I have this horrible horrible conscience that stops me from buying expensive things. Everytime I am about to do it, a little voice inside me says 'that money could feed a family in Africa. You don't need [insert item here].'
Then I don't buy it and give the money to charity. I need a job where I can buy nice things and give money away.

Seriously, that was a cool look.

Centaur, it's great that you do that!

Do you find yourself getting obsessive about it? I mean, do you question "should I buy a Starbuck's coffee or just make it at home?" or is there a price cut off?

For me, it kind of comes down the price and usefulness. I have a hard time buying expensive luxury items because I stop and think about better uses for the money, but I waste a ton of money buying little stuff I don't really need.

I never bought any Tiffany silver jewelry, but I do have a Tiffany sterling silver swiss army knife keychain that struck me as really funny. It came in all the Tiffany blue packaging. (It was a gift, but I did show it to the person who got it for me, and oddly, I don't worry about it I'm wasting money when I buy stuff for other people.)

I don't drink Starbucks coffee at all. I'm all about Fair Trade Coffee. I'm as meticulous about it as a vegetarian is about not eating meat.
Well, my example-right after the tsunami, I had money from christmas. I wanted this really nice leather jacket that was on sale, but I knew I couldn't justify spending $100 on something I wanted but didn't need when there were people who'd just had their entire lives wiped out halfway around the world.
It's not a price cutoff, it's just how my conscience feels on a particular day :D
This christmas I didn't know what I wanted from my parents and they kept asking, so finally I showed my mother this website : http://www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com/ and spent $50 investing in a fair trade coffee collaborative.
I am a privileged westerner as is. I have clean water, clothes, food and shelter. I have a cell phone and a computer with internet access. I drive a decent car which I can fill with gas whenever I want, no problem.
Don't get me wrong-I do not begrudge people for wanting and buying expensive items (except Paris Hilton etc. she disgusts me!). It's all a matter of perspective.
Occasionally I do remind myself that I am allowed to spend large amounts of money on things I want because the cost of living is so different over here. Also I can't save the world, as much as I'd like to.
Oh, on topic-I own a fake Tiffany necklace. It looks pretty real, not very, but real enough. I'm not sure where it is actually.

Starbucks was just an example of something one could buy that costs probably five time what it would cost to make something yourself, but that would still wouldn't kick up my "is it immoral to buy this" meter because the amount of money I was handing over wasn't that big. In your case, it would kick up the "is this immoral meter," but for different reasons.

I didn't see the Unwrapped page before. I've been intrigued by Heifer International in the past and we had a fundraising contest at work for them, but never purchased anything on my own.

If only international fundraising could be the next expensive college fashion trend. . .

This is why I can't stand the idea of a wedding registry. I have dishes and stuff, why would I replace them?

I bet we could work that out. Maybe if we found a way to hand out things with the correct trendy labels as rewards for participating in fundraising...

The proper Southern fratty sorostitute should be wearing pearls and David Yurman. "Return to Tiffany's" crap was cool in 7th grade.

I thought being frat was all about quality - like it makes sense to wear LaCoste or Brooks Brothers instead of Chaps or Old Navy. David Yurman is like the jewelry they sell at Sears, but marked up in hopes that people pay for it.

That's why you can register for things like donations to charities if you already have dishes :)

(I personally don't have anything close to a full set of dishes. I am definitely registering for dishes and the donations. I am fresh outta college and I need some dishes!)

Are you sure your interns aren't from Nashville? I swear I saw one of their sisters today at the gym in a t-shirt that said:

"Barbie has all the clothes -
Barbie has all the toys -
Barbie must be a (insert sorority name here)!"

I agree with you, DBB! I've been married for 15 years and I still don't have any proper china to speak of. Where would I put it? I don't have one of those china cabinet doohickies.

All my dishes and stuff are Crate and Barrel junk and I'm fine with that.

Too weird, but one of them is actually from a suburb of Nashville (Mead something. I'm thinking Meadeville, but that's a town in Pennsylvania so I know it's not that).

I agree!!!! I look at Yurman and ask why would anyone pay all that money for twisted silver jewelry!!!

I would suspect that their parents were either helping them with their apartments or paying for the purses and clothes. Actually, probably both.

Those twisted silver David Yurman bracelets remind me of those silver bracelets that my grandma used to use to help ease her arthritis.

Probably Belle Meade......it is a higher income district of Nashville.

Yeah, in Belle Meade I'm always afraid I'll be pulled over for driving a Kia.

OK, I just looked up David Yurman because I didn't know what it looked like. I've seen that stuff before, but I had no idea it was "designer." I thought it was just from, like, Kay Jewelers or something.

Why buy expensive, ugly (IMHO) David Yurman jewelry when it's just going to be "out of style" in the next 2 seconds like Silver Tiffany stuff (supposedly) is? Buy classic pieces that you can wear forever, and spend a little bit more on them. It's an investment, not a trend.

Agreed. I look at spending a paycheck on a bag, or piece of jewelry, clothing item, as an investment. I rarely splurge for anything (poor starving college student) and sure I could buy a trendy bag at Target for MUCH less, but it's not going to last as long.

But I do think there are a lot of girls that just go buy the "IT" bag just because it's the "IT" bag. One year it's Coach, the next its LV, then D&B, and Juicy. I just saw D&B bags for less than $50 in TJ Max last night and I laughed at how the "IT" bag goes out so fast. I wondered how many girls have their designer handbags in the bottom of the closet just because pop-culture says it's not in style.

