about why and how and what people shop for. The conversation has turned to what are known as luxury items, things not necessary, more, sometimes much more, expensive than than a similar item but at a hgher quality.
There is also an emotional attachment to the item, that goes beyond, “I like it.” It is more like this, “I love it and now that I have it, I can’t live without it.”
So, I was curious, what kind of luxury items do you folks have? And, because luxury items are cost prohibitive, what did you NOT buy so that you could buy the luxury item? Where do you cut back?
I got a sweet Asus notebook recently that is like a part of my bone structure now. What did I give up? Not much, I’ve been too busy working to spend money, although I didn’t invest my usual amount in the stock market when I bought it.
It is not my habit to purchase luxury or designer items, but I do like quality and good design. I am also a smart shopper! A luxurious item I have become quite attached to is my Movado watch which I purchased at 50% off. It is wearable art and suits me quite well.
well snowdragon, that is exactly what a book I’m reading talks about. People like the quality and are willing to buy expensive things, more willing when they’re 50% off! lol
lol I would never have bought it at full price. There were other brand name watches also on sale at considerable discount, but they just were not my style.
Oh yes!! Years ago it was only Absolute Vodka for me. I do not think Belevedere was available then…or at least in my market. Anyway now my top shelf beverage of choice is still clear and pure… water…lol
I caught the end of that discussion and it seemed interesting. I never went in until it got up in pages because I thought it was a rhetorical question.
On to your questions.
My “luxury” items would be my toys. Xbox, PS2, PS1, GameBoy, Computer, Cell Phone, PDA, Bigger TV and anything I’ll be buying in the future (which will be right along those lines).
Now the second question confuses me, because I don’t cut back anywhere. I mean, isn’t anything past food in the stomach a “luxury item”? I’d even say investing is a luxury item if you asked me (but you didn’t, so I won’t ).
I suppose I mostly answered the third question in my second answer, but to add more, I almost never go clothes shopping, don’t buy fancy anything (except when it comes to gadgetry) and don’t go out much (I think partying/clubbing is a luxury too).
I think buying stuff keeps people sane (keeps me sane ). If you’d ever sit down and thought about what you really wanted/needed and where you are and what your doing…
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I really don’t thinkl I’ve got any luxury items. Maybe my suit, which I paid 30000-something NT for and a 6000NT shirt to go with it.
Brian[/quote]
Apart from the stuff in my apartment like furniture, I don’t really have any luxury items.
I have an iPOD but that was bought for me and so doesn’t really count.
The PC to me is a practical item, not a luxury item and I wouldn’t be too fussed without it.
I have always wanted to pop down to IKEA and B&Q to to redecorate the apartment but I’ve never really got around to it. The TV is old but it works.
I sold the Jeep 2 years ago. Had second thoughts ever since.
The last thing I bought for myself for fun was a radio controled helicopter about this time last year but I havn’t got it repaired since a bridge flew into it.
I couldn’t do without CD’s. Comedy DVD’s from home are a luxury for me and magazines from home.
The time when I get to go home or to Malaysia to do a bit of flying is my greatest luxury because it is so expensive - it’s the activity I enjoy most but one which I can’t do in Taiwan.
I don’t think I give anything up to save for any luxuries.
Time is probably the greatest luxury for me. I just don’t seem to have any.
I don’t really care for brand names. I would never buy something because it’s a brand name. So, my luxury items are my perfums and my make-ups, which I collect even though I don’t usually like to wear make-ups :loco: , and stuff that I don’t really need from MoMA design store - ya know artsy designy stuff - they’ve got a lot of cool design knickknacks, books, furniture, etc. by designers like Charles & Ray Eames, Arne Jacobsen, Le Corbusier, and Philippe Starck. I especially like alessi’s watches and kettles.
bought a great samsung 17 inch flatscreen moniter, but that was partially due to needing the computer so much for my studies - they are easier on the eyes … wasn’t at all cheap, but i’m sure happy with it.
that and my camera are basically my only real splurges during the 7 years here (wife’s wedding ring excluded )
I suppose that beredefining “luxury” here we can save some time. A luxury (according to Trading Up) is a thing you purchase, before other things which may even be necessities, AND give you a tremendous amount of emotional pleasure. It is not brand worship.
I had an empty lot next to our house for a year. When we renewed our rental agreemnt I told my LL that I wanted to use the land too (it was his).
I put in a 12,000NT lawn.
The LIFE of luxury in Taiwan is having your own lawn and not having to live mountainside to get it. And it’s Taiwanese grass so doesn’t need cutting. :bravo:
Part of the point of having your own lawn is so you can cut it.
The smell of freshly cut grass, a chat with the neighbours. The distant whine of a fellow lawn cutters mower carried on the breeze of a warm summers evening…ahhh…
Part of the point of having your own lawn is so you can cut it.
The smell of freshly cut grass, a chat with the neighbours. The distant whine of a fellow lawn cutters mower carried on the breeze of a warm summers evening…ahhh…[/quote]
The hives that I sometimes get when grass pollen is released…
Anyway…my luxury items would be CDs and books. Why are these luxury items? I never really had any when I was growing up because my family was too poor to spend money on those things when it was needed more for food, electricity, a roof over our heads, etc. My freshman year of university, though, my first roommate had a CD collection of about 50 CDs. I had never known anyone who had so many. I had only one CD, Abbey Road, that I bought at a swap meet for $13 (a steal back in the day). I thought to myself why couldn’t I have 50 CDs. By the time I graduated from college four years later, I had over 250 CDs. Of books, I don’t even know how many I have any more. At last count I owned over 120 books just for teaching! I do know that of my books, I have read nearly all of them…only a tiny few were so bad or uninteresting that I put them down and never picked them up again.
2 car bought new for 1.5 - 2 Mill NTD each. I could probably have managed with only one for around 1 Mill.
2 family trips a year to visit my parents and “Country of Origin”.
Things suffered from the priorities above:
Still rent apartment, and no interest of investing in upgraded location, interior design etc.
Holidays to exotic places.
Part of the point of having your own lawn is so you can cut it.
The smell of freshly cut grass, a chat with the neighbours. The distant whine of a fellow lawn cutters mower carried on the breeze of a warm summers evening…ahhh…[/quote]
That may be YOUR point of having a lawn. Not mine. I don’t miss it. I tend the flower garden along the borders, that’s enough for me. I water it in the evening. AH.
Buying a tent soon, so my son and I can camp out back!
As for chatting with my neighbors. No thanks. They seem to still think it’s an empty lot, one which they tossed their garbage into for years. And STILL do. I don’t say much to them in Chinese. In English, when I see them I smile and “Hi, do ya mind not using my lawn as a dump? HUH? THAAAANKS” Then I smile and go about my business.
).
). If you’d ever sit down and thought about what you really wanted/needed and where you are and what your doing…
)
)