Some Things in Moderation – Evening Out Quality

We often find that living simply sometimes requires evening out the quality of our consumables. It may seem a bit odd, but our method has some thought behind it.

coffee mug shot

A nice, hot cup of better-than-average hot cocoa! (Photo: Mark Zeiger.)

We go through a lot of cocoa mix. Obviously, we’ve worked to find the best quality for the lowest price, to allow us to sustain the habit even though our income is low.

Recently, we found an opportunity to purchase a different brand of cocoa than our usual, in greater quantity at a better price. As soon as we tried it, we realized that the flavor of the new brand is noticeably better than the old. The better price is not assured; we stocked up as well as we could, but we don’t anticipate getting the same deal in the future.

It would have been easy to just accept this, but we saw problems ahead. When time comes to open a new canister, we’d naturally reach for the better brand. If, in the fluctuating drink preference each family member cycles through, one of us got considerably more of the better mix, there might be resentment. And, when the best eventually gets used up, we’d have to “settle” for the inferior brand again.

To address this, we simply mixed the different brands together in equal parts. That left us with better-than-average mix as long as we have any cocoa available. We evened out the quality of the whole supply.

This isn’t something we’d do all the time. Living simply involves taking joy in special occasions, including special flavors! But, since we use certain products like cocoa mix so regularly, we find it best not to let ourselves favor the superior over the inferior.

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