<p>Got you, dstark. We're not good enough. We've been found out. We're real cheap. We just drive this beat up Toyota. Yesterday, my cleaning lady told us her car was newer than ours. :(
My bag--the only one I've actually bought, I don't own a whole closetful-- costs $50. It's from Nine West (I just looked at the label, otherwise I could not remember what kind of bag it is). It was bought quite a few years ago. It has not been run over by a truck, but it's regularly dumped on the ground, misplaced, rained or snowed on. when it falls apart, something I think will not happen in the immediate future, it will be replaced by a similar one.</p>
<p>Marite, I think you should go for one of those Hermes bags. I'd offer my advice on which one, but I have no idea what they look like. :)</p>
<p>But whom would I want to impress with Hermes bag, especially since the rest of me comes swathed in Land's End or LLBean?:(</p>
<p>Target shoppers here. (We live within walking distance of a Super Target, so we save a lot of gasoline and perhaps lives in Iraq by not driving to shop.) The state university is DEFINITELY on our consideration list here. A friend of ours has a son who was offered a full (tuition, room, and board) ride, plus a research assistanceship as a freshman (so he actually makes money, net, while going to school), plus a year abroad full ride. I think my son will be competitive for the same offer at the same age. We will also, I think, encourage our son to apply to a few of the famous Ivy-peer colleges that fit his interests. Which colleges he will choose to apply to, and which will admit him, are unknown to us. We will encourage him to look at all the offers and see what makes sense at the time of decision. Like the majority of American families, we probably will NOT be expected to pay full list price at any college that admits our son. We will pay whatever the college deems us able to pay--that's our commitment to each of our children, that they get to decide on a good college after comparing offers and we get to pony up the full EFC.</p>
<p>"But whom would I want to impress with Hermes bag, especially since the rest of me comes swathed in Land's End or LLBean?"</p>
<p>Total strangers.</p>
<p>Ahhh. You're probably a lost cause.</p>
<p>Okay, so (in keeping with the analogy of full-freight at prestige u), who has paid retail for a Coach (let's put the Hermes aside - we are looking at the top 3% of the population, not the top 1/4%), and if so, why?</p>
<p>Yes, I know, some of you got a little discount...the Princeton strategy...and it made you feel better about it, though it is irrelevant in the total equation. </p>
<p>Still, there must be something in them, because they are making money hand over fist.</p>
<p>The big problem for Coach (less for Hermes) is that the vast majority of the population doesn't know what they are, and so the company has to create enough buzz among folks who can't afford them to establish prestige. They MAY be better than my plaid bag from Chinnalapatti that I bought 27 years ago, but if don't know what they are, it is not likely that I will want them. So the Veblenesque idea is to make sure that at least a few folks in my social class actually have them, to create the sense of disappointment in not owning one.</p>
<p>But my social class doesn't matter - for the most part, we are not going to prestige colleges (granted, I and my older d. are exceptions, which is a source of bemusement). What matters is what those who pay full-freight think, and how much they would pay for "the experience".</p>
<p>I just had to look. I'll take two please! HAHAHAHA!
<a href="http://www.hermes-birkin.com/bags.asp?category=Birkin&id=688&page=1#%5B/url%5D">http://www.hermes-birkin.com/bags.asp?category=Birkin&id=688&page=1#</a></p>
<p>marite, you could find an anonymous message board and join Hermes/Coach/Target bag debate. ;)</p>
<p>Oh, that! I wish I could post a photo of my Chinnalapatti special, and then could sell them the design! (I can tell you, it does indeed attract attention!)</p>
<p>Mini, if you asked people why they bought Coach bags, they would say they were better than other bags, or the purchase made them feel good.</p>
<p>They wouldn't say, "I decided to p*** away a few dollars". ;)</p>
<p>coronax:</p>
<p>I wasn't the one who started the Hermes/Coach/Target handbag debate. But now that I've looked at both Hermes and Coach websites, I'm sticking with my worry-free bag. College tuition, however,....</p>
<p>oops, sorry marite......but I'm glad your happy with the bag you're carrying. After all, that's what we all want. :)</p>
<p>DStark -</p>
<p>Perhaps, but I'd like to hear it from the actual purchasers (specifically, how it made them "feel good"). </p>
<p>Is it the "Niloticus Crocodile" or the "Palladium Hardware"? (Hey, we pick about things that amount to much less in talking about colleges.)</p>
<p>(Isn't palladium mostly used in catalytic converters and other smelly places? Are they recycling?)</p>
<p>The Coach bag obviously gets better with age as it is found sitting on shelves surrounded with the other Coach bags in only the finest of shops. </p>
<p>Marite...your comment on your old Toyota lost a bit when you were able to compare it with your cleaning lady's car :) Meant in fun</p>
<p>no help here. I have NO IDEA what brand my bag is. It's black with a lovely weave pattern and I've been carrying it for years. I think it cost around $30 but my memory is failing me.
As I look at the patterns in my life, it all fits. I buy used cars (never new - wouldn't even think about a lease). I like Lands End - Overstock in particular. I think garage sales are fun. I can't understand how anyone can pay more than $10 for sunglasses. I could if I wanted to - but WHY would I? Perhaps it's my working class roots.
So when it came to college choices, I have to admit I would have a hard time looking at our choices and not considering cost. As I said before, we were willing to pay top dollar, but the case would have to be really good.
It wasn't. And we didn't. So, we didn't even spend as much as we saved. And the rest will go to our son when he graduates. He says it's going to fund grad school. Sounds good to me. It's a pattern.... Right? Wrong? No - it's just us.</p>
<p>Sax:</p>
<p>Yes. it means that I don't put much premium in driving a fancy car, but I do value being able to have someone come and clean my house. As far as bragging rights go, a car is more impressive, I would say... I was trying to suggest that people "splurge" on different things. In this, I'm different from toneranger. There is no specific pattern to my spending. </p>
<p>I used to live close to a Nobel prize winner. I swear that his wife was wearing the same T-shirt nearly every day in the summer. She also washed their car. Other than kids trying to raise money, I did not see anyone washing their car in the street as she did. They did not lack for money; nor were they stingy. I believe they were extremely well-traveled. Their priorities did not involve wearing fancy clothes or even living in a fancy house.</p>
<p>marite - perhaps we're not THAT different. And I'm not quite like your Nobel prize winner neighbor ( I change my clothes every day and I look pretty good on most days - I think - LOL!)
For example, we DO have a cleaning service.I HATE to clean and find it to be a useful service. We certainly would give it up if we had to (and this has happened a few times).<br>
I just hate the concept of paying for more for something that offers no added value. Chalk it up to my old-world Dad - he trained me that way and it stuck.
So if I like to get a pedicure once in a while (and I do) - you won't find me at a fancy spa. Just the local nail shop at $20. They do just as good a job (maybe not all local nail shops do but THIS one does).
If I'm looking at getting surgery and the best surgeon is out of network - we'll fork over the extra $.
I'm not cheap. And I'm not poor. And I'm not even close to being rich. Just always weighing the value and the trade-offs.<br>
Education is VERY important (sort of like the surgeon example). But, in my mind, expensive is not always better. It CAN be but it might not be. If we find a good option, why not make the money stretch to grad school?
Some still call us cheap though...LOL.</p>
<p>marite-</p>
<p>do you drive Honda or Toyota? :)</p>
<p>post #62:
[quote]
We just have one rather beat up 1998 Honda. And it's not even a case of saving in one area to pay for the other. It did not even enter our minds. It's a matter of having different ways of judging different things by different yardsticks. I don't go around thinking that people who drive a Lexus are ego-tripping.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>post #101:
[quote]
We're real cheap. We just drive this beat up Toyota. Yesterday, my cleaning lady told us her car was newer than ours.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>btm:</p>
<p>I think the beat up Honda replaced the even more beat up Toyota. You can see I'm not very much into brand names.:)</p>
<p>Toneranger:
[quote]
But, in my mind, expensive is not always better.
[/quote]
I absolutely agree. And I would add, "private is not necessarily better than public.'</p>
<p>Is it possible to agree with most of the views presented here? We value education above almost everything except health, and opted for the expensive option. But I don't think we'd necessarily have gone private over public if the private options weren't first tier. As for handbags, I do use a Coach bag -- but I use it for years before replacing it, and I don't change bags to match anything. They need to be pretty durable to handle the abuse I hand out. So for college, I think we wanted the "Coach" option, because we felt it would help DS handle the vicissitudes of life down the line. We are partial to a liberal arts education.</p>
<p>At the same time, there's no way we're going to dip into retirement funds. We'll take on loans that can be repaid before retirement, but that's it. We also live more frugally in other areas to make this possible.</p>
<p>Finally, the issue is only relevant for kids who have the option of the "Coach" college, vs a really great public U. If we lived in California, it would be a harder choice. And if our son hadn't been accepted to the schools he was, it would have been a different question. So, I guess there's really no way to answer the general case without the specifics being known.</p>