Need vs. Want

Let's discuss for a moment the need vs. want controversy surrounding every persons' budget issues.  I know most families these days are experiencing some belt tightening in the cash flow area (and if you're not, we aren't friends anymore... ;), which has caused me to ponder and ruminate on Budget Tip Numero Uno.  You always hear when you need to get your budget under control, first evaluate your needs versus your wants, and eliminate the wants.  Ok.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Maybe for some of you pure of heart and will-power-aplenty folk.  However, I do not belong in this category, and I'm fairly sure after our last 6 months of financial difficulty, I never will.  Allow me to elaborate... 
Here is a list of my/our pre-zerodollarsinthecheckingaccountdays needs:
*Someburros at least twice a week
*Cheese
*Several iTunes purchases per month
*Unlimited visits to Chipotle and McDonalds (no, I have not lost the bebe weight yet, what)
*Free reign on beauty products from Target
*MAC make-up/Bare Escentuals make-up
*A new shirt here and there, a new outfit for kids here and there
*Spontaneous restaurant visits (Joe's Farm Grill, Ruby Tuesday's salad bar, etc)
*Non-rationing of gas for our hog of a vehicle (although I dearly love it)
(Upon evaluating this list, my main problem appears to be food.  But since food isn't ever not needed, I label this acceptable)
After some hearty slaps in the face from Ben's paycheck, Microsoft Excel and bills that piled up scarily fast (Devin was an expensive little sucker), we came to the sad realization that we needed to do some major adjusting to our life style. 
Above list of previous "needs", axed.  Axed.  And quickly.  Now, my need list is a grocery list where I carefully and painstakingly write out how much each item costs and search tirelessly for coupons and horde them like a hungry squirrel.  We eat nasty a frozen dinners frequently that are 300 calories and leave us angrily hungry.  Last week, I finally was able to buy cheese and I'm fairly sure I haven't been that excited about cheese in a damn long time.  Our fresh food budget goes to make Devin baby food and Kyndal gets slices of pear once a week.  We've eaten our collective weight in applesauce several times over since it is cheap and, well, apples.  I wanted to splurge and make cookies one day but needed sugar and got spitting mad when I saw the bags of sugar are now $4.  When in the flip did that happen?  By now you're all getting your fingers ready to shovel cheap healthy eating tips upon my pathetic self, and I welcome them.  However, I am grateful that I have discovered I can eat angel hair pasta and marinara daily and never tire of it.  This particular meal costs roughly $0.63.  It is also good that pinto beans are fabulously cheap, I can get protein in my daughter for $0.62/can.  Beans, peanut butter and applesauce man, they are the cheapo quazi-healthfood of the gods.  I am complaining, but I am VERY grateful that Ben still has a job, that we can pay each and every one of our numerous bills, pay our mortgage, and still be able to buy one tank of gas per two weeks per car and also food to feed the family.  We are not in true dire straits, and this is a blessing. 
Now, I have digressed from my original topic.  Our previous needs quickly became wants, and so they were done away with.  After the last 6 months of paying off hospital bills and also Phoenix finally cooling down, we are inching back to our previous extra $ per month amount.  This has allowed us to buy things like cheese, new shaver cartridges (true suffering is going without these...), PhxWinter clothes for our children, etc.  After looking into the future at our budget and calculating this newfound extra money, I decided to harm myself physically.  I looked around at Target in isles I haven't visited since June.  I don't know if I am alone in this, but I saw the clearance rack of clothes and got a punch to my gut.  I walked down the fancy lotion/body wash isle and got nauseous.  Physical pain here people, physical pain.  I taste Chipotle in my mouth and want to cry.  Thank goodness for the dollar menu at McDonalds or I would be a wreck.  We got to eat at Someburros and it was manna from heaven.  The lesson I've learned about mainly myself and secondarily my husband is this:
I cannot physically cut off all wants and exist only on needs.  Sometimes, I need a $4.50 pint of raspberries.  Sometimes, I want to buy previously cooked pot roast that I can merely microwave and serve.  Sometimes, I want to exfoliate my skin without having to make a gigantic unnecessary mess while also using precious sugar and honey from my pantry. 
In conclusion, allow me to slightly alter a well-known text:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [women] are created [equally materially needy], that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of [lifes little luxuries].
See, now even Thomas Jefferson agrees wholeheartedly with me.