Another good question

Fontana Labs asks:

In a nice post about the dangers of the hedonic treadmill, Ben A wonders what luxuries would be agonizing to give up. His list: no roommates, in-house laundry, car. . . . Other candidates? What would hurt to leave behind?

I don't regard a car as a luxury, but I miss my bike fiercely, and am saving up for a new one. (One that will live inside) In house laundry, which I am now enjoying for the first time, is pretty sweet, but not that big a hedonic improvement over in-building laundry. Laundromats are appalling, especially if you don't have a car and the nearest one is a quarter of a mile away.

My votes:

1) Sunlight. I didn't realize I cared until I lived in a cave-like apartment which required 24 hour electrical lighting for a couple of years.

2) No roommate

3) New clothes. When I started out as a journalist, my salary was low, my taxes were and my loans and rent together were over $2,000 a month. I couldn't afford things like meat or new clothes. The meat I didn't miss, but after several years of unemployment, all my clothes were slightly tattered, stretched, and vaguely out of style. By the time I got a raise, I understood, for the first time in my life, what Victorian authors had been describing when they made their heroines shabby: I looked frumpy, and couldn't do a damn thing about it.

4) A full sized stove

5) High speed internet