Needs Versus Wants

I lead, on the whole, a rather spartan life.

It's true. My big personal expense over the last year was a Nintendo DS that I never even brought myself to purchase--instead, my girlfriend felt pity for me and got me a free one by filling out some gift certificate and credit card applications online. I keep my head down, drive a shitty car and, in general, avoid extravagance.

Sometimes, though, you want to break free of that "I'm a broke-ass student" mindset. Paying upwards of 60 bucks on a pair of goalkeeping gloves is one of those times.

There are all sorts of ways to rationalize this. One is that I have rather large hands, and not many stores will carry something in a size 11. Two is that the gloves I have now, that I bought for $30 or so 3 1/2 years ago, are falling apart and need to be replaced anyway. Three is that if I ever get around to returning that Foreman grill like I've been meaning to, this would only "really" cost $40. Four is that expensive gloves now have little plastic things on the back of the hand that keep your fingers from bending in a way that they'd break.

And so on and so on. Will I cave in? Only time can tell.

(The sequel to this post will be titled "selective sampling and using the Internets to affirm a decision that's already been made.")