To Buy or Not to Buy?

I must be one of the few 36-year-old women in America who doesn't own a picnic basket. Make no mistake:  this is not because I am picnic-adverse. This is because I am unmarried.


Think about it: how do most American households become blessed with a picnic basket?  It's a classic wedding present.  Newly-married couples receive them from Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Mimsey along with a few handwritten family recipes.  It's a treasured wedding tradition.

It's also highly practical, I have discovered.  Before every church potluck, family gathering or holiday party, I find myself hunting through my stash of boxes for the right-sized container to transport my famous Chocolate-and-Heath-Bar Cheesecake.  All the while, I'm muttering, "I swear I'm going to buy a picnic basket next week."

The fact that I haven't yet purchased a picnic basket is mainly due to procrastination (along with a tendency to forget about the need for it as soon as the potluck, gathering or party is over).  However, there are some items, usually purchased or received by couples, that can place Still Singles in a bit more of a quandary.

Here's the dilemma:  do Still Singles go ahead and buy all those typically couple things, or not?

Sure, a picnic basket is not that much of an emotional investment, but some singles really have difficulty in deciding to buy, say, a house on their own.  For some, they worry about tying themselves down, and for others, they feel as though it would be "giving up" to go ahead and buy such things alone.

For me, the answer has been varied.  Here's the tally as it stands thus far:


YES:

• a queen-sized bed--to upgrade from what my friend Bobbi calls "the virginal single bed."  Let me say, it took NO time at all for me to get used to all that space.  Also, an excuse to buy all new sheets and bedding.  Love it!

• a set of nice dishes--not china, but not mismatched hand-me-downs either. Purchased in order to host my first family Thanksgiving in my first little rental house.  They are pretty girly (pink flowers!), but I figured that was just fine for now.

NO:

• a house--but I'm definitely getting the urge more, watching HGTV and dreaming of painting my walls some color other than what I believe Dutch Boy calls "Rental Apartment Off-White."  Still, a house has always seemed like such a BIG purchase and one that I'm not sure I'm ready to make on my own.  Other singles have, and I applaud them for it.

• a full-sized Christmas tree--definitely an emotional one for me.  That just feels so much like a buying-our-first-Christmas-tree-together kind of thing.  I don't want to miss out on that one.  So I stick with my little four-foot tree.  Besides, the story of how I bought that tree is priceless and always makes me laugh when I think of it.  (Remind me to tell you that one sometime.)

• vacations--probably a safety issue just as much, but I do have a few special places in mind for trips with my husband.  Some are revisits---places I love that I'd love to show him---and others we can explore together for the first time. 

Other thoughts, my fellow singletons?  What purchases have you struggled with or embraced fully?

As for me, I'll be adding a picnic basket in the YES column soon. 

If I don't forget again.



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