Margen
“Your Money or Your Life,” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, proposes a change in the unit of measure: money is life energy, the hours you handed over to earn it. Spending is, literally, paying with pieces of your life.
The book asks you to work out your real hourly wage: from your paycheck subtract the costs of working (commuting, meals out, clothes) and add to your hours the travel and the time it takes you to unwind. Someone earning €1,600 may discover that their real hour is worth €8.
With that figure, every purchase looks different: a pair of €120 sneakers is fifteen hours of your life; an €80 dinner, ten. The question stops being “can I afford it?” and becomes “is it worth the hours it costs me?” Sometimes yes. Knowing it is the difference.