I am avid reader of two blogs that deal with money and lifestyles: Mr. Money Mustache and Happy Simple Living: The Art of Less. (The authors of both blogs live in Colorado. A coincidence? I think not.) Eliza Cross, the author of HSL, hosts a January Money Diet series every . . . January. The idea is for readers to commit to spending only for essentials during this month. She issues periodic challenges, of which there have been three so far: make an extra $25, give away 31 things during the month, and figure out your net worth. MMM, on the other hand, would say, “And why should you spend money only on essentials just during January? That’s how you should spend your money all the time.” I must say that my perspective on money has been radically changed by reading these two bloggers, especially MMM, whom I wrote about previously in this July 2015 post and in which I recommended especially “You Can’t Cure Obesity With Bigger Pants.”Here’s where the item of fangear comes in. I’ve written before about how my brother’s side of the family does the Secret Santa routine ever year for adult Christmas presents. I had put in for some perfume, an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, or the Broncos hoodie. (It was so cute!) Well, I got gift cards instead, which I had listed as a wimpy last resort. (Why did I even put those down? Unless it’s for a merchant I patronize all the time, such as Amazon, using the card is often more trouble than it’s worth.) So I thought I’d go ahead and buy myself the hoodie. Then common sense intervened and I decided that, well, my life wasn’t going to change in any appreciable way if I was able to wear something with the team logo on it while watching the games. (Broncos vs. Steelers this Sunday, 2:40 PM MT, in Denver, broadcast on CBS. Be there or be square.) It’s not that I thought it was necessarily wrong to spend the money that way. I would have been thrilled had I gotten it as my gift. But . . . the Dutch oven was something much more practical. My old one has the finish faking off the bottom. (And my husband got me the perfume when he saw that I didn’t get it in the gift exchange.) So I went for the piece of cooking equipment, which arrived today. It’s a beautiful color, it was on sale (and therefore larger than the one I had originally chosen), and I’ll use it much more frequently than I would have ever worn the hoodie. (Click on the image to get the Amazon link.)
Here, then, are the questions to ask about discretionary spending: Will it make any difference in my life? Will it make me happy, or at least happier? So, for instance, in deciding whether to go out to eat or rustle something up at home, I need to ask, “Will this restaurant meal add to my happiness?” If we’re just going out because it’s Friday, or because I say I’m too tired to cook dinner, or I’ve run out of time to cook dinner, or (more likely) I don’t want to cook dinner, and I (or Jim) could come up with something at home and save $20-$25 for the two of us (we obviously don’t patronize expensive places), then we’ve gained nothing by spending that money. But if the restaurant expedition nets us a nice occasion with our family or friends, then it’s worth it. I treasure our typical Sunday-afternoon lunches with Jim’s family, and I count my occasional outings with friends as true happiness boosters. Same thing with going out to the movies. I love going to an actual movie theater, and we do always buy the discount AMC coupons from King Soopers. (It’s a tradition: we’re almost late, but we swing by the KS, Jim drops me off, I run in and go to the customer service desk where the line is is the longest when we’re the latest, buy the coupons, run back out, watch for Jim who’s circling the parking lot, jump back in the car, and we head off.) Over Christmas we went to see the new Star Wars movie with our out-of-town company. It was a lot of fun (even though I didn’t like the movie all that much). Most of the time, though, we can just wait until it comes out on Netflix.
There are some other occasions that warrant a little bit of expenditure. Jim and I decided several years ago that we were going to go to the Denver Botanic Gardens’ “Blossoms of Light” exhibition every year and ponder the year to come. This year we almost didn’t make it, but we pulled up our socks and got there on the last night, January 2. We couldn’t find a parking place, as everyone else had the same idea. We drove around. I was watching the time, thinking that if we didn’t get in there pretty soon our $13 tickets wouldn’t be worth it. But Jim made one final try at the parking garage and found a space right on the first level. Success! I have to say that they really outdid themselves this year, and it wasn’t even all that cold. As I sit here typing this I have a warm memory of that evening. I’m so glad we spent the money, effort and time to go. And I also enjoyed our traditional sortie through their beautiful gift shop, looking at a bunch of gorgeous things that I didn’t buy.
What about you? Do you have a guideline you use when pondering a purchase?