How do you afford your bags and how many per year? Credit debt or millionare lover?

newlyminted said:
I read a NY Times article that said the majority of women buying highend designer bags (e.g.more than $1000 per bag) were between 20-35, and had average income of 40k a year. I guess most bag purchasers would fall into the credit/sugar daddy category then.

:amazed: WOW! I guess I was underestimating my conservativeness!!! My DH makes 10 times that and I've NEVER spent 1K on a bag! {yet!}
 
ayla said:
Out of curiousity, is your username a reference to the movie Totoro ? I love the cat bus in that movie, so cute !

that's a great guess! however, the reality is that i'm really lame. :shame: my friends call me neko, and nekomobile is what i call my car. i also loved the cat bus in totoro, and i have a little magnet of it on my fridge!
 
nekomobile said:
that's a great guess! however, the reality is that i'm really lame. :shame: my friends call me neko, and nekomobile is what i call my car. i also loved the cat bus in totoro, and i have a little magnet of it on my fridge!

That's a really cute name for a car though, 猫の車 ! :lol: I'd love to have a TT myself, they look like they're so much fun to drive. Until then, I've got Brunhilda, my Volvo !
 
I am a college grad, a full time 50 hrs a week business development coordinator (advertising) for Mercedes-Benz and it's a crappy ass job so I'm in school part time for nursing. I'm married and a mother of a soon to be 1 year old on feb 15th. I use whatever we have extra and whatever money I make by selling handbags and clothing on Ebay.
 
i'm 16 years old and a junior in high school. my mother is really good about getting me purses, clothes, and such that i like. i generally get a few for christmas and some throughout the year for whatever reason. i have very high end taste, which i think comes from my environment, so i am very picky about what i will wear and carry. my favorite handbag designers (and the ones i'm reluctant to stray from) are chanel, luella, and chloe.

most of my handbag purchases come directly from my mother and are given to me as gifts. although, i do have a platinum credit card (since my parents wont let us work until we are out of graduate school and beginning a career, they agree to pay for our expenses), which i guess i could put towards handbags, but i don't.

my mother also has a wonderful handbag collection that i'm not allowed to borrow from, sadly. but she makes up for it by the wonderful things she gives me. i suppose i'm just very fortunate.
 
I'll be 49 in March, am married with one child (8 year old boy with developmental disabilities). I've worked since I was 16 even while in college, and am a firm believer in paying my own way. For most of my working life I made a pretty meager salary, but in the last 5 years I've had a couple of promotions and now make decent money. I put the max into my 401K each month, and we save some on top of that to go toward taking care of our son after we're gone. We live pretty modestly, a small house that could stand some remodeling, two older cars that are paid for, and not a lot of fancy vacations other than our annual ski vacation. We don't carry any debt besides our mortgage. Most of my clothes are Ann Taylor/Banana Republic sale items, and bags are the only thing that I really splurge on.
 
Eskimo said:
i'm 16 years old and a junior in high school. my mother is really good about getting me purses, clothes, and such that i like. i generally get a few for christmas and some throughout the year for whatever reason. i have very high end taste, which i think comes from my environment, so i am very picky about what i will wear and carry. my favorite handbag designers (and the ones i'm reluctant to stray from) are chanel, luella, and chloe.

most of my handbag purchases come directly from my mother and are given to me as gifts. although, i do have a platinum credit card (since my parents wont let us work until we are out of graduate school and beginning a career, they agree to pay for our expenses), which i guess i could put towards handbags, but i don't.

my mother also has a wonderful handbag collection that i'm not allowed to borrow from, sadly. but she makes up for it by the wonderful things she gives me. i suppose i'm just very fortunate.

i'm not trying to criticize your parents' ideas, but a work history might be quite helpful in getting a job later. will they not even let you have interships and stuff?
 
I am 33 and work as a web developer for a very large corporation. I have no debt of any kind (unless you count car payment) and am very good about saving my money. I have one credit card with a $10,000 limit, and I rarely use it for anything except perhaps one nice purchase every couple of months. Basically I am very financially responsible, but still allow myself to enjoy the nice things I want.

