I prefer and buy brand name food instead of no name as I do notice a difference.
I still price match and coupon, but don’t beat myself up if something is missed, or if some extra impulse items fall in.
I bought a fancy dyson vacuum and don’t regret it - but I can’t justify the hair dryer
When “life” happens, I don’t stress about it as much because money can solve the issue
I have an SO that has my back. This is really important, because I struggled in the beginning of our relationship to accept it was us against the world and not just me.
Travel - before this was not existent, now I do a few vacations a year.
I think the yoga thing is the one that most applies to the hedonic treadmill concept.
Step A: working part time/ temp job, pays for $30/mo gym for yoga classes. sometimes irritated at the instructional style or gym-ification of it, but enjoyed going
Step B: full time + salaried, pays $17/class for yoga studio classes, goes 2-3 times/mo. overall, not that much more $$, but price per is waaay less “efficient” --balancing out because exercise/mental benefit is felt to be much greater. so maybe i feel “happier” or like this is the “real” thing because of hedonic treadmill
(theoretical)
Step C: earns more money, I would seriously have to talk myself out of a yoga retreat or teacher training that would cost thousands…
Would I actually do it? who knows…but it would cross my mind… and afterwards maybe the yoga i enjoy now woldn’t seem good anymore
But does hedonic treadmill apply to things that are experienced? Like cheaper purse A objectively does the same job as expensive purse B: they both carry stuff. Yoga A is functionally different for your body than Yoga B? (at least in my mind —I’m also an experience spender vs objects spender)
There are the things I put up with and knew I wanted better. The oven that wouldn’t keep temperature , insufficient book space.
There were things I would have wanted better, but didn’t feel was in reach, like when I was downloading at 1mb per minute, if you had asked I might have commented on it being better than a 14.4 modem, but knew I would prefer faster. Right now we could get faster, but I don’t think we need it. We decided on the slower level with the thought that it would be harder to drop down than to decide later we were willing to pay more.
And then there are things like taking a cab home from the airport instead of the bus. I hadn’t realized how much I hated that bus until I felt it was in our budget to take the cab. Now we have the express train to downtown and sometimes after a long flight we still cab it!
Hm, would Lyfts or cabs hailed via Curb app qualify?
Like, getting a cab used to involve going several (sometimes many) blocks to the nearest major intersection in whatever unpleasant/dangerous weather we were having, and standing there in said unpleasant weather waving at any cabs who might happen to pass in hopes they were empty. I used to have to do this with cat in tow before Lyft and Zipcar existed because that was the only way to get to the vet. So there I’d be, standing on the corner, it’s freezing, kitty is also freezing and howling and terrified by the traffic.
Now, I can summon a cab or Lyft directly to my door. It used to feel decadent but now it feels kind of normal, I guess? I mean, I try not to do it often, but I’ve come to expect that this is a thing I can do if I Truly Cannot Deal with whatever it’s doing outside (or, like, if I’m in a sketchy part of town late at night or something).
In grad school, I would eat out 1-2x/month and mostly at VERY cheap places (i.e. In-n-out)
After grad school, spouse and I started eating out 1x/week although still at cheap places and only splurging on something nicer every couple months.
A couple years ago we started getting sushi mid-week, alcohol with dinner even if it was cheap burgers, etc.
Over the last 2 months, we’ve tried to bring this budget item back down and it’s HARD! We went out for burgers last night using a 2 for 1 coupon and had at least a 5 minute debate on the walk over about whether we should get alcoholic beverages with dinner and if that would come out of the restaurant or fun money budget. (We decided no booze with dinner but we did make a cocktail from the home bar when we got home)
Personally, I put “growth of technology” in a different mental bucket than “hedonic treadmill.” I think because it can fundamentally change the landscape and make old methods of doing things obsolete. Like cell phones: a pay phone was a valid alternative to one 15-20 years ago, but not anymore. The best download and processing speeds from 10 years ago would be super laggy today because people build websites and software assuming better speeds. There are some things I buy online that I probably couldn’t find in physical stores (anymore). Especially something like phone/tech accessories for a specific model.
Basically, if I something is currently available that previously wasn’t, but if it had been available at the same price point, I would have used it, I don’t think that’s inflating lifestyle so much as redefining what it means in a contemporary environment.
I also recognize that there is a fine/fuzzy line here and it’s totally valid to see something (or everything) on a different side of the line than I do.
I’ve been reflecting on this a lot and I wonder how people would react differently if you instead asked them what their gazingus pins are. I feel like the hedonic treadmill and gazingus pins have some serious overlaps.
My gazingus pin has long been books. For a while after grad school, it was a real problem gazingus pin. I would buy books and not read them, not really enjoy them – there was all sorts of stuff tied up in it that I won’t go into here, but I wasn’t really buying them to increase my reading joy. And they did not, in fact, increase my reading joy.
To me, that’s classic hedonic treadmill: I increased my spending and in very short order it stopped bringing me additional happiness.
I’ve cut back drastically on my book spending, and now monitor it very closely. Now the vast majority of my book spending actually brings me happiness, and I would say brings me greater happiness than my nearly non-existent book spending did in grad school.
I did the same thing with books. When I had disposable income and got really into reading, I would spend perhaps a hundred dollars a month on books. Eventually I found it was making me less happy, not more, because I had a number of books I felt pressure to read, and felt bad when I owned a bunch of stuff I didn’t like. Now I get a lot more from the library and only buy stuff I’m struggling to find there or truly love.
A garage. With the exception of my first two years of college car-free hasn’t been a particularly good option for me, but I always managed just fine without a garage until I got to the point of buying a place and ended up liking the one with a 1-car space the best. It wasn’t a major selling point at the time, the layout and the easy access to work/groceries/library/etc. were, but now when I occasionally look at getting something to fix up and renting out this place, anything without a garage is off the list.
Shampoo. I used to be just fine with whatever shampoo was lying around. Now I want fancy-ass Lush bar shampoo.
I’ve actually hedonic treadmilled on homemade pizza. I have slowly upgraded ingredients. Like I used to by Kroger mozzarella and now I buy fancy-ass mozzarella I have to shred by hand. I use fresh garlic and oregano when possible instead of dried. It’s objectively better but my happiness level isn’t higher as a result.
I used to live in a co-op with cooking and cleaning rotations, and I loved having friends around all the time, but I’m never willingly going back to sharing a kitchen and bathroom with dozens of people.
Having a microwave at home. It’s amazing, I can just reheat my soup when I feel like it. Or zap veggies for a short time before putting them on my pizza. I was fine when we didn’t have one, but having one is so much easier.
I also use a light moisturizer on my face now, and it feels so much better, especially in the winter, than nothing. I’d say that’s about 50% hedonic treadmill and 50% my skin is drier than it used to be.
Thinking some more about this. I remember a conversation with my Dad when I was about to leave university and I mentioned my goal of trying to keep my costs low and he scoffed at the idea. He pointed out that I had recently bought a leather jacket for 200 and I was likely to continue just spending up to my new full time salary (33k!)
Which isn’t how he and my mom live, so I don’t know why he was so pessimistic for me.
Actually, I guess the bras I have now were purchased at a department store, just a really nice one with knowledgeable salespeople. So my wording was confusing! Sorry!