What you chose to spend your money on
Oct. 24th, 2017 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisThese days, cigarettes, here in Seattle, cost more than most booze. When I see what is likely a homeless person smoking, my first thought is not for the health of their lungs but for the health of their wallet.
It's always so easy to be be critical of how other people spend their money. I do it all the time. Heck, I'm critical of how I spend my money! And I also laugh at how I don't. Once, when my brother was visiting, we were looking for a gas station when I passed up a couple because the price was too high. He snorted and pointed out that I was spending more on driving around than I would save if I even found a lower price because in my tiny car, I couldn't put in enough to justify a lower price anyway.
I am very picky about my coffee mug. I'm always buying new ones at Goodwill looking for the perfect one. Mostly they go into the Goodwill bin to go back after I use them a couple of times. This morning, the lid off my latest one flew off and I spilled a nearly full cup of coffee on the table, chair, my leg and the carpet. The mug I want, on Amazon, has a very tight lid but is $12. I have spent way more than $12 trying out and rejecting Goodwill mugs and, as a thank you, they turn on me. I'm done. The new mug will be delivered today.
If I'm dying for an avocado, I'll leave it in the store if it's more than $1.50. I hoard plastic bags that stuff comes in instead of buying them. Little stuff that actually nets very little savings. And, then, I'll buy, like I did yesterday, a $200 selfie camera from Amazon. I'm sure I'm going to send it back but the buy was by invitation only and my invitation was running out and I was hit by massive Fear Of Missing Out. So I bought. I have a house full of cameras. I do not need another one at all. And, yet.
Today I'm going to Costco for steak and porkchops. I'll save a little money on both but the Costco membership I pay every year is way more than I save. Yeah the meat is higher quality that is easy to find elsewhere but seriously, savings? Nope.
Fall has fallen around here... very beautifully. I love the changing of the colors but, even more, I've come to love the annual post at one of my favorite blogs. Enjoying the Small Things is written by a Mom who takes the most amazing photographs of her three kids. It's fun to read but mostly it's delicious to look at.
The live in Florida so no autumn colors except her cousin from Michigan sends a box of leaves every year. And so they have established the most fun tradition. I look forward to the post about it every year.
So, yes, Costco today. But first, I need to gather all the towels I used to mop up the coffee with and put them in the washer. I have no sewing started. Maybe it's a good day to whip up some creatures.
It's always so easy to be be critical of how other people spend their money. I do it all the time. Heck, I'm critical of how I spend my money! And I also laugh at how I don't. Once, when my brother was visiting, we were looking for a gas station when I passed up a couple because the price was too high. He snorted and pointed out that I was spending more on driving around than I would save if I even found a lower price because in my tiny car, I couldn't put in enough to justify a lower price anyway.
I am very picky about my coffee mug. I'm always buying new ones at Goodwill looking for the perfect one. Mostly they go into the Goodwill bin to go back after I use them a couple of times. This morning, the lid off my latest one flew off and I spilled a nearly full cup of coffee on the table, chair, my leg and the carpet. The mug I want, on Amazon, has a very tight lid but is $12. I have spent way more than $12 trying out and rejecting Goodwill mugs and, as a thank you, they turn on me. I'm done. The new mug will be delivered today.
If I'm dying for an avocado, I'll leave it in the store if it's more than $1.50. I hoard plastic bags that stuff comes in instead of buying them. Little stuff that actually nets very little savings. And, then, I'll buy, like I did yesterday, a $200 selfie camera from Amazon. I'm sure I'm going to send it back but the buy was by invitation only and my invitation was running out and I was hit by massive Fear Of Missing Out. So I bought. I have a house full of cameras. I do not need another one at all. And, yet.
Today I'm going to Costco for steak and porkchops. I'll save a little money on both but the Costco membership I pay every year is way more than I save. Yeah the meat is higher quality that is easy to find elsewhere but seriously, savings? Nope.
Fall has fallen around here... very beautifully. I love the changing of the colors but, even more, I've come to love the annual post at one of my favorite blogs. Enjoying the Small Things is written by a Mom who takes the most amazing photographs of her three kids. It's fun to read but mostly it's delicious to look at.
The live in Florida so no autumn colors except her cousin from Michigan sends a box of leaves every year. And so they have established the most fun tradition. I look forward to the post about it every year.
So, yes, Costco today. But first, I need to gather all the towels I used to mop up the coffee with and put them in the washer. I have no sewing started. Maybe it's a good day to whip up some creatures.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-24 07:21 pm (UTC)I can now go to a store and NOT buy candy or chocolate. And its a very long time since I bought a newspaper.
I used to read one newspaper on my morning commute and one on my evening commute.
"Coffee to Go"...ie coffee sold to commuters at rail stations is still a new thing to me. But I suppose its been going for ten years. Likewise a lot of people have their own chrome mug.
Sometimes it seems that every second shop is a coffee shop....especially Starbucks (I have never gone inside a Starbucks). isn't their home town Seattle?
(I don't drink coffee...I am a tea man)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-24 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 12:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 12:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 01:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 04:59 am (UTC)I read something about Costco a while back, It had to do with both membership, and how they check your receipt against your purchases at the door. They don't do it for loss prevention. They do it because it makes the customer feel like they are part of something exclusive. I thought that was interesting.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 05:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 12:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 03:00 pm (UTC)Oh yeah. The gas station that we usually go to during the summer -- because it's more or less on the way between Gloucester and Boston, and because it gives discounts on a wash with a fill-up -- has a promotion called "Wacky Wednesday" which is that their price is reduced by $.06/gallon on that day, and
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 03:05 pm (UTC)Similarly, there's a brand of cracker that we always have on hand. The local Whole Foods carries them, but at a higher price than other stores. Husband will come home from grocery shopping, and report that he didn't get any "Corrects"¹. "Why, were they out of them?" -- " No, but I'm not about to spend $4.00/box on them." Right, so maybe sometime, at some inconvenience, we'll get them somewhere else for $3, or even $2.50.
¹Our code name for this cracker, the story behind which is not worth telling here.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-25 03:14 pm (UTC)Easily amused this morning...