Your Mental Approach to Spending

[gusmahler]

As for putting a value on everything, everybody has things they'll spend money on and things they hate spending on.

Take me and my wife. My wife will make lunch to prevent having to go to a restaurant if we're out for the day. She'll spend 2 hours cooking dinner so we don't have to go out for dinner. Yet, when we do go out, she has no problem going to a place that's $30/person. Yes, $30/person isn't expensive compared to high-end stuff, but I'd just as soon go to a deli and buy a $5 sandwich, or getting take out Chinese for $20 total.

I have co-workers who eat out for lunch everyday, yet buy their clothes at Wal-Mart. I have other co-workers who make their own lunch everyday, but buy their clothes at Neiman Marcus. To a person, every co-worker has said they think Blu-Ray is too expensive at $600/player, yet most of them drive $30k+ cars. I'll spend $300 for a pair of dress shoes, buy video games I don't need, yet I'd rather stay in a Motel 6 than spend $100+/night for a hotel.