I love every season except winter. The reason why I hate winter, is not because I don’t like sweaters (on the contrary!).. but because of the salt, the ice and the snow.

Without all of that, I love winter.

But gearing up for a season that requires you bare more (let’s face it, I am not going to be wearing long-sleeved anything during the summer unless I’m cycling to prevent tan lines)… means that bodily insecurities are coming up fast and furious.

I’m reading lots of blog posts about how people hate their thighs, their butt, their boobs their stomach.

The tummy apparently, is the biggest concern for most women, judging by most of the comments I’ve read. No one likes their stomach, and I can totally relate.

I’ve said before that my body type is just naturally slender.

When I was 20 pounds lighter than I am today, people asked if I was eating enough — trust me, I was, I could pack it away like my bigger siblings, and ate more per pound than my biggest of brothers.

Yet even then, I still had a bit of a belly that sticks out.

A round, but still cute little belly. Sometimes she grows bigger when I eat, and sometimes she shrinks when I’m hungry. It’s almost like I just have happen bigger, expandable pouch in that section, like a kangaroo.

I hated having such a large belly when the rest of me was otherwise proportionate, and fitting into clothes wasn’t a thrill, as pants would always cut into my stomach as I sat down. I secretly had to unbutton every top button just to get some breathing room. But if I wore a larger size, the butt would literally sag and look oversized on the rest of my body.

It’s like I need a stretchy band kind of skinny jean for girls with no curves except in the belly area!!

Which.. does not exist from what I can see.

(Correction: exists in maternity wear, but.. I feel a bit odd buying clothing when I’m not actually pregnant)

When I met BF, he said he wasn’t thrilled at how skinny I was, and immediately fed me buttery pies and cakes for a whole year before I gained 20 pounds before he was satisfied that I didn’t look underfed even though I was clearly eating more than he was, pound for pound.

(Underfed? Me?!!!?)

But a guy who can cook like a chef, that WANTS me to gain a bit of weight? Sign me up!

And he loves my belly (it’s his favourite part). I found it interesting that all of my life, I was running away from having this belly, hating what it was and wishing desperately I had toned abs like those fitness models in magazines…. only to meet a guy who wanted that very feature in a girl.

I definitely feel curvier now. Which is something I keep to myself, because my sister is definitely curvier than I am, and she laments about her body to me all the time and rolls her eyes at me when I tell her that I’ve gained weight.

I had to step on a scale to prove it to her!

I keep telling her she looks fine, she just has to love her body and stop wearing things that make her look and feel fat. In my opinion, she doesn’t wear enough dresses to show off her hourglass shape and she chooses the wrong materials and sizes.. but I’m not always there to go shopping with her to give her honest critique.

As for my putting on weight, it’s just that my body distributes weight more evenly across all the parts. I don’t just put on weight on my butt or my thighs, but a larger amount does go to my belly.

Now, I love having a belly and I find it cute, but I think it’s sad that it took me so long to appreciate having one, and that it took someone else to appreciate that body part for me to change my mind.

Head on over to check out the two carnivals that have just posted:

• Make It From Scratch! hosted by Mama Bear @ I’ve Got a Little Space to Fill
• Debt Reduction hosted by Baker @ Man vs. Debt

ceFrom The Financial Post, comes an interesting article titled: Consumers need to compare before they spend

Your research suggests that when selling a new product, companies should always compare the product to something the customer already has familiarity with, even if the product is so novel as to be unique in its market.

First, without such comparison, the “space” for a new product in people’s minds is ill-defined, making it very hard for people to figure out how to place a value on something.

We just don’t know how to value things in isolation.

The second thing is that we are mainly creatures of habit, and decisions are actually quite tough.

How many times a day do we really want to contemplate buying something by analyzing everything, thinking about the opportunity cost and so on?

Consequently, we rely on our past decisions, including comparisons to other products.

I find this to be an interesting topic because he also cites an example from the book “The Paradox of Choice”, where I wrote a post asking if we had too much choice, and so much that we get overwhelmed.

He talks about people buying 30% of the time when given 6 jars of jams as a choice, versus 3% of the time when they had more choice — 24 jars of jam.

It’s probably why Apple is doing so well.

They are exceptionally gifted at making things simple and elegant. Design is their strong suit.

They stick to a couple of products, well marketed and documented within each category. It’s very clear on the Apple site that they have at least one, but a maximum of 3 products marketed to each category.

• The Shuffle = For those on the go, something cheaper, small and cute
• The Nano = For those who want something a bit heftier, but still small and cute
• The iPod = Full out all around multimedia entertainment center, the original.
• The iPod Touch = For those who want the sexiness of an iPhone without the bill

I could name their entire lineup right there. And each time a new Shuffle or iPod comes out, they replace the older model, or create a distinctive marketing blurb that really separates the two models in that same category or class.

And if you charge more money for a product, but then offer a discount, people think they are getting a deal.

Grocery stores do this all of the time. Did you know, they mark up prices by about 3 – 5% most of the time, JUST SO they can discount it and let people think they’re getting a deal?

Grocery stores have tried to price items fairly at what they wanted — $2.50/large tub of yoghurt for example. But these tubs would sit on the shelf until they were almost bad. Then they noticed that they SOLD OUT when they discounted it to bring in the new batches because people kept waiting for the tub of yoghurts to go on sale before buying it.

So now, they just mark up everything by a bit, and discount it to make us feel great about scoring a deal, selling it at the price they already wanted to sell at anyway.

We feel need to make comparisons with what they have already tried or are familiar with in their life.

This is nothing new, but it bears repeating, because the price is not always indicative of a product’s value. The price is just a part of the product, but the real value of the product comes from you. How you are going to use it, how much you are going to value it as a consumer, and how much you would be willing to pay.

Tivo when it first came out for example, could have been priced at $200 or $1000, the article said.

It depends on what you compared it to, because it could be considered a computer, or a fancier VCR. Who would purchase more? At either price point?

As a consumer, if I really watched a ton of TV, hated commercials, was always busy and never had time to watch my shows until an odd hour in the morning like 6 a.m. before I started my day, I’d value Tivo much higher than if I was always around to be able to sit and watch TV.

As FB, in real life.. I wouldn’t even pay a penny for Tivo because I don’t see a value for it in my life, as I don’t watch cable TV and my shows are all available online for the most part.

It’s all a matter of what you decide the value is to you.

Maybe that’s what we should do as consumers from now on.

Decide objectively what the product would mean to you and what value it is going to add to your life, and then put a price tag on it; rather than comparing the purchase to what other people have or what you already own.

After you come up with a price of what you would pay (much like coming up with a budget when you go shopping for new work clothes), you stick to the budget, and/or decide if you are willing to pay 30% more than originally expected to get exactly what you want.