Something about spending money, or saving it, is contagious. As I begin to ponder spending vast quantities (well, they seem vast to me) of money for my wedding, I'm also thinking about how spending affects our perception of money. When spending $500 on a service, for example, the $50 add on seems entirely reasonable to me. If I stop to think about it, I realize that I'm the person who bakes bread because $3 a loaf seems too much. I need to remember that fifty bucks is still fifty bucks.
Luckily, this also works the other way. We've managed to do a few things cheaply, and then regularly-priced things look outrageous. This often happens when you start thrifting. If you buy a bunch of sweaters that each cost $4, then when you go to even a discount chain store and they are asking $20 for a heavily discounted sweater, you think, "I'm no fool! That price is outrageous." And then, hopefully, you put down the dress, back away, and head to Goodwill, where you purchase fifteen items for $20. And feel smug.
4 comments:
Urm, yes. I need to get back to that perception methinks.
Home-baked bread - its the superior taste and texture that makes it priceless when compared to a $3 loaf.
Hey! There is a great story on behavioral economics that I just heard on "All Things Considered" Find it online!
Stef, thanks for the recommendation on the behavioral economics NPR piece. Very interesting!
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