a nice dress? There’s nothing wrong it could do.

Wow, dresses are not my thing, but I feel you on this line of thinking.

Sounds like you may have fallen into one of the common traps though. As getting the things you want becomes more achievable, they can feel like they have less value, so we tend to seek out bigger thrills (more expensive items, more things) while getting less out of it. It's a feedback loop that can rapidly get kind of scary.

For me, I try real hard to focus on more sustainable means for self fulfillment, but that's not always doable... I try to remember that the most expensive items are not 'the best' items and sometimes the value of an item is in how unique it is. Rarity doesn't always scale with cost and isn't it nice to have something that almost no one else has? Plus, the amount of time spent searching for the exact right thing draws it out and makes the eventual pay off so much more valuable. I find it really helpful to find ways to create delayed gratification.