It’s no secret that celebrities get compensated pretty handsomely for what they do. Yes, they work hard, often working long hours on set or travelling around the world on a whirlwind tour. However, all that hard work comes with a sky-high salary, which means they can easily spend a bit extra on things that make their lives easier, like personal trainers, personal chefs, assistants and more. And many celebrities live lives that aren’t too crazy – sure, they’ll splurge on a nice house because they have the money to do so, and on things like high quality clothing and security, but many celebrities don’t go too crazy with the spending.
And then, there are the exceptions. The celebrities who don’t blink twice at dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on a whim, or spending way, way more on small items than anyone would ever dream of spending. After all, for these celebrities, hundreds of thousands of dollars is just a drop in the bucket of their multi-million dollar net worth – why even bother keeping track?
It can be strangely satisfying to see what types of things celebrities spend on, and just how much of their millions they’re willing to give up for things that man of us would consider unnecessary luxuries.
Here are 15 celebrities whose spending habits will make you sick (and maybe a little bit jealous, tbh.)
15 Lady Gaga
In the pop world, Lady Gaga is an absolute force to be reckoned with. Since she first stepped onto the scene, she’s been busting out chart-topping hit after chart-topping hit while constantly reinventing herself and switching up her look. It takes a lot of work to perform the way she does – but all her profits aren’t going to buying meat dresses and crazy heels. Gaga’s been willing to splurge on things that kind of leave us scratching our heads. For example, she allegedly spent over $60,000 dollars in order to buy 27 koi fish for a pond in her home. The fish were imported straight from Japan, but still – that’s over $2,000 per fish! Hopefully they were exactly what she wanted, with those prices. She’s also dropped a cool $50,000 on a ghost kit – well, high tech Electromagnetic Field meters, to be more specific. Apparently, Gaga wants to be able to detect any ghosts that might be around her. Spooky!
14 Drake
One of Drake’s most iconic lines is “started from the bottom now we here,” so it makes sense that he’d want to spend all the millions he’s earnt as a successful rapper over the years. And, while he’s made a lot of luxury purchases, from cars to homes, there’s one spending habit that will stun even the biggest Drake fan – his party fund. You see, when he was travelling and stopped in North Carolina, Drake allegedly spent about $50,000 in a single night at Cameo Nightclub. And it wasn’t just like he gave each exotic dancer a generous tip at the end of the night – he was making it rain with smaller bills, tossing so much cash around that it literally started to pile up in the club. Well, you know – if that’s how you want to spend your money, go for it. We bet those dancers were pretty darn happy he decided to walk into their club that night.
13 Soulja Boy
Okay, this is a surprising one. Everyone knows Soulja Boy’s viral hit “Crank That,” but quite honestly, we didn’t expect that one song could bring such insane profits – but apparently he’s doing quite well for himself. It turns out, Soulja Boy decided to buy himself a luxurious present once his rap career kicked off – but he didn’t just splurge on a killer watch, or even a sleek, sexy sportscar. Nope – Soulja Boy dropped $35 million on a Gulfstream G5 jet. And then, as if that weren’t enough, he spent an additional $20 million on upgrades, making sure it was exactly as he wanted it. First of all, $55 million is a crazy amount of money to spend on a private jet, a luxury that many A-List celebrities don’t even have. And second – who would have thought Soulja Boy had that kind of cash to spend? Apparently everyone needs to start working on their songwriting skills.
12 The Beckhams
It’s no secret that David and Victoria Beckham make insane cash. First of all, he was paid very well during his career as one of the biggest professional athletes in the world. Then, there’s all the modeling and sponsorship deals he got on the side. Victoria likely made good money in her years as Posh Spice, and then went on to have a successful career in the fashion industry. So, yeah – they’re doing quite well on the financial front. When it comes to splurging, the Beckhams absolutely love to spend their cash on art. Over the years, they’ve apparently put together a personal art collection worth about $33 million with pieces by some of the biggest artists out there, including fellow Brit Damien Hirst. And they’re willing to spend just about anything for their family, spend a whopping $240,000 on creating the perfect nursery for their daughter Harper – only the best for a young Beckham.
