nothing to show

I think we've all felt this way before. It's that feeling you get after coming home from town having spent £100 or more, looking at your "haul" (hate that word) and thinking 'Wow, where did my money go today? I have nothing to show for it!'

To be fair, it's easy to fall into that way of thinking. We often feel like we should have more to hand in exchange for our paper notes and card transactions, as if we somehow owe it to ourselves to exchange our money exclusively for material possessions, for trinkets and gadgets, like no other forms of discretionary purchases are important. It's daft. 

What about the "dollar-for-dollar" value of a purchase? You don't need to walk away from the checkout with an object in your hand in order for that purchase to add value to your life. Not when something else, perhaps an experience, could lend you the same enjoyment.

In times before COVID, I'd religiously head over to the Edinburgh Christmas Markets with some friends every Christmas Eve. It was a little tradition we'd accidentally started. We'd take a relatively early-morning train into Edinburgh, so early that we'd either have our breakfast on the train or once we arrived in the capital. Then would follow the obligatory perusing of tellers and stalls, but very rarely buying anything. Window shopping, that's the word. I've always told myself that I'd only ever pick something up at the markets if the item really stood out to me, the kind of "I saw this and thought of you" present. I can't really remember what that's like anymore, idly browsing an actual shop, the luxury! Not really fair to the stall owners, I admit, but anyone who doesn't have their shopping sorted by Christmas Eve is just asking for trouble!

We'd indulge in some sweet treats and mulled wine, or mulled cider if we were feeling brave! Then we'd take the annual ride of the ferris wheel for the traditional quick-fire photo shoot. I swear the ride gets shorter (and more expensive) every year! All this, combined with a late-lunch and M&S cocktails for the train home, could tally-up to a fifty or sixty quid day out from which I'd return home empty-handed and chilled-through.

I'm sure there are many people in the country, and indeed the world, who simply can't justify spending that amount of money on a seeming nothingness. Many in the world don't need to pay a penny for their hypothermia, but it's one day of the year that I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to. Lord knows, Christmas Eve 2021 has been pencilled into the calendar already!

It's nothing to do with the sunk cost either. That ostensible formula of spending more money summating into more happiness is a fallacy, the dangerous work of a playwright. The reality for me, is that a simple coffee date, or a drive to Loch Lomand, or a 'Come Dine with Me' dinner date with postprandial booze, brings me just as much enjoyment as a day out in the capital, aren't nearly as expensive and bare equally few material fruits to add to your overflowing bowl.

When you invest in experiences over objects, you aren't just paying for that one-time experience, you are paying for the nourishment of your soul. No amount of Stella McCartney trainers can make up for a life that lacks meaning.

~ Aedan.