If I was a cat, I'd have died long ago of curiosity. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to know more about or try out (if possible) everything and anything I see. But I also am very much pulled by the idea of being tied down to as few things as possible, without sacrificing too much on comfort or accessibility. It's a conflict; the former means I constantly have an urge to buy shiny new things and get into new hobbies, but the latter makes me feel guilty about consumerism (also, I grew up in Nepal and saw extreme poverty among my own close friends and relatives, which further adds to the guilt). There is a balance to be struck though, which is followed by "a sense of pride and accomplishment" in deriving maximum use/value from the items that I do own. As such, I try to keep a meticulous track of what and why I buy. It helps reduce redundancy. It has also led me to 'invest' in quality items - things that have a good price-to-value ratio and are reliable workhorses. As an example, I've been able to narrow down on my tshirt of choice through this process and therefore wear only one type of tshirt - a 150gsm plain black printing blank. Boring? Maybe. I can live with that. There is still a long way to go, both in terms of optimization, and discipline. Suggestions are welcome!
The amortized daily cost represents how much I've spent per day to own each item. It is calculated by dividing the purchase price by the number of days owned. If I were to, say, lose an item, this metric is roughly the amount that I paid to own that item for a day. This metric naturally decreases over time as items are kept longer and so it rewards long-term ownership of the things I buy..it's a subtle encouragement to avoid impulsive buying and to think carefully about purchases. When items are sold or given away, they stop contributing to the total amortized cost so it is a dynamic measure of my current material commitment. My goal is to keep this value as low as possible, or atleast strive to make it to 1kr/day per item for *most* items. It is ofcourse unrealistic to expect this for all items, especially electronics and gadgets which tend to have a higher upfront cost and depreciate quickly but I try to be mindful of their ADC when making purchases.