Wish Lists

One of my guilty pleasures is “online window shopping.” No, not looking to buy windows, but rather, browsing websites just to look at things that I know I can’t afford and don’t need – at least not right now. Sometimes I look at furniture, other times it’s fun jewelry, sometimes it’s art, and sometimes it’s just anything at all.

This week, I discovered the website Kaboodle, a site where you can make your own wishlists from any shopping site around the web. You can visit others’ wishlists as well, if you want, but I admit that’s a feature that I haven’t checked out yet. One thing that I like about the site is that you can set up multiple lists, and you can make them public or private. So I can make a list of things that I would like for Christmas (a requirement in my family). But I can also make a private list of books I’d like to check out at the library or on one of the bookswap sites, which has been fairly useful when I’m spending a few minutes browsing through Amazon.

It’s also a good tool if you’re thinking about buying something slightly more expensive. Make it sit there for a while. I’m always surprised at how quickly something that I thought I had to have becomes something that might be nice to have but that I don’t really need at all.

My favorite list though, is called “If I Had a Million Dollars,” one of the default Kaboodle lists. Of course, my list isn’t really what I’d buy if I had that much money, but it’s just pricier items that I like but can’t afford or don’t need – a pretty barrister’s bookcase and an Amazon Kindle, among other things. Sometimes it’s fun to just look at those things that are out of reach right now, and think about how my frugal living and money saving tactics might mean that sometime in the future, I will be able to afford those things.

What would you put on your “If I Had a Million Dollars” list?