The shopping season is a good time to adjust old habits and spend a little on ourselves.\u00a0 After accumulating more years on this earth than we have left, it’s time to stop scrimping on certain purchases.<\/p>\n
We scrimp on the darndest things, denying ourselves small pleasures.\u00a0 Of course your luxuries might be my necessities and vice versa, so here are a few of my purely subjective places to consider\u00a0not<\/em> trying to save.<\/p>\n Coffee.\u00a0 The best tasting coffee you ever had probably won’t break the bank.\u00a0 I can’t find a cheap, really good-tasting Colombian, so I buy a brand I know will deliver.<\/p>\n Toilet tissue.\u00a0 Maybe not one of life’s little pleasures, but something we’re in contact with often\u00a0enough.\u00a0 I know people who buy stuff so harsh I swear you can still see the wood chips in it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Cushy rolls are only\u00a0pennies more.<\/p>\n Name brands.\u00a0 Buy generic when it doesn’t matter to you either way, but if you’ve got a favorite brand and you’re convinced it’s the best, get it.\u00a0 Example:\u00a0 Cotton swabs.\u00a0 Every time I buy generic, I regret it.<\/p>\n Bottled iced tea.\u00a0 I know it’s practically free when you make it at home, but on the road, those attractive bottles are a treat.\u00a0 Okay, they’re nice at home too.<\/p>\n Hiring someone to do a chore.\u00a0 Pick your most onerous job and pay somebody to do it.\u00a0\u00a0Mowing the lawn.\u00a0 Taking the stove apart and cleaning it.\u00a0 Bathrooms.\u00a0 Windows.\u00a0 If you hate it, farm it out once in a while.<\/p>\n Sound system.\u00a0 Get the best sound you can afford. I’m not talking about the kind where the\u00a0crew comes over to your house and installs it.\u00a0 If you have a home theatre, you don’t need suggestions from me about good sound.\u00a0 But if you don’t, get yourself a reliable, compact system.\u00a0\u00a0Speakers are small but the\u00a0sound can get\u00a0as big as the neighborhood will allow.\u00a0 Vinyl is back and today’s sound systems allow for turntables too.\u00a0 When you love music, good sound isn’t really a luxury.<\/p>\n Parking closer (and paying more.)\u00a0 There are times and weather that make finding a parking spot\u00a0the biggest hurdle of all.\u00a0 Splurge on the valet or the closest parking structure.\u00a0 I live in an area (San Francisco) where the joke is, if you’re visiting here and you find a parking space, consider moving here rather than moving your car.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Another place I used to live, (and still visit monthly,) Los Angeles, is\u00a0similarly parking-challenged.\u00a0\u00a0 I noticed for several years during my annual trips to\u00a0Neiman-Marcus sales in Beverly Hills, that their valets parked only Rolls Royces and Bentleys and similar shiny exotics right outside the valet stand, the place clearly visible to all emerging customers.\u00a0\u00a0 That kind of display doesn’t intimidate me today.\u00a0 Having enough years on us helps us appreciate, unapologetically, our old faithful conveyances for as many years as we prefer to drive them.\u00a0 We can give them the full valet experience whenever the mood and the budget allow.<\/p>\n As we go along with this blog, I’m learning that just because I feel like posting, poetry doesn’t always emanate, but lists often do.<\/p>\n<\/strike><\/p>\n