I recently overheard someone talking about the Lipstick Effect – people buying small affordable luxuries to treat themselves when times are tough. A new lipstick can make you feel a little more glamourous at the fraction of the cost of a new dress.
Food is definitely one of those things that allows you to spoil yourself on a modest scale. We’ll have suggestions for those kind of treats here on CheapEats, and would love to hear from our readers – what are your small luxuries? One of mine, which in fact I just picked up yesterday, is fresh anchovies to have with a glass of wine. Oh boy.
The always lovely and fascinating Ice Cream Ireland blog has an interesting post defending the price of premium Irish produce:
The reason I’m writing this post is that tonight, at the checkout of my local supermarket, I was given a snide comment about the price I was paying for a piece of Gubbeen cheese, and it made me very angry. Are we all expected to buy the cheapest cheddar on the market? I hardly drink, and I don’t own a nice car or a holiday home. I don’t even own my house. Why shouldn’t I spend money on a good Irish cheese if I want to? I love cheese, I’m supporting an Irish producer making a quality product, and the truth is I’d pay even more.
Thursday 29 January, 2009 at 11:35 am
I completely agree with this! Food is a great way of spoiling yourself!
That glass of wine is one of mine, its a whole lot cheaper than going out and getting a new dress/pair of shoes.
A really nice bar of chocolate is always a good one too, I have a box of Butlers chocolates at home and take one every time I want to spoil myself – they are perfect, too rich to eat the whole box in one go unlike a cheapo bar of chocolate!
Thursday 29 January, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Goats Cheese …. thats my treat, or in fact any nice luxurious cheese … Wensleydale with Cranberries at Christmas and a good glass of red wine.
Better than …. shoes 🙂
Friday 30 January, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Lipstick effect is a great way of putting it. Mine would be top quality, very dark chocolate. You don’t need a big feed of it. A single square, and the day definitely picks up!
Friday 30 January, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Would second the nice cheeses, particularly as they go well with my recently-discovered luxury: posh oaty crackers made by the Fine Cheese Company. They sell them in Superquinn and they come in various flavours – Chili, Chive, Basil. My favourite Olive Oil and Sea Salt – I scoffed half a pack on their OWN last week.
Have a look at the website and be sure to check out their cheese wedding cakes!
http://www.finecheese.co.uk/
http://www.finecheese.co.uk/weddingcake.html