Thought of the Day 06.29.09

Have you ever noticed that you think differently about purchasing things when you don’t have as much money as you would like?

I mean, let’s say you go to the grocery store with a credit card and a $5,000 limit. Even at your splurgiest, you likely wouldn’t spend more than a few hundred bucks, but you’d pretty much buy anything that seemed appealing, right? And if you’re like me, a lot of that stuff would sit in your pantry or refrigerator unused because it turns out not to be stuff you really wanted that badly after all.

But let’s say you went to the store with three twenty dollar bills and nothing else. You might complain about having to be more selective, but your cart would contain only the stuff you really wanted. And it would all be the most economical brand of that stuff, right?

Oh, sure, it’s nice to be able to buy anything we want, but the reality is that we all shop smarter when we have limits that distinguish the merely good from the best in what we want.

I wonder if this concept has ever occurred to anyone in our Congress.