Growing up is either expensive or incredibly cheap.

I’ve recently come to the conclusion that my tastes have exceeded my income. I also recently made the decision not to purchase non-essentials unless I absolutely love them. This has created quite the predicament, particularly with clothing and the like. 

A prime example of late has been shoes and bags. I am in need of a good weekend bag as I’ve been traveling to Chicago quite a bit. Not a single bag I’ve loved has been less than $200. Now, that’s not really that much money. But I’m a person who’s basically never spent more than $50 on any given item that isn’t a durable good (i.e. computer or couch or similar) in my entire life. And really the bags I’ve really loved have been upwards of $500 - a heart-arrack inducing amount for me. 

This has led me to not being able to shop in normal stores like Macy’s, and I’ve found myself increasingly attracted to places like Sak’s and Nordstrom. As a kid from a blue-collar family who was one of the first to get a college degree, this is all very uncomfortable for me. 

So, because of all this, I’m either buying things in thrift stores or not at all. The problem of course being that soon I’ll need something I can’t find at a thrift store. And then I’ll be spending a lot of money. Oy vey.