Logician – thank you. I read your posts to be contradictory but I hear you saying they aren’t and fully accept that. I cannot retract my comment that you have posted more than once though, you posted once on the first page and once on this one (before my post) 🙂
I now see that my confusion came from your comment “x2 to frimet”, which I took to mean you agreed with her (I thought you meant +2), but now I am assuming you were referring to the beginning of your post.
apushatayid – good for you! Was your rav saying that halacha actually dictates that you can use your financial state to make your choice within the range? I guess it isn’t irrelevant after all.