The buying spree beckons

The Girl isn't far from joining the world of the employed again after three years of undergrad and graduate school. Three years ago she was RIFed from her school librarian job and headed back to school to get her masters degree as a Speech/Language Pathologist. At that point we went from being a two-income couple to a one-income couple paying for grad school. We've been financially okay, but things have been a little less consumery around here for the past few years.

Come June, however, we go back to being a pair of DINKs, and that means that the purse strings will be loosened a bit. So we've been doing some early dreaming.

Things in the considerations for purchasing upon resumption of DINK status...

• cable television - We currently have basic cable, the kind of cable that the customer service representatives answer with 'you mean standard cable'. Nope...basic. Twenty-some channels, no ESPN. It's mostly local stations plus Bravo, WGN, Ion, E!, and some other crap channels. That means I miss BCS bowl games, early rounds of grand slam tennis tourneys, and some other sporting events that I would like to watch. I would be okay with watching them on my computer (or eventually computer hooked to the TV), but that requires an ESPN subscription through cable for now.
• steak - The Girl and I once spent something like $1500 on steaks in a year. Seriously. She said that to me a couple of weeks ago, and it's totally true. I don't think we need to go that crazy, but I do kind of miss going out for nice dinners from time to time.
• cookware - The Girl is a cook. She's not a chef or anything, but she's a pretty good cook and enjoys doing it. The skillets and saucepans are pretty banged up and not-so-non-stick anymore. We need better stuff to use. Cooks Illustrated has an a la carte set (reg required) that we would most likely consider.
• smart phones - Man, I want one of those. The Girl wants one a little less. We're both cheapskates, though, and don't like the idea of paying for the internets twice a month.
• television - The television that we're currently rocking - there is only one in the house, by the way - is about fifteen years old now, a flat screen with a bit tube behind it. It's also not as big as we would like to to be - about 29" diagonal - meaning it's a little tough to have four people play Mario Kart together and that movies are a little less impressive than we would like them to be.
• mattress - The Girl really wants a memory foam mattress, ideally with the flexible base so she can sit up in bed. Personally I have no interest in the bendy thing, and I think she'll quit looking at one if and when she sees the price of it ($2800 from tempur-pedic for the split queen).
• vacation - It's been far too long since we got out of town. We're both a little stir crazy. Vacations for us can be anything from camping for a week or so (cheap) to a couple of weeks in DC or NYC or Chicago (expensive). We just need to get out.

There's no rush for any of these things, but the thinking has begun.