Oh, yeah, this. When the fridge that came with my house died, I went and bought a nice one to replace it. Not top of the line, but not cheap either. After about two years, the auto defrost system died, which lead to it freezing up all the time, which meant it couldn’t keep the fridge part cold at all, surprisingly enough. I paid about $300 to fix that, and it failed again within another two years.
So I figured if I was going to spend that much on repairs every few years, I might as well just buy a cheap one, and toss it when it stops working.
The cheap one is now about 7 years old, and going strong. In fact, I bought a second one when I had a new housemate move in, and its still going strong too.
The older I get, the closer I get to this. I’ve never been a spendthrift exactly - I have no debts of any kind at the moment and I don’t buy thing just to have them. But in truth I’ve never been particularly thrifty either. Not philosophically, anyway. I was just sometimes forced into it by whatever my income level happens to have been at the time. I’m not stupidly wasteful with my money, but I pretty much buy what I want/need and I’ll happily pay extra for a bit of convenience. I haven’t change my own oil on my car for 25 years.
Actually my thought process might be a little the inverse of yours. I want it, but is the premium I’m paying so staggeringly high that I can’t justify it? It’s not just a difference in degree, but that the default is I’m going to get it unless something stops me.
So for example in electronics my long-standing policy when buying for myself is that I try to shoot for the bottom of the high end of whatever technology I’m interested in. As an example I just bought a new TV. I last bought a TV in 2009 and for various reasons (that fucker just wouldn’t break) I couldn’t justify spending the money on a new one until recently. But finally I had turned the corner and convinced myself to indulge my new TV lust. I knew I wanted the top end technology, but as with most things technology the top-of-the-heap cutting-edge models come with a massive premium for an incremental improvement. Logically I can’t make that jump, so I still bought the technology I wanted but the next model down. Still expensive as TVs go, just not stupid expensive.
But for smaller things I simply don’t care. On quick check online I found a 28oz can of Hunt’s whole plum tomatoes for $2.39. A can of imported San Marzano tomatoes from the same source were $3.82. Are the San Marzano’s better? Yes. Are they really worth a 60% premium? Who gives a shit! It’s just a buck fifty ! I’m privileged enough to be solvent enough that I don’t usually have to care about the little things so I generally don’t. I’m a big believer in the positive aspects of self-indulgence.
I’m the opposite of this. I would phrase it: “watch the tens (or hundreds) of thousands, and the dollars don’t matter.”
When we decided to “settle down” after living in Europe and on both coasts, we chose the midwest for economic reasons. My wife and I had offers from a variety of desirable locales (LA, Seattle, Connecticut, etc.) but chose for low cost of living. Instead of struggling to meet insane housing costs, we paid ours off early and sailed through the kids’ high school years with no house payment at all. This enabled a much higher savings rate, early(ier) retirement and even an annuity which covers all our living expenses* for life. We’re indifferent to the cost of coffee at Starbucks or eating out, or any of the other cumulative savings methods. We no longer worry about them.
*Property tax, fees, utilities, insurance, maintenance, etc. Unless we’ve badly miscalculated, we should have all housing expenses covered until we’re both gone, and never need worry about a place to live.
Was just thinking about this in terms of travel. When I travel, I choose cheap but inconvenient.
I got to London (and back), with a week in an excellent hotel (centrally located, and served breakfast), for less than a thousand bucks.
BUT to get there I rode my bike downtown, where I caught a bus to O’Hare and waited for a flight to South Carolina. Had a layover, then up to LaGuardia and took a redeye over to Gatwick, tube into London, then a long walk to the hotel.
When my wife has to travel, she’ll choose convenience: has to fly right from our town, which costs a lot more.
Some time back we decided to pay extra for 1st class. The flying experience had become so miserable (IOO) that we didn’t want our trips to begin and end so unpleasantly.
One of my difficulties w/ travel is that it is so expensive, and I often feel unable to tell WHERE to spend HOW MUCH $ to make HOW MUCH of a difference. After a trip, I often felt I wanted to take the same trip again to do it right!
I assume flying will be miserable, so it is just something I accept. I spend as little as possible on transportation, which makes me feel a tiny bit better about the whole thing. Well, that and the brownies I eat while in the TSA line.
We got spoiled with upgrades, (maybe that’s the idea) and now are willing to pay when we have to. To us, it’s a dramatic difference in the experience, and worth it. For others, I get that it’s not worth the money. (It also depends on length of flight, and who you’re crammed next to)
I’m 6’3 two hundred and twenty pounds. And my size thirteen feet barely fit under the seat in front of me. And to get my feet under the seat in front, even with stretch seating requires a bit of acrobatics.
For domestic flights I insist on stretch seating. It helps a little. We are going on a trip to Hawaii in the spring. It’s on my wifes bucket list. It’s gonna be first class for the flights and then some down graded hotels. It you can call $400-500 a night downgraded.
I found a $99 fare to the east coast so I went to visit my kid. “What a deal!” thought I. Well, maybe so, but the plane was so no-frills that the thin plastic seats did not recline. I’m average height (size 9’s), and I was extremely uncomfortable.
For the entire flight my mantra was “But it’s only $99… only $99…”
Oh, I know those seats. Might as well just put in a bus bench, but I shouldn’t give them ideas. But I think they do recline. The lever is under the front of the seat, not on the armrest.
If the price of an upgrade wasn’t so crazily expensive, I’d consider spending more to get more room. But a flight I took to Los Angeles was $268 for regular Economy and $1686 for 1st Class! It’s not that dramatic a difference that it’s worth 6x the cost!
I was traveling to Europe on business. Was entitled to fly Business Class. Price difference vs Economy was $10,000 vs $1600. I asked the travel planner if there was anything less expensive. She said if I flew out on Saturday rather than Sunday it would be $6500. The hotel was $250. And I would go into my meeting on Monday better acclimated to the time zone.
No one else took that option. They all paid (or cost the company) $3000 to save a day “wasted” in one of the most touristy cities in the world!
) I couldn’t justify spending the money on a new one until recently. But finally I had turned the corner and convinced myself to indulge my new TV lust. I knew I wanted the top end technology, but as with most things technology the top-of-the-heap cutting-edge models come with a massive premium for an incremental improvement. Logically I can’t make that jump, so I still bought the technology I wanted but the next model down. Still expensive as TVs go, just not 
! I’m privileged enough to be solvent enough that I don’t usually have to care about the little things so I generally don’t. I’m a big believer in the positive aspects of self-indulgence.