Those Damn Buttons

Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash

Being single affects my day-to-day choices, from buying clothes and booking travel tours to getting groceries. Here are a few simple tricks and tips I have learned.

Buying clothes

J. Crew had an elegant white linen tank dress. I spotted it on the rack, picked it up, and took it to the dressing room. When I took it off the hanger, I saw a line of big white buttons on the back. Sighed, I put the dress back on the hanger and walked out of the dressing room.

“How did it look?” The young woman stationed at the dressing room asked.

“Oh, I didn’t try it.”

“Oh, why not? Do you need a different size?”

“These buttons on the back. I wouldn’t be able to button them myself.”

She seemed confused.

“I live alone. No one is going to help me button them. I wouldn’t be able to reach that line of buttons. Haha.” I gently let her in on this secret while her eyes grew big now with the same realization.

There is no point buying clothes I can’t put on myself no matter how good and fashionable they look. Practicality must come with, if not before, beauty.

Booking travel tours

Excited, I clicked on Continue on the Go Ahead’s website to sign up for a tour in Puglia, Italy. The website showed a list of charges for me to review. One fee stood out: single room: an additional $X00. Go Ahead is not the only company that does this. Tour companies like couples because they get a higher margin: in one hotel room, they make money off two people.

There were options to avoid this fee. I could get assigned a stranger, another single on the same tour as me, and room with her. Or, I could find a friend to travel with me. For my first trip, I paid a single fee.

Now I know better. I always invite a girlfriend to travel with me.

Getting groceries

“Let’s go to Costco.” My ex-boyfriend said to me. We were new to cooking at home, and he was excited to get some good deals that some of our friends were talking about. Costco’s selling point is buying in bulk to save money.

Being single, I couldn’t buy food at Costco. I didn’t have a place to store huge packages at home. Imagine buying a bag of chicken that will take up a quarter of space in my fridge. If it’s not frozen but fresh food, I wouldn’t be able to eat all of it before it goes bad. It was too much food. I couldn’t “eat” up. In the long run, getting a deal with the bulk purchases doesn’t save money and leads to more waste.

Instead, I shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, buying in the smallest quantities. I also get groceries frequently rather than weekly or bi-weekly to keep them fresh. (I have a fond memory of my grandfather going to the local market every morning.) That allows me to cook in small serving sizes, one or two meals at a time since I don’t like to eat the same dish for a whole week.

Living well as a single took practice in areas where I had to change my approach and be more thoughtful and street smart from the perspective of a single person.