Does Price Matter?
Well, of course it does! If you don't have enough of the medium of exchange you don't get to purchase whatever it is. If you have several necessities but only so much to spend (and it doesn't cover all of the total price) then you have hard choices to make. But when that level of 'enough' has been reached then we have softer choices; perhaps,
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Often times, if it is something that I am particularly attracted to, I put it on a wish-list. These days, I have so little that I really NEED, and even less that I want, that I have a hard time at Christmas and on birthdays coming up with an affordable option to help people who have a hard time shopping for me. Truly, the things I want are well out of most people's (and even mine, at the moment) price range, and I can't put them on a list. "A house on the Outer Banks" isn't exactly something one can purchase for Christmas.
On the other hand, as we have discussed before, I very much enjoy "consumable" type gifts and prefer these gifts (gift cards, calendars, t-shirts, original artwork, craft supplies, etc) to any other. Increasingly, I realize that "stuff" is fleeting, and meaningful gifts are often the ones that are handmade, with love, or allow you to freely enjoy something you would otherwise not do for yourself. (See gift cards!)
Also, and again, this is because I have the luxury of being able to do this now, I value my TIME as being far more important than dollars spent. If I have to spend 16 hours in a car to reach a vacation destination, or pay $200 for a plane fare to get me there in say, 4 hours instead of 16, then the $200 is well spent, in my opinion. And there too, it's measuring the cost of gas in a car + my time-- as opposed to an airline ticket, and considerably less of my time. I figure if I go by my billable hourly rate at work as an example of the value of my time, then I've lost approximately $1800 in gas and time, as opposed to the $600 of air time + plane ticket would cost me. That is probably the analogy I use most often.
For example, yes, I could mow my own grass; but what I would spend in allergy medication to counteract the allergic reaction to grass I would have every week, in addition to gas for the lawnmower, in addition to the annualized cost of owning said lawn mower and weed eater, in addition to my time, means that paying someone else $25.00 per week to mow my lawn is a huge bargain. And I bloody hate mowing the lawn.
If it wouldn't make me feel like a complete slug, I would pay someone to come in once a month and really, thoroughly, clean my house. I love having a clean house but I really do not enjoy housework. I haven't honestly checked into the cost of a monthly housekeeper, but I'm sure I would be cheerfully glad to write a check for that too, if the end result turned out as nicely as my yard does. Likewise, I REALLY DETEST grocery shopping. The thought of giving someone else a list of what I want and paying them to go grocery shopping for me, and have them deliver it to my house would be nice. I think I'd rather clean my bathroom (an area of the house I am most fussy about), than have to go grocery shopping.
I think, in the end, it's all about what you value. If you value the expediency of getting things done, without having to do them yourself... then it's worth it to pay for someone to come do it, which frees you up to do the kinds of things you'd rather do. If you would rather spend your time doing something you detest rather than paying someone to do it, then you tend to do these things yourself and spend your money someplace else. I think, in the end, it all boils down to what kind of expendable you have... if you have time, then saving the money and doing it yourself matters more to you. If you have the expendable income, and can afford to pay someone else to do the thing you hate while you go play, then you pay someone to do what you dislike doing.
I've been the first person but I admit, I infinitely prefer the luxury of the latter.
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You took the ideas further than I did, really getting into how we value our time and how that affects the services we purchase. I will admit that I haven't quite come around to being comfortable with paying other people to do the things that I feel I 'should' be doing, like clean and mow and fix things. I wonder how cost-effective growing veggies, mending clothes and even washing my car really are when you try to put a value on my time to put against the cost of hiring it out. Part of the problem is that when I pay for a service I don't 'have' something other than a mowed lawn or a haircut. I have trouble justifying 'entertainment' purchases, also - must be the cheapness of my upbringing, wearing homemade clothes in awful colors, never getting a professional haircut and living with people who fixed things themselves. Of course, there is no substitute for the grape tomatoes I grow myself or the unique summer squash that beats all other zucchini but a lot of effort goes into those things beyond the cost of a pack of seeds.
[sigh] I would love to visit that house on the Outer Banks. How about we trade visits - you come see me in Sedona (or Prescott or Flagstaff...) and I'll come see you on the Banks, assuming, of course, that we both realize these dreams.
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