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Much has been said (including by yours truly)
about how no one bats an eye anymore about the "little luxuries" in
life (the $5 coffee, the $20 manicures, the $10 salad for lunch, etc.)
- the things we don't really need, but have all grown so accustomed to
these things that they no longer seem like luxuries. We all think we
need these things, our lives are so hectic and crazy that our coffee
fix (or whatever your expensive vice of choice is) is the only thing
that gets us through the day.
That's the topic of this article over at MSNBC, talking about the challenges facing the middle class during this recession.
My mother would raise an eyebrow at my bimonthly $200 hair
highlighting, my $28-per-week coffee fix and my new dependency on $10
organic, grapefruit-scented hand wipes. And, yes, they fall outside the
category of true essentials -- a place to live, food to eat, clothes to
keep out the chill.
But the reality is that, to me, they're bare necessities.
Now
that we're firmly mired in the recession, we have to take the time to
break ourselves of our skewed ideas of what exactly separates the
"essential" from the "extras." It's clear that most of us don't have
the money to keep up an aspirational lifestyle, to emulate what the
media tells us is normal.
It's probably not realistic to think that everyone will eliminate every
single "extra" from their lives. In fact, you shouldn't. However,
when the "extras" become "everyday," do you still get the same pleasure
out of them?
My habitual splurge is on those infamous $5 lattes we all
hear about (you know, the ones that cost some of us upwards of $1,000 each year).
I'd like to tell you that I've eliminated them from my life entirely,
but I'd be lying. However, what was -- at it's peak -- a daily,
sometimes twice daily, habit, has dwindled considerably. In
fact, I rarely splurge on coffee more than once a week. Is it still a
waste of money when you consider how much it would cost to just brew a
cup at home? Sure it is. However, now that it's an occasional treat,
it actually feels like a treat -- instead of a necessity that I take
for granted and sometimes didn't even enjoy.
So, let's make sure are "treats" are just that: treats. You eliminate
the guilt of knowing you're flushing your money down the drain and,
when you do splurge, the splurge will feel that much more decadent.
What are your unnecessary "essentials?" How are you going to cut back?
