Luxuries you can live without -- and should

Luxuries you can live without -- and should This is the very message that I love to see and hear. I just hope that it spread wide and far.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it wasn't that long ago when the mere concept of Williams-Sonoma (or Restoration Hardware, Crate & Barrel, et. al.) would have struck most folks as . . . nutty. Oh sure, I'll pay a premium price to buy upscale versions of ordinary stuff -- replacing functional things I already own -- because my lifestyle must reek of affluence! Thirty years ago, people would have scoffed at such vanity. Today, inundated by high-end specialty stores in every corner of the retail market, more and more Americans are succumbing to the siren song of these so-called affordable luxuries. And at what cost?

All too often people forget to take a step back and think, Do I need this? Or am I pretentious?