Bags are really my only vice. I don't splurge on expensive designer shoes or jeans or jewelry. Just bags :smile:
 
So interesting! I just turned 30 and am the mother of a two -year old son. We're both in-house counsel but at different companies.Finances are good, but we're both firm believers in living below our means (at least slightly) And we pay cash for everything, including my bags!
 
I'm 17 years old and a senior in high school. I'm so lucky to have extremely generous parents & boyfriend. My parents don't buy me bags, but they do buy me clothes. I buy my own accessories so I only get bags after months of saving up or my boyfriend gets me one. I don't have a job yet, but I'm planning to get one when summer starts, but right now I'm trying to work really hard on my grades so I can get into the college of my choice. I can't wait to get out into the world and start making my own money and really start living my own life. Maybe then, I'll have the money to afford some of the bags that you ladies have!
 
amanda- haha, i actually am allowed to do internships and gain a bit of work experience. but, i am not supposed to work in order to earn money. my parents believe that focusing on earning money while you're in school is distracting. they want me to concentrate on my education and being a kid.
 
TheArtofAcquisition said:
I am wondering who everyone is: are we 35+ year old lawyers with money to spare? 19 year old girls with boyfriends who love us with purses? 23 year olds in college with credit debt up to our ears? You don't have to disclose your age if you don't want to, but are you in your twenties? Are you employed? With a sugar-daddy? Married to a millionare? Wishing you were married to a millionare but instead just spending a majority of your clothing money on purses or even accumulating debt? How many purses do you buy a year? If you buy one every few years, what is it about that bag that makes you dig out your wallet vs. another year? When it comes to spending money are you saving it for the purse or the clothes?

I'll get started. I'm 26 and a recent college graduate. I am pondering my first non-coach bag purchase (thanks to my boyfriend who donated $1000). I value clothes as well as purses, buying some designer things but mostly Zara, Banana Republic, and H&M. As I am between jobs I do have a credit debt problem but I am stealthfully working on that and fully confident that I will soon either pick a winning loto ticket or be a billionare's wife.

Sounds like a marketing research thread to me....:suspiciou

I could be way off base...but my radar is going off. Careful gals....
 
Eskimo said:
i'm 16 years old and a junior in high school. my mother is really good about getting me purses, clothes, and such that i like. i generally get a few for christmas and some throughout the year for whatever reason. i have very high end taste, which i think comes from my environment, so i am very picky about what i will wear and carry. my favorite handbag designers (and the ones i'm reluctant to stray from) are chanel, luella, and chloe.

most of my handbag purchases come directly from my mother and are given to me as gifts. although, i do have a platinum credit card (since my parents wont let us work until we are out of graduate school and beginning a career, they agree to pay for our expenses), which i guess i could put towards handbags, but i don't.

my mother also has a wonderful handbag collection that i'm not allowed to borrow from, sadly. but she makes up for it by the wonderful things she gives me. i suppose i'm just very fortunate.

I'm 19, and like Eskimo, my parents forbid me from working during this time in my life. They don't approve of internships either, so it takes a great deal to convince them otherwise. Since my parents run a business, I spend most of my summer/breaks helping around at the office.

I have a generous allowance per month or more depending on what I need at the moment. However, it's imperative I maintain my GPA. If I don't, they're likely to cut me off for the month until I redeem myself. It's their way of making me completely dependent on them...! Realistically, I'd like to have a part-time job to prove I'm not doing well academically solely for their support. :suspiciou

Anyway, my friends don't have parents who blindly fork $$ (regardless of their financial situation) without some sort of compensation. Moral? Nothing comes free. I'm sure Eskimo does something to earn her parents' generosity.
 
I'm 22 and about to graduate with my degree in poli sci this summer :biggrin:

I make a little money doing research for a project I'm working on, but the majority of my bag funds come from my family. I am free to buy w/e I choose within generous reason as long as my grades are good and I don't gain criminal status or anything :lol: