For the majority of us, most of our income goes on essential items. We have a mortgage or rent to pay. We have to put gas in the car. Then there's taxes, and food shopping, and home utilities. It feels like money goes out as soon as it comes in.
That isn't the case for the rich and famous of the world, though. Even if they live in luxury homes, their huge incomes mean that their regularly monthly outgoings might only account for ten percent of their income. For the super-rich, it might well be even less than that!
That means they have a lot of money sitting in their bank accounts, begging to be spent. That money turns into a luxury budget, enabling them to acquire possessions that most of us would never even think about. From the obscenely expensive to the downright weird, here are those purchases.
Mike Tyson was one of the finest boxers ever to lace up a pair of gloves; perhaps second only to Muhammad Ali on the list of all-time greats. His life hasn't always been without its complications, but in his prime, he was paid millions of dollars for each of his fights. As an eccentric and unusual man, he used some of that money to indulge in some exotic items - two of which were living creatures!
The first of his bizarre purchases was actually a gift for his former wife; a solid gold bathtub that cost him two million dollars. We don't know if gold makes a bath feel any better, but we'd love to find out. When his marriage ended, and he was single once more, he decided to buy two pet white Bengal tigers as companions. Imagine the size of their litter tray!
We may see more of this kind of thing in the future. With Elon Musk and Richard Branson competing to create the first space-flights for civilians, a ticket to fly into orbit and see the world from high above will be the next must-have status symbol for any celebrity worth their salt. Katy Perry was ahead of the trend when she bought a ticket for her then-partner Russell Brand all the way back in 2010. She chose Branson's 'Virgin' company as her 'airline,' and spent $200,000 on securing the ticket.
Nobody seems quite sure what happened next. Virgin haven't started their tourist space program yet, and Brand and Perry split up two years later. There's every chance he still has the ticket, and he's just waiting on a date for his voyage. Many of his detractors in the British tabloid press will probably hope that if he does ever fly up there, he decides to stay!
When it comes to Kanye West, we've learned to expect the unexpected. Whether it's his public appearances or his Twitter storms, West has the capacity to surprise, entertain and sometimes confuse his audience with his erratic actions. Fortunately, he has his wife Kim Kardashian on hand to keep him on the straight and narrow. She's more than used to his eccentricities - which were never more apparent than in his choice of wedding present for her.
While you might expect a rap star to buy their wife the latest and most valuable 'bling' accessories, West instead bought Kardashian a chain of ten Burger King restaurants, all positioned in strategic locations across the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. He spent $7.5m making her their new owner. Apparently, he believed they'd make a great investment and pay out big money in the future. We don't think she was short of money in the first place!
Have you ever gone on holiday and left one of your favorite possessions or items of clothing at home? Most of us have, and it's annoying. In general, though, we learn to cope without it, or we buy a replacement wherever we are. That simply wouldn't do for Irish rocker Bono, the lead singer of U2. When the band flew to the United States on a tour, he was horrified to discover that he hadn't packed his favorite Stetson (hat). Seemingly unable to function without it, he chartered a plane to have it brought to him at a cost of $1,700.
What made that specific Stetson so important to him is unknown, but the act did seem to be a window into Bono's hypocrisy. The singer is a noted campaigner for anti-poverty and pro-environmental causes. How spending the best part of two thousand dollars contributing to air pollution ties into that is anyone's guess.
Say it quietly, but although Tom Cruise is one of the longest-lasting and most successful Hollywood stars of all time, there's some evidence out there which suggests he might be a little bit odd. We all know how much he loved his ex-wife Katie Holmes - because he jumped up and down on a sofa on the Oprah Winfrey show while shouting about it - and that might explain why he went so many extra miles to take care of their baby.
While Holmes was pregnant, Cruise was very interested in checking how their progeny was developing. Simply attending check-ups with his doctor wasn't sufficient for him; he wanted to be able to see how it was growing at any given moment on any given day. To that end, he bought a sonogram machine for their home at a cost of something like $200,000.
In some respects, a baby belonging to a celebrity couple will have the same experiences as any normal person growing up. Many readers will have fond memories of playing with Barbie dolls when they were kids. Blue Ivy Carter - daughter of Beyoncé Knowles and her rap superstar husband Jay-Z - is no exception. Playing with dolls, dressing them and miming out interactions are all part of us developing social skills as infants. She probably doesn't have any concept of how valuable her Barbie doll is, though!
The average store-bought Barbie just wouldn't do for Beyoncé, who had her daughter's one sent to an exclusive jewelry store and encrusted with the finest stones available. By the end of the modifications, there were over 150 diamonds on the doll and its outfit, and Beyoncé had spent $85,000 on the toy. Let's hope she doesn't chew it, drop it or lose it! Blue Ivy, that is, not Beyoncé.
Based on the purchase history of Nicolas Cage, we guess that buying unusual items must get a little addictive when you've started your collection. Cage is known for rarely turning down a movie if the money's right, which explains why he's appeared in as many awful films as he has great ones. All that money goes into Cage's 'strange purchase' fund, which has been drained repeatedly over the years.
Listing everything Cage has ever bought which might be considered 'unusual' would take up the rest of this list, so we're putting them all together in one place. If you took a tour of Cage's house, you'd find a $500,000 Lamborghini, a first edition of the first-ever 'Superman' comic with a value of $3.2 million, and the deeds for his two private islands in the Bahamas which he acquired for $7m. Suddenly, accepting the 'Ghost Rider' job makes a lot more sense.
It's a fact that women pay more for haircuts and hairstyles than men do. That's understandable; for the main part, they have more hair! When you're an international pop celebrity and a style icon, you'll inevitably spend more money staying on-trend and well-presented than most people do. We're not sure most celebrities take things quite as far as Rihanna has over the years, though.
There isn't a hairstyle Rihanna hasn't had, other than shaving her head (and we won't rule that out as a future look). From weaves to perms to extensions, she's tried and discarded them all. Her most expensive look is believed to have cost her one million dollars. We're not immediately sure which style it was - or how it could possibly have cost her so much - but we know it happened, and that's pretty incredible.
It's a bit of a cliché to buy a tropical island when you're a super-rich celebrity. It's on the 'to-do' tick list for many A-Listers, who like to have complete privacy when they go on vacation. Kim Basinger didn't want an island though. Perhaps she thought that the time spent flying to and from such a place was too much to deal with? In any event, she took the unconventional route of buying a town in Georgia instead.
It cost Basinger $20m to secure the purchase, which she decided upon on a whim when she found herself stuck in a traffic jam there once. She loved the scenery, and thought it would make for a great filming location, so she hatched a plan to turn it into a tourist attraction and open some purpose-built film studios. Sadly for Basinger, it didn't quite go to plan. She ran out of money before she could achieve her vision, and ended up selling it only five years later at a $19m dollar loss. Ouch.
Justin Bieber has grown up in the glare of the public eye. That hasn't always been a comfortable process for the pop star, who has gone somewhat off the rails on more than one occasion, although he's seemed calmer in recent years. His vast wealth has made him unlike other boys his age, although that doesn't mean he doesn't have at least some of the same interests.
Many teenagers and adults love the crude and caustic humor of 'Family Guy.' We dare say that many of our readers have a little 'Family Guy' merchandise in their own homes. None of you will have anything like Bieber's tribute to the show, though. He spent $25,000 on a diamond-encrusted necklace modeled on Stewie Griffin, the talking baby character from the show. Stewie is our favorite of the family as well, but we wouldn't spend that much money on making sure people knew about it!
When one celebrity makes an expensive purchase and gets a lot of attention for doing it, you can bet that plenty more will be hot on their heels. Brand isn't the only star with a ticket to the stars - Ashton Kutcher is on schedule to join him. Maybe they'll even be in the same rocket. There's a reality television show idea there somewhere.
Two years after Perry's gift to Brand, Kutcher also spent $200,000 with Virgin to book his seat as something of a 'gift to self' while he was going through a divorce with Demi Moore. He's now remarried to Mila Kunis, who isn't as keen on the idea of flying through space as Kutcher is. She's gone on record as saying she'll be quite happy to stay at home and look after the family while he's taking his zero-gravity tour.
Beyoncé Knowles isn't the only member of Destiny's Child who can spend money like there's no tomorrow. Kelly Rowland did very well for herself both in the band and in her solo career after it was over, so she can afford to splash out on eye-watering purchases. She once paid $5,200 for a bathtub, but it wasn't for her. It was actually a baby gift for Beyoncé!
What to buy for the baby who has everything? Well, what else but her own personalized baby-sized bathtub, decked out in pink Swarovski crystals so she feels like a princess every time she goes for a bath. Beyoncé clearly appreciated the gift - she and Rowland are still so close that Blue Ivy apparently refers to her mom's former bandmate as 'Auntie Kelly.' With the bathtub and the Barbie, we can't help but wonder what other diamond-studded accessories are inside the Carter household.
These days, when Donald Trump needs to go somewhere, he travels on Air Force One. The private plane is reserved specifically for the President of the United States of America and his entourage, and for most people, it would represent the pinnacle of luxury in the sky. Not for Trump, though. He probably wishes he could still use his own private jet, which is kitted out in far more luxurious surrounds.
Trump's plane was a $100m purchase from Microsoft's Paul Allen in 2011. Despite the huge price tag, Trump wasn't done spending money on his new vehicle. He paid for a solid gold bathroom to be installed inside the Boeing 757. His seatbelt inside the plane is also plated in solid gold. We can't help but feel that it must be a little uncomfortable. Gold isn't exactly flexible on a bumpy ride!
There's a lot of money in the Beckham household. Victoria first came to the world's attention as Posh Spice, and collected millions of dollars as her share of the Spice Girls' successful pop career. Her husband was once one of the world's best-known soccer stars, with a playing career that took him to Manchester United, Real Madrid, and LA Galaxy. He's now a brand ambassador with multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals.
Mrs. Beckham is now a high-end fashion designer, which keeps the money rolling in. When she's doing business over the phone, she uses a gold-plated iPhone to do it with. She paid designer Stuart Hughes to craft the casing for her, which is made up of 150 grams of pure gold. That's the kind of thing that you don't want to leave behind in the back of a taxi accidentally.
Hollywood megastar Johnny Depp walks the line somewhere between actor and rock star. He's had a massively successful career on-screen, but his antics away from it have generated almost as many headlines as his performances have. A recent lawsuit between Depp and his former management company for their handling of his finances threw up some interesting facts, one of which was how much Depp spends on wine.
Many of us enjoy an upmarket bottle of wine on a special occasion, but it seems that every day is a special occasion for Depp. He spends an average of $30,000 each month to fly rare and exclusive wines to his doorstep from all over the world. Apparently, they're all for his own personal consumption. He's a man with incredibly expensive tastes! The wine is just one of Depp's excesses; he also owns $75m of property which he treats as personal residences in all of the world's major countries.
There are few pleasures in life like a nice hot bath when you really need one. They relax and soothe us, and help us wind down from a difficult day. That's why it's so important that your bathtub is comfortable. You don't want your feet poking out of the end of it, or an uncomfortable ridge where you want to rest your head. Oprah Winfrey doesn't have that problem, because her bathtub is molded to the shape of her own body.
As she revealed on a TV show with fellow chat host James Corden, Winfrey revealed that she'd paid big money to have a tub hand carved to the exact contours of her body, and crafted from onyx and marble. That's a very solid (and probably very heavy) tub. She explained that a full body cast of her was taken to enable the job to be done; although she mysteriously revealed that it can contain more than one person if she ever needs it to.
Billionaire adventurer Richard Branson's name has already been mentioned on our list, because it's his 'Virgin' company which is selling tickets to outer space to people like Katy Perry and Ashton Kutcher. Branson is something of an eccentric, who owns planes and trains in the United Kingdom, as well as a cable TV company. He once tried to become the first man to float around the world solo in a hot air balloon, but when that didn't work out, he turned his hand to exploring below the seas instead.
Branson bought the Necker Islands group in the British Virgin Islands, and then purchased a submarine called the 'Necker Nymph' to explore what lies beneath them. Nobody knows for sure how much Branson paid for his vessel, but if you want to see it for yourself, you can rent it from him and take your own tour of his islands. All you need to do is contact him to make a booking, and come up with the $25,000 per week hire cost.
When someone is in trouble with their spouse or partner, we commonly hear it said that they're 'in the dog house.' If the dog house in question were Paris Hilton's, then you'd be trying to get in trouble more often. Hilton's love for her dogs is well known, but their luxury accommodation is extravagant even by Hilton's high standards. They don't live in a kennel at the bottom of the yard. They have their own full-sized home which is larger than the houses most of us live in.
Hilton paid $325,000 for the luxury pooch pad, which contains replicas of many of the rooms in Hilton's own home, so the dogs always feel like they're in familiar surroundings. They also have their own heating and air conditioning systems. We're not clear on how they go about turning them on or off.
