Taste Life Blog

Brett, our son, bought a new queen sized bed and needed all new bedding. He bought a fabulous down comforter, a dark gray duvet, and new grey sheets from Macy’s.  I got caught up in the Black Friday shopping and found myself the owner of a new down comforter too. This led to a duvet and new sheets. Did I need them? Not really. I stay sorta warm if I pile on pounds of blankets on my side of our bed and wear knee-high ice skating to bed. On the really cold nights I microwave my handy dandy rice sock (a hockey sock filled with rice; microwave on high for two minutes) and put it in the bottom of my bed a few minutes before I go to sleep.

Auntie Chere

As I write this, Gary  and I are waiting for our first snowstorm (already have seven inches and super excited to snowshoe tonight)  to stop long enough so we can drive to the Mall of America to buy a Forever 21 giftcard for our niece and a college hoodie sweatshirt for our nephew. My niece and nephew are normal teens who want stuff.  Besides the stuff, what they really enjoy are my bedtime stories. When I go to Milwaukee I sleep in Tyler’s bottom bunk bed and all the kids lay on the floor and I tell stories until they fall asleep. I started this tradition many years ago. As I drive to Milwaukee I  usually begin to think of my latest trips and adventures and the stories I will tell. I struggle to stay awake and I think they are all asleep and until I hear, “Tell another story Auntie Chere!” I would bet a year from now they will remember laying in the dark listening to Auntie Chere more than what they bought using their gift cards.

You Can’t Buy Happiness

A study by Cornell University¹ found that experiences bring greater happiness and satisfaction than buying and owning stuff. The study showed that satisfaction with material purchases tends to decrease over time, whereas satisfaction with experiential purchases tends to increase. Over one’s lifetime, it is your experiences that are more valuable than any product you will ever own or purchase.

People often feel buyer’s remorse, stress and a sense that they may not have purchased the best or right product after shopping. In contrast, after a vacation, hike, bike ride or game of softball in the park there are rarely negative feelings or associations with these experiences.

The study also suggested that clearing the clutter will make room for you to have more experiences, which will ultimately make you happier. A win win for cleaning hey!

Material Stuff

In 1940 Americans reported being “very happy” with an average score of 7.5 out of 10. Look at what we own now…iPads, big screen TVs, stainless steel kitchens, plus more. The average score today is only a 7.2.² Guess the extra stuff is not making us happier.

Maybe Frank Lloyd Wright was right, “Many wealthy people are little more than the janitors of their own possessions.”

Retail therapy boosts your happiness short term but we quickly adapt and want more stuff. Studies have also shown that focusing on materialism is a strong predictor of unhappiness. A study showed that college freshman who expressed materialistic aspirations as freshman and cared most about making money were the least satisfied two decades later.³

Happy people devote their money and resources to experiences, eating with friends and family and vacationing with friends and family instead of bigger houses or a newer car.

This holiday the best most uncluttered gift you can give is an experience. The experience gift won’t take up space and won’t go unused.  The most treasured gifts appeal to the heart not the wallet. Guess I better ask for a warm vacation hey!

Experience Gifts

Invitation to dinner or lunch

• Annual Pass or memberships: Zoo, Arboretum, Museum, Mall of American ride pass, water park and theme park
• Tickets: Airline tickets, plays, movies, sporting events
• Adventures: Races you can do together
• Gift Certificates: Monthly date night, monthly movie date night, babysitting, afternoon of biking or kayaking, or hiking. Anything you enjoy doing with family and friends.
•  Kitchen Experiences: Yonanas Machine 
• Chocolate Fondue Pot with a Bag of Dark Chocolate …Recipe:  8 Hershey Bliss and ¼ cup whipping cream melted.

The best is you will be happier yourself. Studies show you get more happiness giving than receiving. What was your best experience you ever gave or received? We can’t wait to hear from you.

¹Carter, Travis J.; Gilovich, Thomas.(2010) The  relative relativity of material and experiential purchases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

²Lane, R. E. The loss of happiness in market democracies. New Haven: Yale University Press.

³Cohen, P., and Cohn, J. (1996) Life Values and Adolescent Mental Health, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum