What's worth full price?

[dickens]

I've been playing with my budget lately and I've always been a sucker for a clearance sale, so I got thinking about what I'm willing to pay a little more for.

There are obviously practical things like health insurance/care, but I'm interested in the things that you could go without, but choose not to.

For example, high on my list are spices and condiments. The last two years of college I made fried rice nearly every night. (Crazy people assumed I could live on 3 meals a day!) I used insanely cheap rice and vegetables liberated from the caf, but the best soy sauce I could find (from the local co-op, organic, wheat free, low sodium, ~$4/bottle in 1995).

I kinda miss sitting on the floor of the kitchen in Wahlstrom (there was only one plug-in for my electric wok, about a foot off the floor) making fried rice.

What are you willing to pay for?

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

There are a few exceptions, but for the most part I no longer enjoy cheap chocolate. We have the money for me to pick up an impulse Hershey bar in the Target checkout stand, and I'm not in a situation where the calories or sugar or fat for one chocolate bar are a huge deal. But it's not a treat any more.

Oddly, reading a bunch of library books has made it clear how much I'm willing to pay to get some books that are important to me new, and to keep them for mine.

[kalikanzara.livejournal.com]

Solitude. I've toyed with getting a roommate, from time to time, but...I dunno. I like the luxury of it being *my* place.

On the other hand, I kinda want to get a house someday, probably a big, old house with character, and I wouldn't want to live in a house like that alone. Here's kinda sug, maybe, but I'd rattle around in a big place.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

diet coke in a can. it's just weird in two liters.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Also, it's probably sad that I know where the plug you mean was. But I do.

[laffingbuddha.livejournal.com]

Coffee. Good coffee is essential to my well being. I also get the organic brown eggs at the co-op.

[talkswithwind]

Chocolate. I've been completely spoiled, and can't stand the cheap stuff. Easter is a hard holiday, seeing the brown flavored wax that gets passed off as chocolate. Arg. We have a good chocolateer in town that I patronize. They sell chocolate wafers, which I use as a handy bite-sized snack.

I'm also a sucker for cheeses. Long gone are the days when a block of Kraft Extra Sharp Cheddar will hold me over. I've found what real sharp cheddar tastes like and there is no going back. I'll still bargain hunt for the good stuff (CostCo sells 2lb blocks of a very good sharp cheddar), but the cheap stuff just doesn't do it for me.

[agback.livejournal.com]

Umm tools. Got tired of replacing cheap tools after one or two uses. If I never plan on useing it again and cant rent it I go sheap but for stuff I have to use again and again I buy quality.

[agback.livejournal.com]

I remember those plugs and making rice from wally. You do know its not there anymore... T is still ticked off they tore it down.

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to pay for almost any food, because I want it to be organic, flavorful, etc. Chocolate, coffee, cheese, produce, etc.
Computers - I could save money if I went with a PC but I love my Macs so I buy 'em even though they're pricey.
Shoes are a middle ground - although I will not buy off-brands any more, I shop the Aerosoles clearance section pretty heavily.

[elliesam.livejournal.com]

Ah, Wahlstrom. So sad that it's gone.

I have to agree on the cheeses and chocolate. Cheap don't do it.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

Though really, the thing I miss is the picture that was never right-side-up.