Considering Frugality.

There’s a coat I’ve had my eye on in a Uttoxeter charity shop for a few weeks. It’s a very smart coat – cream coloured moleskin, nearly new condition, tastefully designed, and originally from NEXT which is a good brand. And all for the absurdly low price of £4. £4 for a stylish NEXT coat. Who could possibly walk past without buying it?

Well, the first question I ask myself is: ‘Do I need another coat?’ to which the answer is a reluctant but truthful ‘no.’

The second consideration is more of a realisation than a question. I’ve got to that point in life where there’s no prospect of me looking good no matter what I wear, and nobody has the slightest reason to take a blind bit of notice of me anyway. I’m reminded of those elderly women who spend an inordinate proportion of their weekly pension having their hair styled, permed and coloured. It doesn’t disguise the fact that they’re deep into the rigours of physical degradation. It just means that their malformed bodies have purple wigs stuck on top of them. Where’s the point in that? There isn’t one.

And then I ask myself what else I could do with £4, and the first thing which springs to mind is that it pays for about eight hours worth of having the fan heater on in my office on cold winter nights. Now that does matter. I get miserable sitting in front of the computer feeling chilled, and my office is the warmest room in the house.

That settles the matter: somebody younger, and possibly poorer, than me can have the coat. I swell with pride at the realisation that my propensity for kindness is manifest yet again, and I walk past without buying it.