Changing Your Thinking on Wants and Needs

An interesting thing happened to me last week. As a (very) belated Christmas gift, my father gave me a $100 coupon for the local department store. But he gave it to me on one proviso: that I buy something I wanted, rather than something I needed. In other words, clothes for work or kitchen equipment were out. Fun was the order of the day.

I headed out shopping, coupon in hand, and after about an hour, I hadn’t found anything that I really wanted. I only wanted to buy something worthwhile, not something frivolous that would soon sit around taking up space. When I read Philip Brewer’s Needs, Wants and Not Even Wants post I could recognize that I’ve got beyond that place where I wanted to buy something just because someone else has one, or because it satisfied some short-term want. I’ve become frugal!

I guess that’s a good thing, as I’ve got a mortgage to pay off and a retirement fund to contribute to. I’ve lost the ability to go and spend money frivolously, and that means I’m still carrying around that $100 coupon. I might even end up spending it on something I need instead - just don’t tell my father.