11 Rihanna
While many celebrities opt to change up their look every now and then, no one is a chameleon quite like Rihanna. RiRi has rocked nearly every shade under the sun, and had hair from long braids to short and sexy and everything in between. So, while you might assume some of her biggest expenditures are things like first-class flights and expensive bottle service, there’s one surprising area where she’s more than willing to spend with abandon – her hair. While everyone knows celebrities pay for the best of the best, and likely are dropping more cash on a blow dry or haircut than the average person, you probably wouldn’t be able to prepare yourself for RiRi’s hair expenditure. Stylist Ursula Stephen has taken on many celebrity clients, but for certain periods of time has worked as Rihanna’s personal stylist – and since Stephen charges $3,200 a day for her services, and there are times RiRi uses her skills on a daily basis, that adds up to approximately a million dollars a year. On hair.
10 Paris Hilton
While Paris Hilton might not be quite as big a deal nowadays as back in her heyday, when she was hitting all the hottest clubs in Hollywood and starring on reality television, she’s still regular fodder in the gossip magazines – but you won’t believe some of her spending habits. Everyone knows that Hilton loves her furry friends, and she basically created the Hollywood trend of carting your dog around in your bag back in the early 2000s. So, it only makes sense that she’d splurge on her four-legged friends. Apparently, Hilton commissioned a 300 square foot, two-storey dog house for her pups, designed by her personal interior decorator. It even has a closet for the puppies’ outfits. The total price tag on the project? $325,000. That’s right – Hilton built a house for her dogs for the same amount that many people around the world spend on a house for themselves.
9 Mike Tyson
There’s no doubt that Tyson is known for his crazy personality as much as for his actual skills in the boxing ring – and, like many other spendthrift professional athletes, he’s definitely not worried about preserving his millions by pinching pennies. One of his craziest purchases was for his first wife. Now, we get wanting to treat your lady with something nice – but a $2 million golden bathtub for a Christmas gift seems a little over the top, even for a celebrity. He’s also splurged on exotic animals, spending about $210,000 three white Bengal tigers, plus an additional $200,000 on food and $125,000 annual fee for an animal trainer. Look, the tigers were probably pretty incredible creatures to have around, but… a really expensive designer dog would have been a fraction of the cost, and would have been a lot easier to manage (and stirred a lot less controversy than the tigers did).
8 Beyoncé and Jay Z
I mean, do we even need to go into this? Of course Bey and Jay spend with abandon – they’re both hugely successful artists at the top of their game. However, you might be surprised to find out just how much they’re shelling out on luxuries. For example, a $40 million private jet, a $2 million Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, expensive champagne and more. They’re also art collectors who don’t mind splurging on additions to their collection, and you know they buy little Blue Ivy anything in the world she wants. They do things like invest huge amounts of money in sports teams. One of the most over the top purchases, though? A pair of gold Balenciaga leggings that retail for $100,000. I mean, when you’re Beyoncé, you can afford basically anything in any store, but still – those had better have been some insane leggings to justify that kind of price tag.
7 Bono
This Irish rock star rose to prominence with the group U2, but over the years has crafted an identity for himself as a solo star as well, promoting his beloved causes and being an outspoken advocate for certain issues. However, while he’s more than willing to donate large sums of his own money to charitable causes, he’s also not worried about parting with his hard earned cash for trivial things. The best example? The hat. At one point, Bono spent $1,700 to have his favourite hat flown to where he was because he had forgotten it. That’s right – while some people would just shrug and deal with their forgetfulness, or perhaps just buy another hat, Bono’s wealth makes it possible to pay thousands of dollars for convenience and whims. We wonder just how strange a pilot felt acting as essentially a delivery service for a forgetful rock star’s beloved cap.
