement). For me personally, shelling out for designer duds and pricey toys, especially for an infant or young child, is not especially worth it. Professional photography is wonderful, but not in our budget to enjoy on the regular, unless we skimp on putting money away for the future. Our daughter does admittedly have a nice wardrobe and some expensive gear, but she benefits from gently used items from a wonderful, close friend (with a very high household income), and surprises from a doting grandmother. Otherwise, we're all about consignment, super sales, or learning to be happy without.

However, there is something to be said for finding happiness, in the moment. Sometimes, that requires "unnecessary" spending. We have a membership to the local baby gymboree, have started shopping for a swim school, and recently attended a classical concert, for kids. When we eat out, we like to support local businesses, and enjoy a more farm-to-table experience. This tends to cost more than a quick jaunt to Applebees, so we budget for it, appropriately. We buy local, wholesome ingredients, as we cook at home, almost exclusively. I also gravitate towards "green" body and household products. All of this may seem silly to another family but again - priorities and lifestyles vary.

In the end, you can always spend or save your money in more thoughtful, intelligent ways. I try to keep our financial matters close to home, as I feel you tend to open yourself up to side eyes and criticism when you choose to be vocal about money.

@Arden: Based on some of the other comments, I went back and read some of your older posts, and I am going to revise my previous comment.

$25 / week doesn't sound like a lot until you look at what it's being spent in lieu of. Is there money being put into a college savings account? Are you putting money into a retirement account for you & your SO? Do you have an emergency cushion you can depend on in case anything happened? I personally would not spend 10% of my income on anything fun *if* all those other more important, necessary matters were not being fully and completely funded.

From your other posts, it sounded like your family was struggling financially quite a bit and were on government assistance. If that's the case, then yes, I personally *DO* think it's frivolous to spend on designer clothing for a baby or professional photographs. I feel like people should be 100% self-reliant (and be able to remain so, which means making sure you have enough saved up in case an emergency or catastrophe hits) *before* spending money on luxury goods.

I'm going to agree w/ @MamaMoose: (I feel like lately I've been concurring w/everything you write!) and say ultimately, it's your money, do as you will, and if you don't want people to comment on your spending habits, don't talk about it.

@Arden: I'll be the odd one out and say...you're still allowed to live even if you're on a tight budget! $25 a week, for second hand brand name clothes isn't horrible. You could resell them if they stay in good shape, which is likely since they are high quality. And you know what...we made a third of what we make now when B was one, we paid through the nose for family photos and yeah, we had to do without to pay for them but it was so worth it. We'll never have that time back with him and coming down the stairs in my house now and looking at some of our photos, makes my day. Especially now that he's going into kindergarten next year. No, our savings wasn't ideal back then but it took sometime to get there.

It's your life, your money and it's about what makes you happy. As long as you (in general) continue to strive to be better then I don't see a problem at all.

We prioritize saving and putting money away for retirement. We also live well below our means. After that we pay our bills and spend money frugally. I worked hard for my money I'm going to work hard to spend it too.

We've never been criticized unless you count my in laws making comments about what we do have.

@Smurfette: perfectly stated!