What Was Your First Big Purchase After Separating or Retiring?

A very nice horse

Buying a house

39J Providence Motor Home to get away from my evil, mean and nasty wife. My dog concurred.

A Toyota RAV4

My first big purchase was a home. We used the VA Homeloan and I 100% encourage all SM to educate themselves on the use of it especially in todays market. It’ll really save you as far as interest rates and competition.

Big for me at the time, it was a backpacking pack. $180, but in 1979 that was not cheap.

When my then-husband and I separated from the Army, we settled near my family and started looking for work. We had a second-hand Ford my ex's Dad had let us have cheap, but we needed 2 cars for 2 jobs and babysitter care in Southern California. We went to the Dodge dealer (they were advertising a big sale) and picked out a new compact. After some discussion, we discussed the monthly payment and asked what we had to put down to get payments under $150/month. The man said "$2,000.00 should do it" and I pulled out our checkbook. The salesman was flabbergasted! We had saved our entire last year to have a large checking cache available for "settling in" to civilian life, and this was our first major purchase.

I saved a lot of money being in the field 20-days out of the month. My first major purchase (in 1981), was a 1974 Chevy Impala, a BBQ grill, bed, 4 spoons, 4 forks, 4 plates, 4 cups, a twin bed, a chest, and a lot of hangers. My first apartment (age 19).

Purchased 10 Cases of MRE's. Especially the ones that had the tortillas and the Mexican entrees.

1965 Catalina convertible!