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Price no object

A little while ago, we drove out to the Clevedon farmer’s market for the first time. (I highly recommend it if you haven’t been before. There were llamas. And donkeys, one of whom we christened Graham.)
Llama at Clevedon market
There was a pie stand. It’s darn hard to find a good pie these days; bakeries aren’t what they used to be. It was also close to lunch time. T wanted a pie, so it was settled. I marched on up to the counter and ordered without pause. I didn’t even ask how much it cost ($6, by the way). I never do that. But it was what he wanted; at most they couldn’t possibly have charged more than $8 or $9; and it didn’t matter because we were buying one anyway, and knowing the price wouldn’t have changed anything. (There was no sign with prices, obvs.)

Then a few weeks ago, we made a rare outing to the cinema when The Avengers came out. I had movie vouchers in my Entertainment Book, but for a different cinema chain; we’d have to drive all the way to Sylvia Park to get the deal, when there’s another movie theatre less than 5 minutes’ drive from home. I decided the extra long drive didn’t warrant the savings, so scotched that idea, and we headed to our local and paid full price. We were in a rush to make the next screening, so again, I didn’t stop to actually confirm the price of a Saturday daytime ticket (which has gone up). In hindsight, it might have been worth it to make the drive …

Have you ever bought something without knowing how much it cost? 

7 thoughts on “Price no object

  • Reply leahevansnz May 22, 2012 at 00:18

    Oh yes, sounds very familiar! Sometimes I don’t care about the price – because, like you say, I am going to buy the item regardless. But there have been other times that I have cringed upon getting the bill. Most recently was when we stopped for a quick coffee in Paris (I know, Paris hehe) – thinking a coffee surely couldnt be more than 5 Euro’s each. The bill came and it was 14 Euros (nearly $30NZD) for TWO small coffees! We had made the mistake of sitting outside, and apparently the cafe’s charge more for that luxury…oh well, you only get lured by the tourist trap once and then you learn!

  • Reply Michelle May 22, 2012 at 01:27

    I usually try to confirm the price, but if it’s something that I know which can be estimated (such as a movie ticket), I usually do not ask.

  • Reply Kerry May 22, 2012 at 03:02

    The last time I did this (at the bar at Shakespeare’s Globe in London) I ended up paying £13.70 for a gin and tonic! And that was in 2009, so who knows how much they are now. Never again!

  • Reply silverneurotic May 22, 2012 at 06:40

    I admit, I don’t always pay attention to prices. Its a bad habit, though, I generally don’t buy a lot of stuff. But I know its something that I really need to start doing.

  • Reply lkrant May 22, 2012 at 10:38

    No, because I evaluate if it is worth it to me. It could be a $50K car or a dllar coffee.

  • Reply unknowntheartist May 26, 2012 at 20:05

    I’m pretty careful but I have had my “take charge and throw caution to the wind” moments, or rather “throw money to the wind” moments where I’ve spent days afterward gulping down my losses and thinking about what could have been.

  • Reply Leigh May 29, 2012 at 06:09

    I am ashamed to admit that I actually do that quite frequently now. If I want the item regardless of how much it costs (e.g. afternoon snack or lunch), I just pay for it. Same goes for groceries. I tend to argue about going for lunch to the expensive places, but that’s more because of the large portions than the cost…

    Wow.

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