I feel QUITE rich.

Sparkling wine is even better. You can get Andre, my favorite, for about $5 when it’s on sale.

I recently visited the Hillwood Museum and Gardens in D.C. The mansion and accompanying gardens belonged to Marjorie Merriweather Post, a very wealthy woman. I absolutely loved examining, photographing, and learning about all of the beautiful items she purchased over her life time.

The tea, cheese, crackers, scones, etc. provided in the cafe seemed like such a delicacy. Champagne was provided as well. Until I have my own, it’s good to know I can enjoy someone else’s wealth even if only for a few hours.

Commanding my time pretty much tops the list of what makes me feel rich. I work from home so I can be flexible with the use of my time…that gives me a feeling of empowerment!

Other activities that make me feel rich:

1. Paying myself first. The first thing I do with the money I make is pay myself.

2. Discovering a “new outfit” from the same clothes I have, but had not thought of wearing together. For example, the other day when trying out some of my clothes, I discovered there was a top I had never thought of wearing with a certain skirt that looked amazing together! Now I have a “new” outfit!

3. When I realize I have so much to be grateful for.

-Romy

Another “feel rich” moment for me is going for brunch with a friend on a weekday. I too work from home and have been for the past nine years. This lifestyle allows me to hang out when I want with friends and it’s very decadent to be eating brunch on an open air terasse while others are locked away in office buildings. Thanks for asking and tale care.

Lyle

Lol, easy! I take the money that I save and I invest it in silver. Even if I don’t have very much (being a college student and all), being able to touch something valuable makes all the difference. Hoorah, ramen noodles and silver!

1) Having cut flowers in the house. Fresh cut flowers are a total indulgence for me, and I feel like one of society’s elite on the odd occasion that I have a bouquet sitting on my kitchen table.

2) Sipping a leisurely glass of wine after work. My husband and I will sometimes crack open one of our fire-sale bottles. It’s amazing the kind of wine you can get for $12 or less if you know who carries overstock wine. I regularly find phenominal bottles of reserve stock that the wineries need to unload after a year of heavy production. A nice glass of blood-red wine is a particularly sensual indulgence.

3) Going out for coffee with my husband. We very, very rarely go out for dinner, but if we feel like going out somewhere, we’ll pick one of our favourite restaurants and go after the dinner rush is over. It’s more about being in each other’s comapny and conversation rather than food, and we usually end up getting plain coffee. Sometimes we’ll share a dessert. The experience is just as good – or even better, I’d say, as it’s more quiet and relaxed – than a full dinner evening and at a fraction of the cost.

Seeing it’s ‘Be nice to Brenda-day’ let me put in my two cents : It’s their loss and your gain if They don’t look beyond whatever’s holding them back. So there !

I’ll use the machine to make gifts, simple garments and crafts. It’s a high-quality brand that will last me well into my retirement years. One of the days, it may acutally pay for itself.

Come to think of it, owning such a nice machine and thinking about its potential to save me money (not to mention deliver unmeasurable creative satisfaction) makes me feel rich.

a clean, well cared for home, well maintained, mortgage free, that is all mine.

my two cats.

my very secure job. doesn’t pay much, but is stable and will give me a nice retirement.

i do have financial peace, and a new found faith that things do work out. for example, I choose to tithe 10% to my church. what happens is i always seem to end the month with an extra 35-100 bucks.

another example is I recently finished baby step 3. i decided to reconnect cable, with U-verse bundled service of home phone, cell phone, internet, and cable. what happened is that i was able to drop a number of services like virus checking that i had been paying for earlier. so it actually worked out cheaper.

i love to use my fine crystal and china.

Having an emergency fund that now has 3.5 months of expenses in it…and is increasing every month.

Sitting on the couch, snuggled up next to my husband watching our favorite shows while the kids are upstairs asleep.

That’s the good life.

I agree with the comments about keeping the house and car clean/organized. The process of keeping my things nice forces me to handle them and think about and appreciate all of things I own.

Before starting my debt repayment plan a couple of months ago I spent a lot of time really hating my mish-mash of hand-me-down and second-hand furniture. I went to great effort to shop for (and wonder how I would afford to pay for) the eventual new purchase. Now that I am determined to pay cash for the new stuff, and only after my debts are paid, I have a new appreciation for the furniture that will provide me with a place to sit and put my cup of tea until that day comes. My thoughts echo those of other posts. I am extremely fortunate to live in America with rooms full of furniture and food in the fridge.

That is knowing the movies are delivered, even though I am sure to save money going to find a redbox $1 machine.

My brother-in-law showed me how to hook my laptop to the tv, so I can download “free” movies, as soon as I buy the cable adapter I need.

Today my kids are grown but have financial skills unusual for their generation, a benefit I should have anticipated but didn’t.

Today we ate fresh organic peas out of the garden, better than anything we could buy.

Attending broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera at the local theater makes me feel rich now. No hour and a half drive, no parking fee, and the best seat in the house. I actually pity the folks who paid $300 to see it in New York.

Reflecting on why, it actually does make me feel rich because I have the feeling of being in a luxury hotel. All it takes is a few details. I caught onto stocking big fluffy towels way before the “hotel chic” thing was in, and such items have become more affordable these days. But really, when I have people over, I think how nice it is to not have to be afraid of a messy toilet or that kind of thing. They can be completely at ease.

Maybe I’ve gone too far though, some friends think I’m freakishly tidy and it makes them uncomfortable

I feel rich because I telecommute; no traffic jams, no office b.s., and my schedule is my own. I feel RICH when I take a walk outside my tiny, old house and take a twirl around my 4 acres with my dogs. There are eagles, hawks, kingfishers, birds of every kind, deer, beautiful firs & pines & maples, and a gorgeous creek for the dogs to play in.

I feel super rich when hubby and I go bicycling on a nearby island in the evenings. Afterwards, we watch the ships & barges sail down the Columbia river while we have our little homemade picnic supper and snuggle while watching the sun set.

I AM rich in romance. I am blessed to have found the mad, crazy, eternal love of my life and 6 years later we still hug & smooch whenever we get a chance. My heart bangs like a steel drum when he comes home from work every evening. That, my friends, is rich.