How money made me happy. It only took $12.

One of my Twelve Commandments (see sidebar) is to “Spend out.” This somewhat cryptic phrase encompasses several resolutions, but one aspect of “spending out” has to do with buying things. I am very, very bad at buying things.

Some might assume that this would be a good trait, and I suppose in some ways it is, but it's also a big pain. For instance, I just can't make myself take a minute to buy a decent pair of mittens. This has been going on for two years, and in the meantime, I wear an unmatched set of ineffective gloves that allows my hands to get so cold I can barely type.

Anyway, "spend out" is meant to remind me to spend money appropriately, on things that will make me happy—to indulge in modest splurges—to buy needful things.

And yesterday I actually bought some pens.

Generally, I use makeshift pens, the kind that just appear in my bag or in a drawer: half-dried out or leaky, accidentally taken from someone’s office or a hotel. Sometimes I get lucky, and good pens magically turn up, but usually they barely work.

When I was in State News on 72nd and Lexington, a store crammed with all sorts of useful miscellany, I caught sight of a box of my current second-favorite kind of pen: the Deluxe Micro Uniball.

“$2.99 for one pen!” I thought. “That’s ridiculous.”

But after a fairly lengthy internal debate, I bought four. Spend out.

And it’s such a joy to write with a great pen, instead of making do with an under-inked pharmaceutical promotional pen picked up from a doctor’s office. My new pens weren’t cheap, but when I think of all the time I spend using pens, and of how much I appreciate a good pen, it was money well spent.

Well-made tools help make work a pleasure, and my new pen delivers a tiny boost of satisfaction every time I take it up.
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A reader sent me a great link to a post by musician Mike Doughty, who was invited to trade his stress for art. Check it out.

Comments

[Cara]

I love this post! I also have trouble spending money on things I enjoy. Maybe it's a guilt thing? But when the pleasure you receive far outweighs the dollars you spent, then it's a wise purchase. Enjoy your new pens!

[Mad William Flint]

Those are the ones with the 5 little thingies in the side right? Absolutely my favorite normal grade pen. I've somehow been able to train off the guilt of this one guilty pleasure.

If you've a taste for fine writing implements and materials, I highly suggest heading over to levengers.com. A lot of their stuff is fairly pricey. But Everything I've bought there has been quite wonderful. I'm a particular fan of the circa notebooks (the paper they use is a joy to write on.)

[Lisa]

Poignant post.

I'm the same way on both spending and pens.

I have favorite pens and use them till I either a> lose them or b>run them dry. But to buy another one? $2.99 is too expensive for me too. My husband is always telling me to get it if you enjoy it!

I'm a new reader, but am enjoying immensely already.

[Jude]

I have a pet peeve against hunting for a pen, so I estimate that we have about 800 pens placed strategically around the house. In our house, you never have to hunt for a pen--they're all around us, in containers we decorated. My sons each have nice pens, although I don't really care about the quality as long as I can find one--which I always can.

At our house, one also never has to hunt for scratch paper, Scotch tape (we have 4 dispensers), safety pins (we have a drawer full), rulers (about 20 are in a container on the desk), rubber bands (another drawer full), glue (I buy glue sticks in bulk from office supply stores), or scissors (eight pairs located with the pens; one good pair located with the sewing box). What do we waste time hunting for? TV remotes and the cordless telephone.

[Alex Fayle]

Mmmm. Nice pens. Since I write every ay, having great pens that flow easily but don't gloop at all are worth whatever I have to pay for them. Right now I tend to pay about 3 euros for a decent pen. And it's worth it. Seriously.

[DAB]

I've moved in the opposite direction, I guess: for years I couldn't resist a new fountain pen. But while I still love and occasionally use my fountain pens, there were just too many occasions when I didn't have one filled, handy, or I needed something that could write through multiple copies (forms) or that wouldn't smear if it got wet (envelopes). So I "invested" instead in a Fisher Space Pen, the "Bullet" model. The ink is a thick consistency until pressured in contact with the writing surface, so it won't leak, and the cap is long enough that it won't slip off. I can keep this in my pocket all day long -- the edges are smooth and it's perfectly pocket-sized when the cap is on. (When the cap is on the back, for writing, it's a normal length pen.) Now I'm never without a pen when I need one, and I love being able to hand someone a pen when they need one.

Visiting the site (spacepen.com), I see that they're offering a wider assortment of bullet pens (and other styles) than I ever saw at Staples. And online, the price seems to be at least $4 dollars more than what I paid ($16) -- and much more, depending on the style. So I may get suckered into collecting THESE now, instead of fountain pens. But these would fall into the list of things I've spent money on that I never experienced buyer's remorse over.

[Monica Ricci]

Isn't it funny that some of us will balk at spending three lousy bucks on something that will make us happy for months every time we use it? Yet we think absolutely nothing of spending thirty or forty dollars on a dinner out, which we get to enjoy ONCE? Strange creatures, we humans are. :)

For years I had cheap crappy cutlery in my kitchen. But last year I "spent out" on a few good knives. I paid $200 for three knives (a santoku, paring knife and a bread knife) and they were soooo worth the money and will last me forever. ~Monica

[Mal]

You make happiness dependent on a pen? You might buy a good pen to write more smoothly. But as Kipling (almost) said, "If you have a Biro or quill treat those two impostors both the same, then you'll be a man (or woman), my son (or daughter)..."

[Tedel]

What you learnt here is that buying quality things makes you happy. Nothing else.