13 home luxuries that are free or inexpensive
“Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.” Coco Chanel
I don’t think of myself as a snob. My husband thinks otherwise.
“What am I a snoot about?” I see myself as pretty down to earth, practical even.
“What are you not a snoot about?” And the torrent begins: “Your coffee, your cloth napkins, your handbags, your makeup, your clothes, your chocolate, your luggage, your steak, and God forbid you have to eat from a buffet, oh, and your chichi cheese, and your yoga class.”
“All right, all right,” I put my palm up to slow the barrage.
Then I got to wondering, how did I, the product of a very middle-class family, public schools, trailer vacations and casserole dinners, get so fussy?
Awareness is the culprit. Once you discover the difference between polyester and pure cotton sheets, or a thick-rimmed and a thin-rimmed wine glass, or grocery store and triple-milled soap, anything less feels like a demotion.
And while ignorance may be blissfully cheaper, appreciating the finer things in life does not always come at a price. Luxury gets a bad rap. As an exercise in redemption, I made a list of luxuries that I live by that are either free or don’t cost much.
I share here a baker’s
dozen ways for the frugal to live more luxuriously:
• Use cloth napkins. I haven’t bought paper napkins in 20 years. Cloth napkins feel nicer and are prettier.
• Upgrade your home’s coffee station. Figure out how to brew your perfect cup at home. Then buy whatever you need to make it: a French press, a coffee grinder, a milk frother. … Indulge at home and spend less at the store with the green mermaid.
• Buy less, buy better. A small amount of great beats a lot of mediocre. I’d rather have a small scoop of intensely flavored gelato than a mound of average ice cream.
• Enrich your mind. Read books, watch films and look at magazines that broaden your world and take you places. Avoid those that cheapen you.
• Get fresh flowers regularly. Fakes don’t cut it. Sorry. A bunch of freshcut daisies is so cheap.
• Surround yourself with great people. Friends are a luxury that cost nothing.
• Go slower. Leisure is luxury. Rushing is not pretty. Staying in the moment is a gift you can give freely that others deserve. I’m working on this.
• Be clean. When my girls were little and I worked, we had an older nanny housekeeper. She came from a very poor life in Mexico. She taught me this: “You can be poor, but you don’t have to be dirty.”
• Tailor your clothes. A midpriced garment tailored to fit you to a T will look more expensive, and feel better, than ill-fitting designer duds that don’t.
• Purge what’s not working. Get rid of clothes that make you look and feel so-so, and household items that you don’t use or love. Surrounding yourself with only what you love and enjoy is the ultimate luxury.
• Shop consignment. When I needed a dress for a gala recently, I nabbed a designer gown that retailed for $1,000 new for $100 at a local consignment store. The shop owner told me that the woman who consigned it wore it once and couldn’t be seen in it again. I could! Consignment furniture stores also often have high-end furniture that I could not afford new.
• Grow your own herbs. Full disclosure: I haven’t done this successfully yet. But growing your own herbs is a practically free luxury, and fresher and more convenient than buying herbs at the store.
• Find your style. When you know what works, on you and in your home, you can easily say no to everything else.