@ARC- streaks of teal! Intriguing! I don’t really know if I’m going gray yet – my roots seem to grow in dark. That said, the good thing about the hair coloring being $9/pop and doable in an hour is that I don’t need to wait too long in between rounds of it, so I don’t know that I’d see too much gray in any case!

Interesting! We generally use the joint account for clothing and haircuts. I think we figured out that we are close(ish) on haircuts – he gets a $30-40 haircut every 6 weeks or so, while my haircut/color is around $150 but is only 3-4 times a year.

@Kathleen – this seems like a fascinating topic – I think I need to explore this. I’ve always more liked the model for men’s clothes – items that may be more expensive but are meant to be worn frequently and last. I’m willing to pay quite a bit for a staple (black trousers, pencil skirt, good jacket) that will last for years but even high-end women’s clothes are often seen as disposable, like the consumer will want a new one next year so why make it well.

Not frugal about home renovations, as a staggering $255k over the last 12 months attests. But it’s soooo pretty!

This is really interesting. While my husband and I both need to do professional dress, I always thought his wardrobe was more expensive because suits are such investments, even if he can wear the same 3 every week.

Say I want 20 dresses to wear for a month-long outfit rotation. At $200 each that’s $4000, but his three me basic Brooks Brothers suits are $1500 a pop – so $4500 – plus he needs dress shirts and ties, and he’s wearing each suit about 7-8 times a month. (We both need shoes, so we’ll call that a wash.)

Agreed! For a slightly different take- I had an interesting conversation with a friend once about figuring out what expenses in a household are “joint” versus the responsibility of one partner (obviously this isn’t in a “one bucket” family where all income goes into the same pot, but in a family where there is some sort of division… also an interesting conversation!). She was trying to make the point that the financial outlay necessary for her to look appropriate for work was higher than is (she also worked in an industry requiring more professional dress and also felt like some beauty treatments were necessary and not optional/just preferences). I thought this was a really interesting point! My partner and I are not “one bucketers” (we have a joint account and then both have separate accounts as well), but I put all clothing/personal care expenses on my own tab. He does the same, but I’m pretty confident I spend more.

Just interesting!

@Jo- so true. I even get annoyed by how much time it takes to get my hair cut! My stylist has noted that I am not in there nearly as often as some of her other clients, though she did frame it as this making it satisfying to cut my hair (she can actually cut something real off, as opposed to minuscule bits of hair).