What about the way we have of wanting Brand A for $200 – but that is too much – so instead buy Brand B for $75 – but Brand B wasn’t really what you wanted – so you buy another – that’s $50 – you’ve spent $125 so far and you still don’t have what you want. I would like a blog about that.

I have been working on that kind of stuff too – I buy less – but what I buy now is really what I want. I’m done buying 3 things that I didn’t want for $175 instead of the one thing that I want that costs $250

I love it that I can go to yard sales, department stores, car dealers, book stores, etc. and not spend a cent. I already have enough stuff at home to last me for the rest of my natural life, even if I live to 123. (Wish me luck on that.)

What I’m spending now is on visiting my family all around the U.S However, there is where I have found my level. I went to visit my son and daughter for about 11-12 days. Way too much. I have found that several much shorter visits are in order. Family works and you are on your own a lot of the time and it is away from home, where you are the most comfortable. I realized this immediately when I read CanadianKate’s reply.

It is a case of familiarity breeds contempt.

Here’s a high end example:

We cruise with SilverSeas. Excellent service, great food, 5 star accommodations and really interesting passengers (average cost per day per person is $750 so everyone is in the high income range.)

We’ve gone twice – once for 17 days trans-atlantic, once for 27 days, Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver via Panama Canal and Alaska. It is my husband’s dream to go on an around the world (80 – 90 day) cruise with them.

The 17 day cruise was too short, I nearly cried when it was time to leave the ship. The 27 day cruise was perfect.

At day 25 I was ready to go home. I had read the books I had brought plus some from their library, watched the movies I wanted to see, visited enough with people, was tired of lying around all the time, found the entertainment getting boring (although they bring on new entertainers in each port) and found that I was no longer enjoying afternoon tea and was tired of the same flower arrangements in the diningroom and dressing for dinner each night (casual night on this ship is the equivalent of a cocktail party at your golf club.)

Day 26 was spent packing and saying goodbye and I had to leave the ship by 10 on Day 27. It was the perfect length of trip. Even had I been offered the chance to stay on for another 2 weeks for free, I would have found it boring, stifling and even irritating – after all do I really need someone to replace my towels every time I use them?

We won’t be sailing with SilverSea next spring (due to the economy – we are self employed and work has completely dried up in the last month) but we will be watching the sales and hope to get aboard again as soon as we can. We just now know that length of cruise that is the peak of the fulfillment curve for me (and therefore my dh because he’d have to listen to me complain if we were on board any longer!)

In all things, it is important to identify the peak of the curve and shoot only for that experience. Anything more is a waste of money.

We love Trans Siberian Orchestra but will not be seeing them in concert this Christmas season because I suspect we’ll be on the downside of the curve if we spend the money for the third year in a row. Instead, we’ve chosen a different performer to see, in order to stay at the top of the fulfillment curve.

I really enjoyed this post because it is definitely true, the amount of money spend doesn’t always equal happiness. I think if you had Bill Gates kind of money then maybe it would but for “Joe 6pack” and the “hockey moms”, I think this curve makes a lot of sense.

My bike is rusty, ugly, and I have some repairs done with twist ties. I never have to worry about anyone stelaiing my bike, though I lock it as it is so darned precious to me. It’s solid work-horse, and rides like a dream.

And you know what? I get smiles and waves from the other serious bikers out on our hilly terrain in the morning. There is a respect for the act, not the equipment. Maybe the equipment thing is a guy thing.

Anyway- it is my all-time peak fulfilment purchase! I knew immediately when I bought it, rode it home, then realized I had to go back and get the car!

For those of us who have been at 6 or 7 on the curve (say with daily Starbucks lattes, something that’s easy to change), what strategies work for scaling back without feeling deprived? And, for a different example, what about working on that scale? For example:

1. I am un- or underemployed, with no money or measure of professional success.

2. I am just punching a clock every day, and only one or two things about my job are really tolerable.

3. I’m making just enough money and I like what I’m doing pretty well, but weekends can’t come soon enough.

4. I make enough money to pay my expenses and meet my savings goals, and I like what I do and feel fulfilled and excited at work.

5. I make really good money, or I really feel fulfilled in my job, but one of the two elements is out of balance. Plus, I have to break personal commitments to fulfill work commitments.

6. Things in my personal life are slipping. My job has great rewards, but it feels like they’re used to compensate me for missing so much of my family life and free time.

7. I am a complete workaholic. I tell myself it’s justified by the pay or satisfaction, but the truth is that work is pretty much all I do.

I find myself doing a lot of wobbling on a sort of balance board over the curve — whoa, that’s too much, whoa, that’s not enough. I wonder how other people either ramp up or dial back to get to a four.

The “fulfillment curve” actually relates to what economists call the concept of “marginal utility”. So it’s not a “thought experiment”, it’s just a way of simplifying an economic concept for a general audience.

Suppose you had a plate with 12 donuts on it. You might be happy after eating the first two or three, but after that, the enjoyment of eating successive donuts begins to gradually decrease until you decide you are better served by saving the rest for later.

In my economics class, we actually had to calculate the point of maximum (marginal) utility of consuming X donuts with Y cups of coffee, but I’ll spare you the details.

So in case anyone was wondering, it’s not merely a thought experiment but also an adaptation of this concept, which is widely used in economics.

As far as my own habits go, after having a baby two months ago, going to our favorite restaurant is now a big treat for us, not really because we can’t afford to go more often, but because we rarely want to be away from our baby. We enjoy the food and atmosphere more, and make a point of dressing up and having the best time possible since we’re only going to go out once in a given month, instead of 2-4 times a week, as we were a year ago. (I took your advice and adjusted our “norm” from eating out whenever we didn’t feel like cooking, to cooking at home for almost every meal each month regardless of how we felt. Now eating at home is our norm, and we get so much more out of our meals because we’ve decided that if we’re eating at home, we might as well have a good time and use well-loved (albeit frugal) recipes, and when we do out, like I said, we get much more enjoyment out of it.

I am trying to see how to apply this fulfillment curve principal to other areas of my life. I think that I may follow your example and figure out what Levels 1-7 would look like for me in a given area, and then evaluate where I am.