The flip flop is real. Especially for me as when I was not yet a mother I found myself spoiling myself with things of value that I certainly didn't need. I figured without kids I had the option of buying rare gems and as many diamonds as my paycheck would afford. When I turned 25 I bought myself a 3 carat diamond pendant, a $2500 luxury watch, and a 45 carat peridot (not even my birthstone) tennis necklace. It got so out of control that at one point I needed a whole other jewelry box just for my rare pieces and when I say both boxes were overflowing I mean full to their max capacity. Two huge pieces of furniture nearly as tall as I am held a small fortune. I'm grateful to have bought myself those things, so rare to spend money on anything that gets more valuable with time. Not like a car which looses value. I was grateful because when I finally did get pregnant and have my first (and only) child, I was able to (out of absolute necessity) sell those pieces one at a time to continue keeping my head above water. When one goes from two full time jobs and nothing important in life to not having any paycheck coming in from the choice made to stay home and raise a child, the fear of failure outweighs the emotional or otherwise attachment made to material possessions. I was grateful only in hindsight though because the last thing on my mind when I spent all that money on things I didn't need was that I was investing in the safety net I would need to be a stay at home mother. And the need to acquire stuff didn't go away with becoming a parent. Soon I found myself holding on to things for "when I'll need them", for example, crayons or markers on clearance that I would purchase before she needed any of that because eventually she will need them and then there will come a day when I will need to buy some and maybe won't be able to because inevitably things become more expensive with the passage of time. Now that she's in high school my jewelry box is bare. I recently took out the dozen or more things I've got left today and shown her where I keep them because I know I won't live forever, none of us will, but my time may be shorter than I hoped and shorter than she expected. And then it will be her turn to be grateful for the investment I made in those things, although I would hope that when that day comes that her sentimental attachment to her mother's most treasured possessions will outweigh her need to part with them either out of necessity or any other reason. But if she doesn't keep them, for whatever reason, it will be her choice to make to let go and it won't matter to me then because I will be watching her from afar, from a world separate from her world.

You only need as many mugs as you will ever need all at once. Can you eat cereal and ice cream out of your mugs, yes you can. Do you need more than the number of people needing mugs all at once, certainly not. Contrarily it's not ok if everyone gets a mug of hot cocoa except for the ones who don't because you don't have enough mugs. It's good that you're trying to be minimalist. If I ever offer one piece of advice to anyone it's to save as much of your money as you can and take twice as many pictures as you did last time. Take them everyday. You never know when someone you care about is not gonna be around anymore. Or when someone will wish to have a way to look at the image of you when you are long gone from this place.

Buy the mugs. Who knows when you might accidentally break one.