Expenses

Ignorance is bliss. And easier on your checkbook as well.

Up until recently, buying loose tea leaves was something I thought about as much as I would think about buying a Greyhound bus ticket. Which is to say, quite infrequent.

But recently I had an opportunity to try tea brewed from loose leaves (as opposed to the traditional tea bag which I've now come to realize is filled with left over leaf bits and debris) for a taste comparison. I was skeptical at first, but my eyes have been opened and now I've become a convert. Who knew there would be such a difference?

It's not like comparing I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to butter, because they're pretty close. It's like when a restaurant tries to pull off giving you Diet RC Cola instead of Diet Coke. Immediate and profound difference.

So now I put down an extra couple dollars for loose tea at the grocery store. Add this to the extra few dollars I pay for better coffee, better meat, better cheese, better beer... all of a sudden, I'm broke. I'm constantly walking out of the grocery store wondering how $100 worth of food could fit into just a few plastic bags.

I think back to the days when I drank Maxwell House, ate store brand cheese, drank Milwaukee's Best (the Beast!), and thought things were great. A glance at my cart now and it screams that I've become one of those yuppie dorks: estate coffee, imported cheese and microbrew beer...

Sometimes I get to wondering how much money I would be saving had I never tried new things and stayed with what I know. But then again, for a foodie, that's a question not even worth asking.