When I retired 6 years ago, I did so because I thought a couple of things pointed to it being the right time. I was old enough and had worked long enough I figured it was about time to transition, and I had enough money in retirement accounts to convince myself that I'd never have to eat cat food.

I've never been particularly frugal although I've also never been one to deny myself whatever I may want. Luckily my wants have never been too extreme once I reached the point where basic comforts were guaranteed. During that first year of retirement, we just maintained our lifestyle and I don't believe we splurged on anything out of the ordinary. During the second year we decided to treat ourselves to an upgrade to our old falling apart motorhome and spent about $60K (after trade-ins) on a new small camper and light duty truck to haul it around with. It was at that point that we realized we still had appreciably more money left in the bank of us than we had when I retired so we began to think that anything over that retirement day balance was available for splurging purposes.

During years 3 and 4 post retirement we spent several months each year wandering around the country and spent $60 or $70K upgrading a few things around the house and realized that afterwards, we still had a pretty decent buffer zone between our day 1 balance and the current one so, in year 5 we spent a little over $80K upgrading our pool and landscaping in the back yard. And, we're still significantly above that comfort zone in our balances so we're contemplating next year's splurges. Probably a bigger camper and heavy duty truck to take on a 3 to 4 month trip to Alaska and back next summer, that is after our annual couple of month warm weather wander about beginning in November.

I guess we mostly 'blow dough' on experiences and whatever accoutrements necessary to enhance those experiences.