the first stumbling block of young dreamers

[laurence]

So many of my friends are still trapped by what this article addresses so well:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...ey/P107710.asp

Unless you are Paris Hilton, you can't win that war. People pay for a fantasy at the cost of reality!

[hocus]

I like the article.

For me, it brings to mind a Jackson Browne lyric:

"Without dreaming of the perfect love
And holding that so far above
That if you stumbled onto someone real,
You'd never know."

Saving provides you with the real luxury of being able to call your time your own.

[recursive]

I think to some extent spending the money on good knives and pots is worthwhile, but you need far less of each than they try to sell you.

Knives: a paring knife (cheap), bread knife (cheap), chef's knife/chinese cleaver/santoku (either of those, they all serve a similar function - more pricey), boning knife (also on the more pricey side)

Pots: a good sized stock pot, and a couple sauce pans, preferably in some nice conductive easy to clean stuff like the all-clad or it's imitations (kinda expensive), an a good sized cast iron frying pan (cheap).

Knives and pots should last you 'forever' if cared for well, with the exception of the paring knife and bread knife, which you shouldn't think of spending more than about $30 for - the cheap stamped ones are as useful as the forged ones in this case. And those sets of either that have like 8 items are excessive sillyness. If you have a 8" chef's knife, why the hell would you need a 6" knife that's the same shape, only a bit smaller?

Most of the rest listed in that article is insanely excessive to me. Last I checked, $200 jeans were a lot like $30 jeans, except they'd been worn out before you buy them.

recursive ... who's still too cheap to replace his 13" tv

[Hyperborea]

Luxury items are fine too as long as they remain "treats" and not regular daily items. I would much rather have a single cup or cone of a quality ice cream (Ben & Jerry's, Laura Secord, the little gelato place in the next town, etc.) once in a while than a gallon tub of crappy ice cream from the discount store on a regular basis.

They also mention Johnny Walker at $50 as a good enough Scotch - that's crazy. For that $50 I can get a very nice 15 year old Islay (very peaty) or a nice botle of Glen Fiddich.

[laurence]

Ah, Glenn Fiddich! My wife and I visit our ER friends in Pacifica every New Year's for a week, and we do a blind wine tasting and blind scotch tasting every year. Last year the numbered bottle of true Bordaux (can't give you exact price, Christmas gift from wine snob) came out lower than the $8 bottle of Sonoma County Cabernet (not Napa Valley, just Sonoma county, there is a difference!). We are now convinced that once you get above the screw off top, there are good wines in every price range. But with the Scotch, the Glenn Fiddich takes all comers in our group every year (perhaps we have just become familiar with it, like an old friend?). I agree an occaisional high quality treat is better than a gallon of crappy stuff. But I have coworkers who buy the 200 dollar jeans.....they are the same ones who wonder why they can't pay off the credit cards!

[haha]

Quote:

Saving provides you with the real luxury of being able to call your time your own.

William Wordsworth had something to say on this topic:

The World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"

Mikey

[hocus]

Luxury items are fine too as long as they remain "treats" and not regular daily items.

The neat thing is that all sorts of thing that have become ordinary can be remade into treats if you do not indulge in them too much. One example for me is television. I've mentioned elsewhere that we do not have television anymore in the house. When I go on vacation, one of my favorite things to do is to turn on the television and watch reruns of "Law and Order" or whatever.

Watching television is now a happening for me. I indulge less often, but when I do indulge, it provides more of a hit.

Quote:

Luxury items are fine too as long as they remain "treats" and not regular daily items. The neat thing is that all sorts of thing that have become ordinary can be remade into treats if you do not indulge in them too much. One example for me is television. I've mentioned elsewhere that we do not have television anymore in the house. When I go on vacation, one of my favorite things to do is to turn on the television and watch reruns of "Law and Order" or whatever. Watching television is now a happening for me. I indulge less often, but when I do indulge, it provides more of a hit.

I agree with you. I don't watch much tv anymore except for Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith reruns.

[laurence]

Hmmm, Bill Clinton likes "leave it to Beaver". I'm not touching that one!

Quote:

Hmmm, Bill Clinton likes "leave it to Beaver". *I'm not touching that one! *

I am