That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest

“That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

Henry David Thoreau

Ok, I’m not trying to shame anyone here - if you like expensive stuff then carry on. This post is me just thinking out loud. Online. For all of you to read. Probably to my own detriment. 🤦‍♂️

There’s a certain amount of margin when the cheap stuff is ok. Let’s take coffee for example. It’s something I derive pleasure from because I drink a fair amount of it EVERY DAY. Also…it’s virtually free. You can walk into any hotel, car dealership, workplace, etc and get a pretty bad coffee for little or no money. You can make a pretty decent cup of coffee at home for less than a dollar a cup. Actually, you can probably make a pretty amazing cup at home for less than a dollar. When I was growing up; coffee was something you drank at home or from a gas station; you didn’t really “go out for coffee.” Now coffee is everywhere and you can easily pay $6 a cup for it. Granted, I know there’s a lot of psychology around the idea of the daily coffee purchase that has nothing to do with the coffee really; but I’m going to hit my 1,000 word limit if I go into all that here.

If paying $6 for coffee is worth it for you; I would never want to dissuade you from it - this isn’t a “get rich by quitting latte’s” post. I know that doesn’t work. I’ve bought my fair share of expensive coffee and I’ve enjoyed *every sip.* But I’m really interested in this idea that lowering my standards on something that’s not really super important to me quickly introduces more margin in my life. Like…immediately. If I’m ok with spending $1 on a coffee, maybe I can also buy one for a friend or the homeless guy on the street that could use a coffee and put the rest of the change back in my pocket.

Or just give the coffee and all the change to the guy on the street. 🤷‍♂️