Some of our celebrities have such a broad history of wild purchases that they'll appear on this list more than once. Beyoncé is the first of them. Going to a Beyoncé concert is more than just seeing the star perform her best-known songs - it's a full-scale theater production, which usually involves costume changes between each of the singer's hits. All those outfits are expected to be breathtaking, which means Beyoncé's stage budget for a show is more than most of us earn in a year.
The BET Awards in 2007 may have been the peak of her outfit expenditure. During the show, she stepped out in an all-gold outfit like Cleopatra, which contained a pair of golden leggings. It would appear that they weren't just gold in color - they contained real gold. Otherwise, we can't work out how they could possibly have cost her $100,000.
We've seen a few cases now of celebrities spending big money on lavish gifts for their wives, husbands, and partners. When they spend so much money on their significant others, we wonder how much they sometimes spend on themselves! The marriage of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was huge news in Hollywood when it happened, and the adoring couple routinely bought presents for each other. The presents, though, were anything but routine.
Jolie spent one million dollars buying Pitt his own personal helicopter, for which they had to get a landing pad installed at their home. We now have visions of Pitt sadly packing his cases after their divorce, loading them into the chopper and flying away, never to come back. We're not even clear on whether Pitt could even fly a helicopter before she bought it for him. If not, we hope she also put her hand in her pocket to pay for some lessons for him, too!
Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably the best-known and most-successful action movie star of all time. He's spent his whole acting life being surrounded by gunfire, explosions, and tanks in movies like 'Predator' and Commando.' He seems to like it, though. So much so that he acquired himself his very own tank to enjoy in his spare time.
We say 'acquired' because Arnie didn't actually have to spend any money to get the tank. As is customary in his native Austria, Schwarzenegger spent a brief period in the military before he started his acting career. During that time, he was a tank driver in an M-47 Patton Tank. Because of all the good that he's done for Austria over the years, the Austrian army gifted him that very same tank in 1991. He kept it, and now takes children out for rides in it as a reward for doing well in school!
One of the most common and basic themes in rap music is that artists brag about their lifestyles, wealth and possessions. They all want to make the case that they have more money, more gold and more luxury cars than anybody else. They can stop it now. The competition is over. Akon has won, and nobody's ever going to get close to him.
In 2007, the rapper parted with an unknown sum of cash (which must have been enormous) to buy his own diamond mine in South Africa. That means that the produce of the mine is his, and so are the profits that come for it. Unusually for a rapper, Akon is strangely shy about his involvement in the mine, having said in the past that it's a 'complicated situation.' We suspect the only thing complicated about it is the number of zeroes that come on his pay checks from the proceeds.
Actress Amanda Seyfried is still quite young, so it's not out of the question that she'd still have some of the stuffed animals that she grew up. The stuffed animals we're talking about here aren't the 'teddy bear' kind, though. We're talking full-sized stuffed and mounted exotic creatures that were once alive. Seyfried is apparently a big fan of taxidermy, and has paid big money to have her own indoor safari of death.
In among Seyfried's collection are a zebra, a lion, and a horse, along with many other animals you'd usually find wandering the plains of the Serengeti. They've been posed in a variety of ways, some of which suggest that they're attacking each other. Here she is in this picture, hiding in among them all and seemingly loving it. At this point, we're just going to admit that Seyfried slightly scares us.
Dan Bilzerian has made his fortune by being a risk taker. Through his YouTube channel and huge social media presence, he's one of the world's best-known gamblers. He's very good at it too, having racked up a personal fortune of several million dollars. Having become rich through striking lucky, he's the sort of person who's inclined to try to share that wealth with his friends and fans.
In 2016, when the Powerball jackpot was due to be a massive $1.3bn, Bilzerian spent $100,000 on lottery tickets, completely filling a duffel bag with them and turning them over to his assistants to check. In the event that he struck the jackpot, he promised to share the spoils of victory with his Instagram followers. Sadly for him and them, his numbers didn't come in. It was nice of him to try, though!
We know we said we were going to try to contain Nicolas Cage's excesses to one entry on this list, but it just hasn't been possible. The man makes too many weird and wonderful buys for us not to come back to him and tell you what else he's spent his movie money on! We're not totally sure we'd spend the night in a haunted house, even if someone paid us money to do so. Cage doesn't subscribe to that theory. He'd happily spend a night in a haunted house for free. He's already done more than that - he's bought one of his very own!
It cost Cage $3.4m to buy the famous LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans, which is so famously haunted that it served a location in 'American Horror Story: Coven.' Cage was fascinated by the structure of the house, as well as the stories behind it. He never personally experienced anything while in there though, and lost interest in it. He relinquished it in 2009.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are never knowingly going to be outdone by Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z in the baby stakes. Anything the Carters can do; the Wests can do better. While Beyoncé's baby Blue Ivy is playing with her diamond studded Barbie doll, little Chicago West is enjoying the company of her incredibly expensive teddy bear.
The study and collection of teddy bears is called arctophilia, and any arctophile will tell you that the rarest and most valuable teddy bears in the world regularly change hands for more than a thousand dollars. That's just a drop in the water compared to the price tag of the Kardashian bear though. As well as being made from the finest materials a teddy bear could ever be built from, it's also wearing its own personalized Louis Vuitton outfit. Taking that into account, the value of the bear comes in at $170,000.
All those years of being called the Queen of Pop may have gone to Madonna's head. At first, it was just a nickname, but then she moved to the UK and started living in a countryside mansion as if she were true British royalty. Now she's gone a step further. She's the proud owner of the Quinta Do Relogio Estate in Lisbon, Portugal; a building which is quite literally a palace. It was once in the possession of the Portuguese aristocracy.
It's believed that Madonna and her children live in the palace for at least some of the year, which would make sense given that she parted with more than $8m to buy it. The palace was built in the 18th century as part of the Moorish revival movement. It's pictured here in a state of slight disrepair, but she's since had extensive repair and modernization work performed to get it back in shape. Somewhere within its walls is a full-sized chapel.
George Lucas has had a long and successful career as a writer, director, and producer, but he'll always be far better known for 'Star Wars' than he will be for anything else - even though he also had a hand in creating 'Indiana Jones.' We doubt Lucas minds the association though - it's made him an incredibly rich man, and even more so since he sold his film company to Disney in 2012.
When he's not behind the camera, Lucas can be found on his $100m California ranch, which he's named the 'Skywalker Ranch' after the lead character from the 'Star Wars' films. Having spent so much money on it, Lucas wanted to make sure it was adequately protected from the risk of fire and other disasters. Most people would take out insurance to cover that. Lucas went the whole hog, and bought his own fire officers. There are twelve fire fighters permanently employed at the ranch; enough to staff the two fire trucks he also owns.
There's a resort on the fringes of Lake Tahoe that could tell a thousand stories if it had the ability to talk. During the 1960s it belonged to the legendary crooner Frank Sinatra, and it was where he wined, dined and partied with every star of the era. Marilyn Monroe, Sammy Davis Jr, and President John Fitzgerald Kennedy all made personal calls on Sinatra during his time there. The famous old building has changed hands a few times since then, and currently belongs to Larry Ellison, who's made his fortune in the world of technology.
It's no longer a private residence, though. At some point in the past it became a hotel and casino; probably the work of an entrepreneur trying to capitalize on the venue's notoriety. At some point, it ran into trouble and was facing foreclosure until Ellison picked it up for $38.5m, and also cleared its debts in the process.
All of the richest people in Russia are oligarchs; super-rich oil traders who become worth billions of dollars through their business interests. Russian-Israeli Roman Abramovich has traded his oil, but he worked his way up to that position, having started his career selling children's toys. His name may be familiar to sports fans; he's the owner of English Premier League giants Chelsea Football Club.
Abramovich is a multi-billionaire and has all the assets and signs of wealth to prove it. None of those assets are more impressive than his enormous luxury yacht, though. The vessel, known as the 'Eclipse,' is large enough to contain two swimming pools and luxury accommodation for up to twenty-four guests. One thing it has that most luxury yachts don't is a multi-million-dollar inbuilt missile defense system. Something tells us Abramovich may be a little paranoid.
Paris Hilton isn't the only major celebrity out there who wants to give her pets a life of luxury. Just when Hilton thought she'd made the most outrageous dog-related purchase, Miley Cyrus came in like a wrecking ball. Although we're not aware of any circumstances in which it's legal for a canine to drive a motor vehicle, her five dogs have their own $125,000 Range Rover Sport.
We assume that Cyrus either drives them around herself or has someone else do the job for her, but the car itself is specially designed for the dogs. They're free to scratch it, play in it, sleep in it and otherwise do as they wish. That means all of the associated damage that pets can do to vehicles is confined to this one car, and Cyrus can enjoy the rest of her fleet without worrying about hairs (or worse!) getting into the seat covers.
What price would you put on a good night's sleep? Would it be as much as $17,000? If not, you're just not trying as hard as Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. The British actor paid that figure for a mattress - not the whole bed, just a mattress - to make sure that he enjoys the ultimate in comfort when he retires for the evening. The mattress was custom made for him by Savoir.
We all know that not all mattresses are born equal. That's why a comfortable memory foam mattress retails for a higher price than a basic model made with springs. We can only assume that Radcliffe's mattress is made with the softest and most gentle materials on Earth in order to command such a figure. It does make sense though - actors working on long shoots often work late and start early, so when you lay your head down for the night you want to ensure you can be soundly asleep as quickly as possible.
Sometimes, the trappings of fame come with dangerous addiction problems. With all that money and all that partying, there's a constant temptation to spiral into drug and alcohol issues. Ke$ha, though, has an addiction of another kind. She just can't get enough glitter. She apparently spends in excess of $10,000 per month on it. It's not uncommon for someone to coat their outfit - or even their skin - in glitter for a big night out, but Ke$ha apparently likes to be covered in the stuff 24/7.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, she admitted that she no longer spends as much on it as she once did, but still considers it an essential part of her beauty routine, and often pairs a full-body glitter treatment with a manicure appointment. At one point she even had a full-time member of staff to ensure that she was always covered in glitter.
Yes, we're back with Nicolas Cage again. We just can't stay away from the actor's insane history of buying bizarre items. This time, we want to talk about his dinosaur skull. Cage wasn't the only person interested in buying this prized item - he got into a bidding war with Leonardo di Caprio at an auction, who eventually backed out when the asking price reached $276,000. That was too rich for di Caprio's blood, and so the Tyrannosaurus head ended up in Cage's hands.
Unfortunately for Cage, he wasn't allowed to keep it for the long term. The man who presented it for auction was later forced to admit that he'd stolen the skull, and it was actually the property of the Mongolian Government. Cage wasn't involved in the crime, but according to the letter of the law, he had to hand it back reluctantly. He hasn't had the best of luck with some of his highest-profile buys!
Celine Dion has some of the best-known vocal cords in the world, and she put them to good use with one of the longest Vegas residencies of all time, singing to sold-out audiences night after night and treating them to renditions of all her greatest hits. After a thousand renditions of 'My Heart Will Go On,' there can be a lot of wear and tear on your voice and your throat. Dion doesn't have to worry about that, though, thanks to her handy $2m humidifier system.
As part of the deal that saw her agree to accept the Vegas residency, Dion insisted the venue bought her the high-tech contraption, which gently sprays mist on her the whole time she's singing and maintains the ideal conditions for her voice. It also takes care of the temperature and level of humidity in her room as she prepares to go on stage.
Oh Madonna, is owning a palace with a chapel in it really not enough for you? Apparently not. Madonna has spent her entire career surrounded by religious imagery, from the controversial 'Like A Prayer' video to her even-more controversial stage show from a few years ago, during which she simulated having herself crucified just to make sure people got the message that she's a living deity.
Living deities don't drink regular water like the rest of us do. Madonna apparently hasn't drunk a drop of the stuff in years. She'll only drink holy water which has been specifically blessed in accordance with her Kabbalah beliefs. That isn't available in most places she goes, so she has to have it shipped to her at an estimated cost of $10,000 per month. We wonder if she even bothers having taps fitted at her home?
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas - unless what happens in Vegas is that you pay for an $18,000 crocodile skin suit which you're never going to wear, and you have to take it home with you. That's what happened to Jamie Foxx after a night of partying in Sin City. Foxx claims that a gang of Vegas dancing girls goaded him into buying the suit, which he did to impress them.
Even Foxx admits that it was a stupid thing to do. Aside from the ethical issues that surround wearing skin and fur, it's an ugly suit which would be completely uncomfortable and impractical to wear. We have no idea if he still has it, but if he does, we suspect he keeps it a long way away from his regular wardrobe. We know the pain of buying outfits that we later come to regret, but never with that kind of price tag!
The relationship between Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez has been on again, off again, forgotten, remembered and plastered all over the gossip columns of glossy magazines for as long as we can remember. It was definitely on during September 2011, when Bieber went all out to impress his girlfriend on a date. If you have the money, and you're feeling romantic, you may have considered booking out a small cinema screen for a private screening of your partner's favorite movie before. Bieber took that idea and ran with it.
Specifically, Bieber booked out the entire Staples Center - which normally seats 20,000 people - just for himself and Gomez. They ate a steak and pasta dinner, and then watched 'Titanic' on a gigantic inflatable cinema screen. This is the most 'extra' date we've ever heard of. The cost to Bieber? $475,000.
What is it with all these bathtubs? Who's ever really going to see it apart from you? There has to be something to it that we don't understand, because all of the rich and famous seem to go all-out to make theirs the most opulent and luxurious in the world. We think Tamara Ecclestone might have everybody beaten, though.
Ecclestone is the daughter of Bernie Ecclestone, a multi-billionaire who served for years as the outright owner of Formula 1 racing. That means she's never going to be short of money, and she had enough of it to spend one million dollars on her dream bath. Around 80% of that cost was the material; it's completely made out of crystal. The remaining $200K was spent reinforcing the floor of her home so it could support the weight of a crystal bathtub. According to Ecclestone, the cost is justified because she spends a lot of time in the bath.
As a biographic film is about to demonstrate, British rock star Elton John has lived a life full of excess. He's currently on his final world tour before he enters retirement, which will mark the end of fifty years in the music business as one of the most famous performers of all time. Once upon a time, by his own admission, he blew a lot of his fortune on drink and drugs. These days he's found a healthier - but equally as expensive - habit.
During a court battle between John and his former managers (something he has in common with Johnny Depp), documents were produced which revealed that the entertainer had spent more than $300,000 on flowers in a little more than two years. Flowers can make any home and garden look and smell beautiful, but $300,000 would surely be enough to fill an entire botanical garden full of them! John didn't feel the need to justify his purchases in court, stating that he simply loves flowers, he can afford to buy them, and that's all there is to it.
Kim Kardashian, as we all know, isn't the only person in her family who knows how to spend big money. Her parents are also good at it, as are all of her sisters. Kendall Jenner might have picked up some tips from her big sister when she spent $52,000 on this unconventional sofa for her new home.
This highly unusual and exclusive design is the word of Italian designer Edra, and is known as 'the boa' because it resembles a nest of snakes; exactly the kind of thing you'd want to sit down on. Jenner would never have purchased it at all, but felt like she had to after she realized she'd come in below budget when she was furnishing the recently-acquired house. That simply wouldn't do, so she had to go looking for something else to blow the cash on!
When celebrities aren't spending huge amounts of cash on purchases for themselves, they're trying to impress their friends with lavish and exclusive gifts. Courteney Cox may have spent $12,000 purchasing a bicycle from Chanel, but the recipient of the item was her 'Friends' co-star Jennifer Aniston.
Aniston and Cox are friends off screen as well as on it, so when Cox heard that Aniston was interested in getting into biking, Cox thought she'd help out. Instead of contacting BMX, or Giant, or any brand that had any history of manufacturing bicycles, Cox thought the most sensible thing to do would be to commission a custom-made one from Chanel. Yes, the same Chanel that makes perfume. The bike came with the Chanel logo, jeweled clips to prevent clothes from becoming caught in the chain, and a plush leather seat. It's thoughtful, but you'd be terrified of riding it through mud or rain!
We've spent plenty of time on this list drawing attention to Nicolas Cage's eccentric purchase history, but perhaps we should also be reserving special mentions for Justin Bieber. He's half Cage's age, and he's already racked up almost as many weird and expensive possessions as Cage has. In this case, he's lived out the dreams of many a child by buying his own custom-built real-life Batmobile.
The vehicle started life as a Cadillac CTS-V (which is already a nice car), but Bieber paid an additional $100,000 for the West Coast Customs company (who were famously the design team on 'Pimp My Ride') to give it a 'Batman' theme. That meant sticking the logo everywhere they could find space, making it jet black, and performing plenty of modifications to the interior. Bieber was only seventeen years old when he made the purchase; barely even old enough to drive it!
Kanye West's decision to buy a chain of Burger King restaurants for Kim Kardashian might not have been as weird a decision as we first thought. In fact, he may have taken his inspiration from basketball legend Magic Johnson, who'd done the same thing many years previously. The scale of Johnson's purchases was far grander than West's though.
In total, Johnson paid cash to acquire thirty Burger King restaurants in 2004. They joined his existing fast food empire of several branches of T.G.I. Fridays and Starbucks. He's since sold off the Starbucks and T.G.I. Friday's chains, but has kept on all the Burger King restaurants, which suggests that they must be earning him good money. And to think that there are people who say that professional athletes are all athleticism and no smarts! That idea has turned out to be a lie. In fact, it's a whopper!
From the outside, you'd assume that the rights to music belong to the people who wrote and performed them, unless they specifically sell them to somebody else. That's not always the case. The Beatles, the world's first supergroup, sold millions of records in the 1960s and 70s, and made fortunes for both themselves and Apple, their record label. The problem was that it was Apple who owned the rights to the music, and when they decided to sell them, it wasn't just the Beatles who wanted them.
Sir Paul McCartney, who was of course in the group, was very interested in acquiring the rights to his own creations. The problem for him was that Michael Jackson wanted them too, and Jackson had deeper pockets. The King of Pop bid $47.5m for the rights, and walked away with ownership. That meant every time McCartney played one of his own songs on stage, Jackson got paid! Since Jackson's death, the rights have reverted into Sony's hands.
Tinie Tempah is a name that will be more familiar to our British readers than to our American audience, so if you aren't aware of him, all you need to know is that he's a UK rap star (yes, they have rappers in the UK, too!). As well as his talents with a microphone, he's also known for his obsessive interest in sneakers. He's got a huge collection of rare and exclusive footwear, but his $38,000 Nikes are probably his pride and joy.
The sneakers, which he's wearing on stage here, are based on those which were used in the 'Back to the Future' movies. In the film, they're capable of lacing themselves. We've been told that Tempah's sneakers are also capable of the same trick. That's neat, but we're not sure it's $38,000 worth of neat.
If there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Well, if you live in her local area, you might find yourself picking up the phone to pop megastar Lady Gaga before trying to get in touch with the Ghostbusters. She has all the equipment you need to find out whether you're living in a haunted house.
Gaga is a big believer in all things paranormal - she believes her dead aunt's spirit lives inside her, for a start - and she won't take any risks about buying haunted properties or staying in haunted hotel rooms. She spent $34,000 on a special machine which scans the electromagnetic spectrum and apparently tells her whether there are any malevolent spirits present before she settles in. She takes all the kit with her when she goes on tour, and also pays for a team of people who know how to use it. They assess her room before she sets foot in it. Better safe than sorry, we suppose.
His boyband may have split up (or gone on 'indefinite hiatus'), but it seems that Liam Payne believes his career is still only heading in one direction, and that's up. Otherwise, he wouldn't be spending more than $100,000 on a car that was used as a movie prop. Payne is the proud owner of the Ford Anglia model which belonged to Ron Weasley's family in the 'Harry Potter' series of films.
In the movie, the car can fly. The price that singer Payne paid for it suggests that the prop should be able to do so, too, but we highly doubt it. A non-flying Ford Anglia wasn't a luxury car when it was built, and would be more likely to be used as scrap than put on the road if one became available in modern times. We're not even sure Payne can drive the movie car, so it's a huge price to pay to leave it in the garage!
There's a way of getting the 'diamond teeth' look on a budget, and at your own convenience. That's by paying for a 'grill' which you can wear like a retainer and pop in and out of your mouth whenever you feel like it. So when you're attending an occasion where it would be appropriate to have diamond-studded teeth - if such an occasion exists - you slip the grill in and smile for all the photos. When you get home, you pop it out again.
That sounded like too much effort to rapper Lil Wayne, who thought it would save him time if he just had diamonds on his teeth all the time and never had to worry about where he'd left his grill. The diamonds in his mouth are all completely real, and they're there permanently. As Wayne revealed in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, he brushes them carefully every day with Colgate, but thus far they haven't caused him any problems.
As we write this, famed movie director James Cameron is putting the finishing touches to the next 'Avatar' movie. It's expected to be a huge box office success, likely to make even more money than the original movie which set records when it was released in 2009. If it doesn't work out, though, Cameron could always fall back on his secondary business plan. By which we mean he could start selling walnuts.
While other celebrities and people in the movie business have been busy spending fortunes on expensive cars and homes, Cameron paid $20m to buy a walnut farm in New Zealand. The farm, named Pinnacle Grove, was already up and running in 2013 when Cameron bought it, but the director also paid for a plot of land nearby, so he could expand its operations. One of the greatest movie directors of all time retiring to run a farm in New Zealand? That's just nuts!
