Patty’s Ponderings…Penny Pinching in a Designer Lunch Bag World

Brown bagging it has a whole different meaning with the arrival of this precious item. The Vasari sack, (essentially a brown paper lunch bag), with a price tag of $290 has sold out at a New York City store.

The designer also sells a black leather version of the bag for $630 dollars and a regional director of the design house said she does not believe the prices for the items are too high.

Maybe it’s just me, but, I simply cannot wrap my mind around things like this! I’ll try and explain why, without taking too many hairpin turns.

We live in a country where 1 in 6 children go hungry every day. More working people are living in poverty than ever before. More twenty and thirty-something children are moving back in with Mom and Dad, because jobs that would pay for independence are hard to come by, even with very expensive college degrees.

Multitudes of baby boomers, (including me), still find themselves living paycheck-to-paycheck, with no back-up plan and no savings.

After 6 years of painful austerity, I have finally extricated myself from a pile of crushing debt. I am very proud of that difficult accomplishment and yet I remain terrified of the future.

I still drive a 1996 Geo Prizm. Although I have let myself do some window shopping for something a bit newer. I still rent a somewhat ramshackle home in central Sioux Falls. I still get a lump in my throat at the grocery store, the vet’s office, the dentist, the doctor, just contemplating what the costs will be.

Right now in my home, there are 4 creatures in need of medical attention for joint issues. One is me, two are German Shepherds, and one of the cats has an old football injury.

See what I mean? I think I will always feel just one life event away from complete ruin.

And those are just a few of the reasons why, you’ll never see me carrying a high-dollar designer paper lunch bag.