smartsizing blog

If you want to get ahead, get a milkman

Shopping can be stressful and can strangely cut down on your willpower and ability to make good decisions. Shopping even for everyday groceries right now is an additional stress beacause of the pandemic. I don't feel confortable wearing a mask for anything more than a couple of minutes. Also the additional measures in place puts an additional dent in the 'happy experience' just as all those extra security measures at the airport don't help with my discomfort of travel and general hatred of flying. Anyway,I noticed we have a milkman in the area when staying up late. I got some milk accidentally delivered the other day. We had a milkman when I was a child. Part of this was a nostalgia rush. It felt like going back and catching a piece of the pleasant past. I have my microSD cards delivered, why not my groceries? I stayed up late last night again and listened for the sound of the milkfloat then when out, flagged down the milkman, returned the errant bottles and asked about deliveries. The signing-up and shopping process was pretty easy. I ordered some regular deliveries and some one-off extras such as jam, bread and biscuits. Is this a ridiculous indulgence seeing as an American friend pointed out "these are all things you can get at the store!" Having a milkman was one of those eccentric Britishisms like having a Queen. But she then became intrigued and looked up whether there was a milk delivery service in her area in CA. There wasn't. At least not in the immediate area. And I could tell she was a bit sad about that. Funnily enough, the morning after I came across this video by Joshua Becker aka The Rabid Badger which examines what to spend money on to be happier. Buying time is one of those things.