It really seems like some kind of weird generational thing where your status is raised by spending ludicrous amounts of money on nothing, just to say how much you spent.
Like, I have a step-former-half-sister or something (not really sure what the correct term is) who is about 10 years younger than me, and it's like all she and her friends used to talk about was how they spent $1,100 a person to do this one weekend, and $3,800 to do that, and I'm like ... how did you spend that much money to go drink on a boat for a few hours or whatever, it doesn't even sound like what you were doing was that much fun, it just cost a lot.
I don't hear about those people as much anymore, so I have no idea if they're still like that, but man, what are you DOING.