The more you want something, the more you’re willing to pay. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you can get the item cheaper in a month or by waiting until an after-Christmas sale—if you want it badly enough, you’ll be willing to fork over the dough to get it when you want it. This goes for everything from that latest must-have new gadget to the coolest, cutest new shoes down to the basics like gasoline. Yes, I experienced that myself this very morning.
Last month, I had the misfortune of running out of gas (don’t laugh at me – broken gas gauge) and had to get help. It was quite the adventure. So this morning, when I got in the van (a different vehicle, with a working gauge) and saw that my low-fuel light was on, I got edgy. I just couldn’t handle a repeat of that earlier experience. Can you see it now? “Um, hi there, remember how you came and rescued me last month? Can you come do it again?” The humiliation would have been pretty intense. So I prayed all the way to my destination—dropping off my daughter—and then prayed all the way to the gas station. If ever a vehicle has run on prayer, it was mine this morning.
When I pulled up to the pump, I noticed that the price had gone up in the night, and it was not a price I wanted to pay. But, as we’ve been discussing, I had a need, and I was desperate. I forked over the extra cash to get myself out of my predicament. Would I have paid that much under ordinary circumstances? No, I would have gone to my regular gas station, which is cheaper. But this station was located conveniently, and I needed to get home.
Whether it’s a gas station right where you need it to be, or a fancy cool amazing thing that all the kids have and you’ll just die if you don’t have one too, the retailers know how to get you to pay their prices.
If I’d really been paying attention when my husband told me we were running out of gas, I could have planned a little extra time and gone the other direction, thereby driving past the less-expensive gas station and saving myself not only money, but the stress of sudden realization. There are definitely ways to beat the retailers at their games and avoid some of the pitfalls that come with higher prices, but we need to learn how to plan in advance, to buy more when things are cheaper and to do without when the prices rise again, and to understand that the cool amazing thing we just must have will probably be half the price in six months, and maybe by then we won’t even want it anymore. It takes forethought and some self-denial, but we don’t have to get pulled through the wringer every time we pull out our wallets.
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Purchases to Make While the Prices are Low