This is why I'm still cheap...

I did not have a lot of power in my household growing up, but fortunately my parents respected my opinion anyway.  Maybe not all the time, but enough to leave a lasting, positive impression.

I've know this pattern all my life.

The best example was when my mother wanted to replace our kitchen plates with a new pattern.  The ones we had ever since I could remember were white with green trim (not sure if they were plants or just leaves) and she wanted to get off-white plates with a sharp country blue trim.  Honestly, the new ones were really good looking.  But I had two problems with the concept.  First, I thought the ones we already had were also sharp.  Secondly, the ones we already had were perfectly fine!  I voiced these objections.

It was not that I wanted the money spent on other things, or that I had ideas on where the money could be better spent or invested.  In fact, back in those days, I did not even know how to invest or terms like "asset allocation" or "returns on investment," but I understood the value of a dollar, and I have the simple philosophy that if it's not broke, don't replace it.

Obviously, there were a lot of factors that I was overlooking back in those days, primarily how different our household income was to our household expenses, but my mother at least respected my opinion enough to reason with me.  It may have been a joke, or last resort at the time, but she finally shut me up by promising that she would keep all of the plates and silverware (by the way, she was also "upgrading" our silverware at the same time) for when I went off to college and I had my own apartment.

Anyone who knows me well would not be surprised to learn that I still have all those plates and the silverware in my place.  I have lived on my own since 1997, and when my mother came to visit me once in 1998 or 1999 at the latest, she said that she had a big surprise for me.  It was the rest of the set (I had already been given several plates and enough silverware).

I still don't know what all the plates are called or how all the utensils are supposed to be used, but when I recently made my first steaks at home last month, I used one of the larger plates for the first time.

One of my cats (unfortunately, I don't know which one exactly -- although, I'm leaning towards Needles) broke one of my plates tonight, and it was a bit more upsetting to me than it should have been.  Especially since I have a cabinet full of those plates.

But as each one breaks, I move one plate closer from having to buy a whole new set.