6 Elton John
Elton John has been in the game a long, long time, and has cranked out hit after hit and he shows no signs of fading into obscurity – and over the years he’s earned so much money it appears he doesn’t even know how to spend it. One of his craziest expenditures is his floral budget – he made headlines once when it was discovered that over the course of 20 months, he spent nearly half a million dollars on flowers alone. And then, of course, there’s the perfect playroom. While some celebrities renovate their homes to craft an incredible spot for their beloved child to play, Elton John bought the apartment next door to he and his partner’s so his son Zachary would have a place to play. And you know he didn’t exactly stock that apartment with toys from the nearest department store – it was probably all high end, luxury items.
5 Justin Bieber
Basically, at the age when most teenagers would be getting a few dollars of allowance, or getting minimum wage from their first job at the mall, Justin Bieber was already raking in millions – so it’s no surprise he’s found many, many ways to spend his cash over the years. While his expenditures might have been a little bit tamer in his teenage years, once he reached adulthood and was able to drink and party, he started funneling huge amounts of his money towards the pursuit of fun. Just to give a little bit of perspective – he allegedly spends approximately a million dollars every single month on his entourage and partying. That’s right – a million dollars. A month. And it seems too crazy to believe, but when you hear that he once reportedly spent $75,000 in a single night at a strip club in Miami, it seems a lot more believable.
4 Kanye West
When Kanye West announced that he was millions and millions of dollars in personal debt, despite being a hugely successful rapper pulling in the big bucks, many were surprised – but if you take a look at his spending, it becomes a little bit clearer. Kanye West is spending like a madman, and his purchases over the years include a $34,000 golden skull as a Father’s Day gift for pal Jay Z., two custom Hermes Birkin bags for his wifey, thousands of roses as gifts for Kim, a Christmas with over 150 gifts for Mrs. Kardashian West including a $39,000 fur coat, a lavish wedding, a $3 million diamond ring, countless properties… I mean the list goes on and on and on, even including something as ridiculous as $767,000 on gold-plated toilets for their home. He’s just lucky that his partner has just as much earning power as he does and can afford to buy her own diamonds too.
3 Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston isn’t the type of celebrity to be too flashy – while she likely has a wardrobe filled with designer duds, a gorgeous house, and a ritzy car, she’s not exactly flashing diamonds every time she steps out of the house. There is one area, though, where she’s willing to spend far more than you might ever imagine – on her appearance. That’s right – all the questions you had about how on earth Aniston looks like she hasn’t aged a day in 20 years are about to be answered. The secret is simply money. Apparently, her personal maintenance expenditure is about $10,000 a month, with weekly private yoga lessons costing about $900 a pop, laser peels and facials for hundreds each, creams and beauty products that total about $800 a month and more. Hey, what she’s doing is obviously working, and when you’re a celebrity, your appearance is a huge part of your job – so at least she’s spending on something that will help her out in the long run.
2 Kim Basinger
Nowadays, Kim Basinger is keeping a bit of a lower profile, but back in the 1980s she was at the top of her game, starring as a sex symbol in films and winning awards left and right. So, how did she spend her cash when it was flowing in like water? Well, she dropped a cool $20 million on a small town in Georgia – that’s right, an entire town – that she had hoped to transform into a tourist attraction and spot for film festivals. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly a sound investment – within five years she was declaring bankruptcy and selling the purchase for only $1 million. It just goes to show that, even if you think the money is going to keep pouring in year after year when you’re a celebrity, sometimes, it doesn’t – so it’s best to be at least somewhat smart with your money, just in case. And maybe don’t try to buy entire towns.
1 Sean Combs
Sean Combs – also known, at various times, as Puff Daddy, P.Diddy, and Diddy – has crafted quite the career for himself. He started as merely a rapper and has since turned into a bit of a mogul, mentoring other young artists, watching his creations walk the runway and more. And with all that hard work comes a lot of play time – with no budgets in sight. Combs has apparently spent nearly $1 million - $900,000, to be precise – per week on yacht rentals for a ritzy holiday. And he’s not selfish with his money, either – he once rewarded his son for his hard work at school by buying him a car valued at nearly $400,000. That’s right – while some teens are thrilled to get an old clunker valued at a couple thousand, Combs’ kid was driving around in a vehicle that costs more than what most people pay for a house.
Sources: walletgroove.com, huffingtonpost.com, msn.com
