Since I was quoted in the article, I feel it's my right to put a couple of items into perspective.
For the record, our purchase of an Espresso machine was a "luxury item" without question. It may be true that it costs less now for us to have our latte in the morning (and it's much nicer drinking it with my wife on the couch), it still costs more than either doing without or having regular old coffee (which is just fine by the way).
We live relatively frugal, and have done so for quite some time, by choice. We drive our cars for 6-10 years. We mow our own lawn, clean our own house, do home repairs for ourselves and have bought WAY less home than the banks allow. In fact, our loan office questioned if we should be spending more. We despise debt.
We also want to live a more sustainable life from a "green" perspective. When my truck finally dies, we will get a much more efficient vehicle. Same for my wife's car. We had to replace our HVAC so we put in a 16-SEER unit to save energy. We added attic insulation. Our water heater was on the verge of dying, so we replaced it with a tankless unit (much more efficient). We set back our thermostat when we aren't home. We have CFL's in most of the house. We minimize watering the lawn and use a rain sensor. Since our windows are over 30 years old and are single-pane aluminum windows (very inefficient), we have begun replacing them with low-e, dual pane vinyl windows.
I will assume that since we have, and will continue, to live well below our means, channelling every extra penny into retirement savings, that the comments about getting rid of McMansions and Botox were directed elsewhere. :) Unfortunately, someone else will just move into that huge house and continue the cycle of using massive quantities of energy to heat/cool it.
Discuss