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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to try building little splurges into your life.

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Speaker 1: Not only is elevating the everyday fun, it tends to

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Speaker 1: be a more economical way of boosting happiness than buying

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Speaker 1: big stuff. I was reminded of this tip while listening

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Speaker 1: to one of my favorite podcasts, how to Money. A

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Speaker 1: few months ago. Hosts Joel and Matt interviewed personal finance

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Speaker 1: bloggers Kirston and Julian Saunders. The couple had paid off

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Speaker 1: two thousand dollars in debt in a few years, which

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Speaker 1: involved a reasonable amount of frugality. However, Kirsten noted that

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Speaker 1: they made a point of elevating the every day in

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Speaker 1: order to feel like life was good and rich, even

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Speaker 1: as they were socking away cash. The idea is that

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Speaker 1: if you get a promotion or a raise, you might

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Speaker 1: choose to spend some amount upgrading a relatively low cost

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Speaker 1: but frequent purchase. So, for instance, if you and your

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Speaker 1: spouse share a bottle of wine once a week, and

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Speaker 1: this opportunity for connection is a major highlight for the

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Speaker 1: two of you, going from a fifteen dollar bottle to

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Speaker 1: a thirty dollar bottle could feel quite luxurious, again and

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Speaker 1: again and again. But as long as that wasn't the

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Speaker 1: whole raise, you come out ahead without having taken on

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Speaker 1: the big expenses like a new house or new car

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Speaker 1: that truly raised your cost of living. I love this

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Speaker 1: idea of elevating the every day. We interact with certain

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Speaker 1: objects more often than others, and being happy with them

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Speaker 1: can make a big difference in your life. Start with sleep.

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Speaker 1: Do your sheets feel comfortable? Do you love your pillow?

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Speaker 1: If not, why not? Changing this can make going to

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Speaker 1: bed feel more indulgent, and going to bed earlier is

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Speaker 1: how grown up sleep in now? How about your shower?

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Speaker 1: Is the water pressure stimulating? We had an issue not

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Speaker 1: long ago with some plumbing problems in my house, and

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Speaker 1: these made the shower water feel more like a trickle

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Speaker 1: than anything appealing. Getting this fixed meant a big boost

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Speaker 1: in happiness. So can Really good towels are really nice shampoo.

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Speaker 1: If you buy four bottles of shampooper year, spending twelve

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Speaker 1: dollars on each instead of three dollars, is only thirty

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Speaker 1: six dollars more out the door for something you can

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Speaker 1: celebrate every single morning. That's ten cents in morning to

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Speaker 1: elevate the every day. What could be a better bargain

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Speaker 1: than that. You can drink your coffee out of a

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Speaker 1: pleasingly contoured mug. You can drink good coffee. I like

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Speaker 1: real cream. I'd rather skip dessert than start my day

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Speaker 1: with skim milk. If you exercise frequently, stop making do

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Speaker 1: with ratty jim clothes. High quality socks are still relatively

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Speaker 1: cheap in the grand scheme of treats, and they can

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Speaker 1: make you feel like you're running on air. I also

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Speaker 1: like really nice pens. Someone recently gave me a cross pen,

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Speaker 1: and while a little detective work finds that some of

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Speaker 1: the company's offerings run into the hundreds of dollars, a

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Speaker 1: standard really nice pen costs about twenty five scheduling my day,

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Speaker 1: and my planner feels downright decadent writing with such a

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Speaker 1: pen now versus the free ones I grabbed from hotels. Now,

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Speaker 1: on some level, a nice pen is indulgent. It's not

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Speaker 1: really necessary, and if money is incredibly tight, life might

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Speaker 1: call for making do. But if you choose to spend say,

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Speaker 1: of your salary on housing versus the thirty percent or more.

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Speaker 1: Some calculators say you could theoretically afford you can buy

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Speaker 1: a lot of nice pens and still build up savings.

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Speaker 1: And interestingly, there's some evidence that the little stuff adds

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Speaker 1: more pleasure to life than the big stuff. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: the hedonic treadmill effect. We get used to most things

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Speaker 1: in life, good or bad. A new car can make

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Speaker 1: you happy at first, but you're not going to get

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Speaker 1: new cars too frequently and you'll stop noticing them eventually.

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Speaker 1: Whereas you can buy a fancy coffee every more morning

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Speaker 1: and experience the pleasure again and again. By elevating the

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Speaker 1: every day, you can buy happiness, and you can get

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Speaker 1: it pretty cheap. So how will you elevate the every day?

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Speaker 1: What little treat will use for John? In the meantime?

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number

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Speaker 1: four then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot

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Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart Media

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Speaker 1: dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

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