This morning, I opened the refrigerator to find a paucity of blueberries. This is all the more surprising because we buy 2-3 enormous boxes of blueberries at Costco every 2-3 weeks. What used to be arrive in a single delicate box presented like a Rolex when I was a kid now comes in economy size buckets.
I've developed certain morning rituals, and blueberries are a key part of those rituals, so it was an upsetting discovery.
It was more disappointing still to realize that it occurred because one of my dear children inhales blueberries like they were a cheap staple instead of the luxury food to be placed on a pedestal that I have always regarded them to be.
I am Californian. This descriptor is a universally understood manner of declaring I get weird with my food preferences, using terms that sound like religious denominations to convey what I do and do not like to eat. So it won't surprise you to learn that I start each morning with a bowl of muesli, chia seeds and blueberries soaked overnight in soy milk.
I chase this with a strong black espresso brewed in an 18/10 stainless steel Italian stove top espresso maker that looks sleek and sculptural (I purchased it for about $4 at a thrift shop a decade ago) and leaves the entire house aromatic. The juxtaposition of luxury and frugality embodied by the coffee makes me feel wealthy and simultaneously proud of my treasure hunting prowess.
When I pause to consider that my kids might regard blueberries as just another fruit (and not the way I see it, as the caviar of fruit) it makes me feel like they don't appreciate the finer things in life we are providing them.
Which got me thinking about exactly which financial milestones I'd really like them to experience on their journeys through financial puberty. Here's a list of touchstone events I consider formative that I'd love them to experience:
- Living in several crappy apartments, each slightly less crappy than the last, with a series of roommates who each possess a uniquely annoying character trait that manifests in a tragedy of the common(s) area.
- The tremendous pride of buying your first brand new sofabed, not at a designer boutique, but at a place like Sears. The great delight taken when other, equally broke friends come over and spend a weekend sleeping on that sofabed. How adult it feels to host someone.
- The first time you are invited to a birthday party at a restaurant where the cost of the evening completely blows your entire month's budget. The sting that it leaves. The curses you utter under your breath for the friend of your friend who liberally ordered a bunch of starters you don't eat "for the table" and then suggested everyone split the bill equally. The determination it sparks in you to never let this happen again.
- Going shopping for the first time and realizing that, on your budget, you can't afford to eat the same quality of food your parents provided in abundance during your childhood. Buying a single, tiny box of blueberries priced as if they were diamonds. Savoring each one.