Emma and her coworkers were at Costco the other day and a discussion brought up an interesting question - what actually is a necessity?
The conversation came up when one of them decided to buy trash bags. “Trash bags”, Emma said. “Why do you pay for something like that?”
It turns out that her coworker always treated it as a necessity, while Emma and I have never bought these bags before (and never plan to). We’ve always just used the left over plastic bags from grocery shopping.
What Do You Consider a Necessity?
From writing about money everyday, I think about frugal living more often than most people. Yet, I rarely think of ways to save on what I would classify an necessary expense.
When we run out of sugar, we go get some. When our car breaks down, we get it fixed. We seldom think much about paying in these cases, but perhaps there are some ways to use less sugar and maybe there’s a secret to making our car last longer too. If we think hard enough, there’s a chance that all those expense aren’t necessary anymore.
My glasses broke the other day and I wrote about getting it fixed. A couple of days ago, it broke again, so I taped it. By all measures, buying a new pair is definitely a necessary expense. I can afford it, and most people will buy a pair even if they couldn’t. “It’s my glasses”, they would claim. Yet, I still have it taped. It looks and works fine, I can still write and read without feeling any difference. Why is it a necessity?
Necessary or Not, It’s in Your Head
Many wonder how others survive without much income when they couldn’t keep afloat even with a decent salary. “There are just too many expenses to deal with”, they say. Child care, groceries, car payments, mortgages, student loans etc already eat up so much of the monthly expenses. How can you survive?
What to buy, how much to buy and when to buy is, when it’s all said and done, just a personal choice. Perhaps there’s no such thing as a necessary expense.
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