Which is exactly why Tiffany jacked up the prices. The article basicly went on to say that the investors an the company want to woo back the higher paying clientel that Tiffany has a (long time) relationship with (brand loyalty), not the fly-by-night-sweet-sixteen-here-today-forgotten-tomorrow crowd. When something becomes trendy and everyone has it, it loses it's "special" value. Burberry is a classic example of this. A woman in the article remarked that when she had gone to a Tiffany store to get a gift for her teen daughter, the store was crowded like Macys. What was the point of her being there in that atmosphere when she could go to a store like Macys for that. Someone else in the article said that they didnt wear their Tiffany jewerly piece anymore because "everyone has it".

posted by Kilarney Rose
And that's the attitude that Tiffany's feels will hurt them in the long run.

You obviously don't have a clue.

Obviously you have an extremely limited knowledge of what they carry if you think it is all "twisted silver jewelry."

I think it is extremely classy.

Dude, you're starting to scare me now. Talk about your truck or fishing or something. :p

I agree. That's what I thought they were when I first saw them.

When I think Tiffany, I think diamonds...not the silver stuff they started selling so they would have something for every income level. And to most women, I would wager that they still think of diamonds when they think of Tiffany. I don't think Tiffany has anything to worry about. Anyone who's been in a Tiffany store knows that silver is only a small part of its collection, and if you haven't been in a Tiffany store, well, you're probably not in its target market anyway.

If I was LV, I would be worried. Girls in middle school carrying an adult purse, just because "everyone has one!"? That's very anti-luxury, and therefore hurts the LV brand. Why does it matter more for LV than Tiffany? Because the bulk of LV's bags and luggage are "signature" bags...there just isn't variety like at Tiffany. I just bought a beautiful, more expensive Marc Jacobs bag because I would never pay $1,000 for a bag that everyone else has. Coach can get away with it because Coach is only marginally "designer"...most of its bags are in the $275-$400 range. I have several Coach bags, but I carry them because they're classic and professional, not to show off. It is not as much of a status symbol as a LV bag is supposed to be. But now LV is no longer a status symbol...everyone has one, or a knockoff that most people probably think is a real one. The LV store on Rodeo Drive sees a ridiculous amount of foot traffic.

For those of you talking about registries, check out www.myregistry.com. You download a tool onto your browser with just one click and you can add anything from any internet store (Walmart, Best Buy, The Limited) onto your registry -- it is genius, really. I've been saying for years that instead of having 4 different registries at Pottery Barn, Macy's, Target and Crate and Barrel, you should be able to merge them into one. Oh and Tiffany and Co, too, I guess! Anyway, I'm kicking myself someone else got to it first, but it is a pretty cool idea!

Tiffany report, had a positive sales increase.

Oh, wan't there a movie?

"Breakfast at Tiffinay's"?

Got a silver tooth paste tube saver from there once as a gift. My Ex got that too!:(

Wan't that expensive either.

I think that's what we're getting at, Tom...Tiffany is supposed to be expensive.

Ha, I know, just have had some experience buying it quite a few times.

I've SEEN Yurman. It's ugly tacky new money cocktail jewelry.

Ok, I've been to the Yurman store and a lady in my office wears it quite a bit so I've seen a lot of pieces. Some of the stuff is tacky, but generally, I like Yurman.

Here is some allegedly "classy" Yurman jewelry:

http://davidyurman.neimanmarcus.com/...DYY010Q_mn.jpg
$5,100...for, um, what? Something you can buy at Wal-Mart?

http://davidyurman.neimanmarcus.com/...DYY9971_mn.jpg
These are classy - if you are 80 and having your portrait painted for the family estate...

http://davidyurman.neimanmarcus.com/...DYY5829_mn.jpg
Y-necklaces? The cast from the third season of friends would approve!

http://davidyurman.neimanmarcus.com/...DYY5851_mn.jpg
Looks like a gaudy piece of cocktail jewelry to me...

http://davidyurman.neimanmarcus.com/...DYN8243_mn.jpg
Look honey, my bracelet matches the travertine counters!

http://davidyurman.neimanmarcus.com/...DY-09VN_mn.jpg
And another cocktail ring, just for good measure!

And since you edited, things I think are standard classy old-money jewelry - pearl studs. Simple diamond studs. Small, tasteful hoops. I've never liked the big gaudy crap that rappers wear because the jewelry overshadows them - people should wear jewelry, jewelry shouldn't wear people. I have no problem with expensive jewelry if it's worth the price, but I think Yurman is paying for a name and nothing else.

I guess I tend to think of Harry Winston, Cartier, etc. as more traditionally old money. But looking at the Yurman Web site, it's pretty stuff...

I like these earrings in the silver and gold.

http://davidyurman.neimanmarcus.com/...DY-0ASV_mn.jpg

Those are not my style but they are pretty cute and a lot more "everyday" than most Yurman stuff.

You are an idiot. Just because you can pick out 6 pieces of jewerly from an entire designers collection that are not attractive doesn't mean the stuff is trashy or reserved for "cocktail parties" I happen to think the stuff you posted is rather tasteless.......I also know that if you had any kind of sense of style or what is classy, you would opt for other things that Yurman has to offer.

Brooks Brothers makes things that are hideous, same with any other designer that you would expect a classy gentleman to wear......doesn't mean that, overall, the line is trashy and should be reserved for people with zero-taste that like to look tacky.

I actually love those last couple cocktail rings. There's nothing wrong with cocktail jewelry...it's meant to be fabulously dramatic. But there's a difference, of course, in cocktail jewelry and COSTUME jewelry.

It's pretty amusing to see a guy get worked up over jewelry brands.