Nat Locke: Five things I think are worth your money (and a few that aren’t)

A few weeks ago, there was a social media trend where people would list the five things that, in their opinion, were worth the money.

Like all good gen Xers, I am late to the party, but still keen to get involved. There’s a reason I’ve never made it big on TikTok (apart from not being on TikTok) and that’s because I’m a bit slow on the uptake. Trends have passed me by before I think, “Oh, that’s something I could be a part of.”

And so, behold, as I regale you with my top five things that I think are worth the money (to me). At least you know I’ve thought about it.

1. Ducted heating and cooling

And no, this isn’t just because we had that burst of freezing cold weather last week. I live in an old draughty house and until a few years ago, my only source of heat was an open fireplace in the lounge room. This meant that if I got home late to a cold, dark house, I would have to light a fire before I did anything else. Often, this meant I had to go back outside and down to the servo to buy a bag of wood because I had already burned through the two tonnes I had delivered at the start of winter. It was awful. Those people who glowingly rave about how romantic an open fire is have never had to rely on one as their only heating source. Also, fireplaces are rubbish at cooling your house in summer. Getting ducted heating and cooling installed made my life so much more bearable. No more trying to fall asleep in February with a wet tea towel draped over me and an arthritic fan circling overhead. I wish I was joking. Now I can control the temperature in every room with my phone and I basically feel like I am in charge of the starship Enterprise. Worth every penny.

2. Curly hair products

For many years, I sported a mop of frizz that was tinder dry and uncontrollable. So for ages, I straightened my hair using a blowdry brush and some heavy-duty straightening irons. Then, in a critical era of discovery and humidity, I discovered that my hair was way curlier than I realised, and I also discovered curly hair routines and curl-specific products. At great expense, I had every product imaginable delivered to my door. As a result, now when I wash my hair, I have a period of roughly three hours when it looks decent, which is a vast improvement.

3. Travel

This is a no-brainer for me. Nothing makes me happier than sauntering down an airbridge to get on a plane and go on an adventure. If I could bottle and sell that feeling, I could fund my travels. And look, sure it’s the most expensive in the world, but I was even happy to fork out the $422 for a new passport (because there’s literally no choice) and stump up the extra $107 for expedited delivery because I needed it in my hot little hand in case I was suddenly required to dash off to Paris at short notice. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t.

4. Wine pairing

Yes, this is incredibly pretentious, but if I’m going to go to the expense and effort of going to a degustation dinner, you’d better believe I’m going to cough up the extra money for the paired wines. Besides, a sommelier had some input here. They know way more than I do about wine. I trust them if they insist that a particular pinot grigio matches well with the prawn linguini.

5. Quality dog treats

OK, yes. My dog Lewis may have been staring me down as I wrote this. If he had more nimble paws, he probably would have typed it himself. But he’s got a point. The good-quality treats will buy a lot of compliance. There’s not much my dog wouldn’t do for a small piece of turkey jerky, although he draws the line at doing my taxes.

And while we’re at it, I hate to finish on a negative note (no I don’t. I love it), but here’s a brief though not exhaustive list of things that I consider absolutely not worth the money: matcha, acai bowls, matching activewear sets and kitchen gadgets that have only one function like pie-makers and rice cookers.

But hey, that’s just my opinion.