Laws of Diminishing Product Fullfillment

[heydude]

So....having not spent money on many things, if I do plan on buying something and spending my money, the thing has to be worth it, which means it has to be exactly what I want (size, shape, color, brand, whatever) and do a lot of things for me, etc., which means that a lot of thought and hard work goes in to it, so much to the point that once I spend that 10 bucks on it, the thing can never live up to my wishes, and thus, it makes it even harder to spend another 10 bucks on something similiar, as that thing needs to be even better than the last 10 bucks I wasted because that last 10 bucks turned out to be disappointing...........and therefore, simple living can feed up on itself and end in even less spending than before!

And....all that lacking that the product gave me, I can make up for by spending even more time and money on things/people/events/free time/free things that I do enjoy.

[kib]

I just find myself surrounded by more and more expensive pieces of crap that don't work right either. What's your secret?

[Chickadee]

I have found this to be true in my life as well. It is as if the parameters of what makes a good purchase "good" for me are ever-shifting and changing due to my higher and higher expectations for a product. My best purchases have been those that I have researched thoroughly, knew exactly what I was getting for my money, and decided when the time was right. Sometimes that research has even led to purchasing something from an older era, when things were made a lot better than they are now.

I have also found this quirk to have served me well on the homefront. The more skills and abilities I learn/hone, the less I need from the outside world, and the less dollars I desire to spend on sub-standard (to me) material goods.

I learn a new skill, master that, and the cycle continues. And to make it all better, the handmade/homemade things are usually much more desirable to me in taste/quality than their store-bought counterparts. I love that! Things that specifically come to mind are skills such as growing our own fruits and berries and vegetable, homemade bread/cinnamon rolls, etc., a homecooked meal vs. restaurant (we usually prefer the homecooked 9 times out of 10), learning how to unclog our septic system in the late winter when it backed up after I mistakenly bought the ultra-thick toilet paper and dh was out of town (ok, not a fun experience but one that saved me a big plumbers bill and now I have a working understanding of our septic system), etc. and on it goes.

I just love the fact that the more things I can do for myself, the less I hear the siren call of the consumer world. But it does make me a harder customer to please when I am looking for a specific item to purchase, no doubt about it.