I was preparing a big salad last night and as I went to get our big red bowl from its residence on top of the microwave, for lack of a better location, I clumsily knocked it. It toppled to the floor and even though it was plastic, shattered into at least 3 or 4 pieces with a few shards here and there. I consider it a talent that I can break a plastic bowl, one that runs in the family. Unfortunately, it was a bowl that we use frequently. It came as a set of 4 from our wedding registry and has lasted about 5 years. I think my husband was stressed out about some other thing at the time because I remember him having a real sense of urgency – we must replace this RIGHT AWAY!!! I felt less urgency, but primarily because the decision of what to replace it with seemed overwhelming and I wanted to procrastinate.
I must preface this story by saying that while my culinary life was enhanced by having set of bowls with matching lids, it was certainly possible to make do without them. Prior to receiving the gift, I would marinate chicken in the same Pyrex cooking dish I planned to bake it in, instead of a separate prep bowl. On the rare occasion that I wanted to bake, I would use a soup pot for mixing. I used our regular soup bowls to store cut veggies during prep. There was endless potential for workarounds, but the bowls really did enhance our culinary life in an Intentionally Abundant way, providing convenience, color and reducing waste (no plastic wrap or foil needed) for the past five years.
As fate would have it, the universe gave me a nudge. About a week later, living in a state of denial about another impending shopping chore, while my husband struggled to find the right bowl to prepare our salad in, I took the yellow bowl of the set and ran it under hot water to wash my pump bits as usual. The dang thing split down the side. Quite literally, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. So given the death of two of the four bowls I decided it was time to take action.
The first choice, and likely the simplest, would be to take the broken bowls back to Macy’s for a free replacement. I still had the original box in my closet (five years!) and as long as the cashier has a barcode to scan, Macy’s has a very liberal return policy. The problem with this is that I was never a big fan of the lids that came with set. They were finicky and it was never easy to get them to snap properly. But due to the dread of doing Amazon research to find a better set, I thought I’d give this option a try.
Luckily, there is a Macy’s a block away from my office building, so I took in my broken bowls, in their original box, and was ready to just do a simple switch when again, fate intervened. Although the cashier was glad to give me a gift card for the original purchase value ($29.99), that store was out of the bowls and I would have to order it online.
This extra and unexpected step led to a new wave of indecision. I was torn between the expediency of a quick online Macy’s purchase and task/quest of Amazon research. Nevertheless, I decided to casually test the waters and see what Amazon had to offer. Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to narrow it down to two primary contenders, then after reading a few reviews one set rose to the top. It was surprisingly clear which set I was drawn to. But Aye, there’s a rub… The primary contender set was $40.00, twice the price that the Macy’s set would be (it was near the xmas and there was a coupon). I did internet research to see if there were any coupons for my Amazon first choice, but no luck.
After some soul searching, I decided it was worth it to splurge, and pay the extra for the different bowls. I liked the bowl color and design better, and from the picture, I had a hunch that the lids might fit better. “What’s the risk,” I thought? If they aren’t as nice in the picture, I have 30 days to return them. If they break and aren’t returnable, it’s only a $40.00 gamble. I decided the risk/reward threshold was in my favor. So what was the hold up?
My husband. I could chalk this up to a Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, difference, but he could not fathom why I would want to spend an extra $20.00 on bowls, and for some reason, I couldn’t seem to act without his validation of my choice. This lunacy dragged on for several weeks… In fact, every time I brought it up, I got a very negative attitude – “you already asked me about the bowls. I don’t agree with you, but you can do whatever you want.” On paper, the words sound very civilized, but the tone was problematic. The tone of, “I’m shutting down, I don’t want to talk about this, I don’t approve, don’t press me on this issue, if the bowls are a bad decision, it will be ALL YOUR FAULT.” At least that was my interpretation.
In retrospect, I don’t know why I needed to involve him at all. Had my decision making skills deteriorated to a point where I couldn’t independently act on a $40.00 purchase? Perhaps I was seeking some kind of approval that imperfection could be tolerated. Should the bowls not live up to the hype, the loss wouldn’t be catastrophic. Maybe I wanted him to share the burden of the risk. Or maybe I was looking for validation that my preferences were worth the “splurge” of paying twice as much, in this case only $20.00 more, on a set of bowls. At a certain point, I don’t think we had eaten any salad in almost a month, and I dug deep. I found the confidence to self-validate my original decision, and informed my husband that I had made a Decision. He kindly ordered the new bowls from our Amazon Prime account and they arrived a few days later.
So far we are BOTH pretty happy with them. The lids fit great, and the colors and shape brighten up the kitchen. I used the Macy’s gift card for some GlassLock Tupperware that I take to work almost daily for lunch, and I’ve even gotten to say “I told you so” a few times. Nah nah na na nah!
Originally Written: November 14, 2016.
Original bowls: http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/martha-stewart-collection-harvest-multi-bowls-with-lids-set-of-4-only-at-macys?ID=386700
New and Improved bowls: As pictured above. Manufactured by Costco.
Intentional Abundance 