Luxuries Making Us Miserable
We have more options than ever and yet...
I enjoy food a little too much. I delayed moving to Chicago by about a year because I know how much I like food and how many options there would be, I didn’t want to be overly tempted to slip on my weightloss. I now know it was the correct decision because I’m SO tempted. Within half a mile of my apartment there are 81 restaurants!! And that doesn’t even include coffee shops, bars, convenience stores, or grocery stores.
Every time I leave the house I’m tempted to spend on food. I feel like this is just a heightened version of a feeling many of us feel all the time these days. We’re surrounded by abundant affordable luxuries yet it can feel quite draining financially, emotionally, and spiritually.
Abundant “Luxuries”
We have more good luxuries available than at any time ever in human history, and it’s exhausting. There are so many wonderful things that I want to spend my money on and I have enough to buy! You’d think being able to afford such ample luxuries would be good, but to many it seems like a burden of modernity.
There are simply too many things we feel we can afford. So many items and services under $50 seem like good worthwhile deals. A streaming service with the show you like, a second for another, getting a small sandwich from that shop you like, a cute daily drink order, an upgrade on an app, a trinket that looks nice, a video game from 7 years ago you heard is good that’s 75% off, or a book that seems interesting to you.
We are bombarded everyday with tempting luxuries to spend our money on, the crucial part being that they are tempting. If we were hounded by advertisements on social media to buy plain dirt I don’t think too many people would have an issue controlling their wallets. We have too many good options to say yes to and it’s often painful and arbitrary to have to say no.
But if you want to save money you have to look at your spending and see which of those are actually bringing you joy. I’m not anti-consumption, I get lots of joy from things that I buy. But I want to warn against mindless consumption.
Being Intentional
I try to figure out some sort of “joy per dollar” rating. I don’t have formal ratings but just asking myself “would I be getting more joy if I spent this money on something else?”.
Like I get great joy from eating out at a restaurant 2-3 times a week. Out of the 21 meals I have a week, having 2 or 3 at a restaurant is quite nice. I could afford to eat out for all 21 meals but then I’d have no money left over for anything else. So I eat relatively frugally with beans being a regular part of my diet because it works well enough for me most days and helps me save money.
In a world of options we all have to find our beans. We all need to find the things we’re fine spending less on to just get by. We all have the relative temptation of 81 restaurants around us at all times, just too many options. Learning to limit is a skill, one I’m not perfect at but still think is valuable. We need to find which luxuries we actually want and give them room to give us joy.