Intro
My Little Pony, skinny and boney. Our gorgeous baby girl Lucy is obsessed with these psychedelic equine beauties. Having turned 8 over Easter (ok so she’s not really my baby girl anymore) she received a nice stash of birthday cash along with a delightful trip to Build a Bear workshop to proudly create her very own Applejack pony. Her birthday cash was soon burning a hole in Lucy’s My Little Pony purse and so she needed to spend it as quickly as possible on loads more MLP stuff. As much stuff as possible for as little money as possible please.
After a quick search on Fleabay we soon found an abundance of MLP tat, I mean high quality merchandise. Since it’s all made in China anyway and hence no need to buy a recognised brand we ordered the cheapest Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, real names honest, we could find. After waiting 2 weeks, that’s about 5 years in the mind of an 8 year old, the high quality merchandise arrived to much jumping up and down, I’m very easily excited.
Continued from our Spring 2016 newsletter…
On opening the much anticipated and well travelled parcel she soon discovered that her beloved Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy wasn’t quite the same as the one she’d seen in the toy shop. Never mind as after a little gentle but firm adult persuasion, plus a mild childhood strop, she warmed again to her not quite so perfect Pinkie Pie. All was good in the world, well until she discovered to her horror that Pinkie Pie had now developed an unexpected and certainly unwanted hole. Mum then spent the next 1/2 hour hunting for the sewing kit and performing intensive open pony surgery. A job that will no doubt be repeated several times over the coming months.
Wished we’d popped to Toysrus and spent double on the proper branded Pinkie Pie leaving Fluttershy for another day? Yep! Should’ve known better at our age? Double yep!
Bigger, faster and more of it please, preferably for as little financial investment as possible is where it’s at when you’re young. When I was a kid time was a much more disposable commodity, I’d have happily walked 5 miles just to save 50p. I had boundless amounts of energy, all the time in the world to do things but very limited supply of cash. Also I wrongly believed that value for money simply equated to the cheaper the better.
As a near fully grown adult I’m now much more selective and fussy about how I invest my precious time and energy. I now value my time as much, and often more, than my money. I’m by no means rich and have to work nearly as hard as the next man to earn a living but my time is definitely a very finite commodity that I won’t give up lightly. Waste my money and I’ll be mildly annoyed, but waste my time and I’ll have a proper hissy fit. I simply don’t have enough of it to be wasted.
I’m not saying that I’m a staunch believer in the “You get what you pay for” philosophy as sometimes I believe you’re simply paying over the odds for the hype surrounding a popular brand. However, in most instances I think this is true. I’ve become very suspicious of anything that sells itself purely on price and price alone as it’s one and only value proposition. Value to me now means much more than just cheap.
Questions I now find myself asking before purchasing a product or service include: Will the buying process be quick, efficient and pleasurable? How long is it going to last me before I have to repeat the purchase? Is it bespoke to me and personalised to meet my specific needs? Does it make me or a loved one feel special? Of course I have budgets to stick to, just like when I was 8 years old, but the difference is that now I’d much rather have less stuff, but really love the stuff that I do own.