Skip to main content

Do we define a materials worth or it defines our worth?

 


I have been thinking about this ever since this happened to me. I have talked about quality and reputed brands in my previous blogs but I came across a situation where I was attracted towards luxury brands especially handbags. Initially I thought that was a waste of money and who will pay that hefty amount for a piece of handbag. But when my brother in law asked what I wanted from US as he was buying stuff for us I quickly started searching for luxury handbags because the ones that cost 10k here are only 3k in US. I was searching for a while and my husband asked me a question. “Why do you need one more bag when you have other bags? Are you going to use it? You're working from home and where will you carry the expensive bag? The other bags you bought are still lying in the closet. Besides this is all that money worth it?” 
This had me thinking. I have already been trying to reduce my closet and bag collection and posted few items on poshmark. Besides this even if I buy the bag Im not travelling to office so will rarely use it. And based on the price of that bag I guess I can invest that in a better place considering my current salary.

Now this takes be back to my initial question. Who am I buying this for? Is it because I want to feel rich? I'll add one more small story. My best friend from school got a Michael kors bag (Which was expensive as hell for the price she paid in India). She took it to her clg mates wedding and on her way back she picked me up and I recognised her bags brand and told her she must be having lots of money to splurge on this one. She was happy when she heard it and said how her clg friends dint recognise the brand and how it was a waste that she took it to that wedding.

I realised I knew that brand because I watched few celebrities owning it on YouTube and few YouTubers go gaga about their first luxury purchase. Others dint know abt it and cared the least.

So based on my analysis my conclusion is if your extremely rich you define the worth of mid range brands like Caprese, Baggit, Puma etc.. Because the celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, Anushka Sharma become ambassadors of these brands and promote them hence defining their worth. But when it comes to luxury brands I guess the companies define the worth and even celebrities pay the price to sustain their image in their ultra rich social circle.

When common people like us own mid range products we feel we are rich and when we own this luxury brands we feel we are ultra rich but then for people like Elon musk/Mark Zuckerberg whatever they wear it doesn't matter. They define the worth for everything they own.

So what should we do?
Buy items only when you think it's worth the money you spend on it and not to maintain certain standard in the society. My mom got a jute bag from a local market few years back and it's still in good condition and durable. She also has a Caprese bag that I got here which is also in good condition and she loves it. I searched a lot about laptops and ended up getting a MacBook which I absolutely think is worth every penny. You get to decide for yourself. If you think something is worth the money and you are looking for it then maybe you must buy it. Don't buy something just for people to praise you.

Will I buy a luxury bag? Not really sure. Maybe when I feel like buying it or when its worth becomes less than 1% of the money I make maybe ill think about it :P.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Consumerism - Minimalism (Part - 2)

  Well let's first understand this term consumerism. It means encouraging the consumption of goods and services as a never ending cycle. So in simple words we the people are consumers who will constantly be bombarded with ads promoting that we need certain things to increase our standard of living.  What's wrong in increasing the standard of living? Let's be honest there's nothing wrong. It is good to get stuff that ease our lives like mixer and grind instead of the old ways of grinding spices, television for entertainment, mobile phone for communication, vehicle for travelling. So where does the problem arise? It arrises when we start buying more stuff than we actually need just because we saw a ad saying the existing one is not good. We will always find something better coming up in the market each day. It has become a way of life.  Most of the time the products are purposefully made so fragile that we end up replacing them. Eg: The glass back on mobile phones are goo...

Importance of having your own space

This is a taboo topic in India. I stayed with my parents till 12th grade. Then I moved to college for the next 4 years. Even while I was in college I wasn't practically alone because I had room mates and the same thing happened after I joined work as I stayed in working women's hostel. Then covid happened and I got married during covid and moved to his parents place. Our own space there was our room. Then 10 months later we shifted to Bangalore for study and work reasons and it was the first time in my life that I got an entire space to myself. My husband got his own space inside his college (A single room). While I stayed with my parents my job was to just take care of myself, eat and study. When I moved to hostel I had to tackle my laundry as well. Same happened in working women's hostel but extra responsibility was to pay my rent, tackle my finances and travel. Cooking became an extra part of our schedules wherein we make dishes occasionally. Each and every step of this ...

Assumptions about married women

That's me. And I prefer doing whatever I like be it going on trips or hitting the gym or doing my office work or cooking. 1.  Cooking  -  Assumption that women must cook despite having busy careers. Dont get me wrong. Infact, I love trying out new dishes occasionally. But the phone call I had received from my relative the other day made me question this. They were constantly interested in what Im cooking or if I learnt to cook the dal gravy. I faced a similar incident at the gym. Our trainer asked me to cook more protein rich food for my husband and feed him regularly. Though meant in a humorous way, the underlying meaning kind of made me feel sad. The fact that nobody would say this to a husband made me question. Cooking is a life skill. It is a choice. We can always hire someone. We might develop interest in cooking once we start living on our own. We must also stop judging someone for their food choices. When I say I make protein pancakes or wheat semiya or masala oats...