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I've been struggling a bit lately with issues of false economy. It's the whole "pennywise, pound foolish" issue, where I have to keep reminding myself that it's not always the Very Best Idea to buy the Very Cheapest Thing. Regardless of taste, likelihood of future use, personal preferences...
Especially with food, because if I buy something I like less because it's cheaper, it doesn't get eaten. And then it gets thrown out. That's not saving anything. Or tools! Buying an inferior tool because it's cheaper makes for things getting broken. Sometimes just buying an uglier tool is still a bad idea; I get more things done when I like the tools I work with. And buying in bulk when I don't need bulk, just because it's cheaper per unit, is often a really bad idea.
Right now, I'm on the happier side of the Sam Vimes Boot Theory of Economics, but I have to fight the urge to act like I'm on the sadder side of it. Sometimes it really is worth it to pay more for quality, if I have the money available. And... I should stop feeling guilty when I do. Honestly.
On a cheerier note, here are the Helvetii running into Caesar. This probably won't end well for them.
1.7.1 When Caesar was informed of this--that they were trying to travel through our province--he hurried to depart from the city; he reached into the furthest part of Gaul by the greatest journey he was able to make, and arrived at Geneva.
1.7.2 He requisitioned from the whole province the greatest number possible of soldiers (in all of furthest Gaul there was only one legion), and ordered that the bridge at Genava be torn down.
1.7.3 When the Helvetii had been informed of his arrival, they send the most noble men of their nation to him as delegates--of which delegation Nammeius and Verucloetius held the first place--in order to say that they had in mind, without the least malice, to take a journey through their* land, because they had no other route available; and they asked to be allowed to make this journey with their permission. Caesar, because he remembered the fall of the consul L. Cassius and his army, who were attacked by the Helvetii and subjugated, did not think permission should be given;
1.7.4 and he did not reckon that men of hostile spirit, given the opportunity for making a journey through the province, would hold back from unlawful and malicious acts.
1.7.5 Nevertheless, so that he would be able to get some space until the soldiers whom he commanded gathered together, he told the delegates that he would be taking a day to consider this; and if they wanted this, to come back on the Ides of April.
--
* That is, the province controlled by the Romans.
Especially with food, because if I buy something I like less because it's cheaper, it doesn't get eaten. And then it gets thrown out. That's not saving anything. Or tools! Buying an inferior tool because it's cheaper makes for things getting broken. Sometimes just buying an uglier tool is still a bad idea; I get more things done when I like the tools I work with. And buying in bulk when I don't need bulk, just because it's cheaper per unit, is often a really bad idea.
Right now, I'm on the happier side of the Sam Vimes Boot Theory of Economics, but I have to fight the urge to act like I'm on the sadder side of it. Sometimes it really is worth it to pay more for quality, if I have the money available. And... I should stop feeling guilty when I do. Honestly.
On a cheerier note, here are the Helvetii running into Caesar. This probably won't end well for them.
1.7.1 When Caesar was informed of this--that they were trying to travel through our province--he hurried to depart from the city; he reached into the furthest part of Gaul by the greatest journey he was able to make, and arrived at Geneva.
1.7.2 He requisitioned from the whole province the greatest number possible of soldiers (in all of furthest Gaul there was only one legion), and ordered that the bridge at Genava be torn down.
1.7.3 When the Helvetii had been informed of his arrival, they send the most noble men of their nation to him as delegates--of which delegation Nammeius and Verucloetius held the first place--in order to say that they had in mind, without the least malice, to take a journey through their* land, because they had no other route available; and they asked to be allowed to make this journey with their permission. Caesar, because he remembered the fall of the consul L. Cassius and his army, who were attacked by the Helvetii and subjugated, did not think permission should be given;
1.7.4 and he did not reckon that men of hostile spirit, given the opportunity for making a journey through the province, would hold back from unlawful and malicious acts.
1.7.5 Nevertheless, so that he would be able to get some space until the soldiers whom he commanded gathered together, he told the delegates that he would be taking a day to consider this; and if they wanted this, to come back on the Ides of April.
--
* That is, the province controlled by the Romans.