About the $7 savings on a $25 pen vs. the same dollar amount on a $495 suit: That discount would allow you to buy two or three pens, but it would not be enough to justify buying two suits. Therefore, IMHO, it might be worth the drive across town to nab the discount on the pen, assuming you took advantage of the savings and bought more than one.

As for the parking…what would’ve made up my mind to spend ten bucks more is the “busy street with no crosswalk” factor. It’s not worth risking your life to save ten bucks.

To this day my father will drive all over town to save $.01/gallon on gas. I just don’t understand the thinking. The only time I’ll go to one gas station over another is if it is right down the street and is charging less.

This concept is something that will benefit us immensely… but we ALWAYS have to keep it on the forefront of our minds, or else the normal patterns of psychology will take over.

It’s more pronounced on vacation though because our defenses are down and we’re not *supposed* to worry so much about money when we’re away having a good time.

We just had a similar experience and went with the lower cost option, yes even on vacation. We were at a hotel that notified us upon arrival (NOT mentioned on their website) that there’d be a $15/day charge to park at the hotel, which would include valet parking. This was implemented to “save jobs” at the hotel. We chose to park at the public parking garage accross the street at $10/day. We figured $5 a day (plus the tips the valets would have expected) were worth parking off site.

Turns out it was better than a good move, because we never moved the car the whole time we were at the hotel. We’d have been paying extra money for no purpose.

I recently had two items that I needed to return to a store. A $10 dollar item from a large home improvement chain and a $40.00 item from a small local shop. Both items were never used and were in the original (unopened package). I had the sales receipts for both.

When I tried to return the $40.00 item to the local shop I got instant static. I was dealing with the same person that sold me the the item (the owner) and he did not want to return it. He is convinced that the product will work for me and that I was wrong to return it, even though I don’t want it. I left the store with no objection. I didn’t want to deal with the conflict – even for 40.00 bucks. I was able to return the 10.00 dollar item to the big store just fine, and if they would have given me crap I would have screamed and cussed and yelled at every manager in the place. I wouldn’t have taken “No” for answer. I would have fought to the death for $10.00 dollars at this place when I wasn’t willing to argue over $40.00 at another place right down the street…

Whats the difference? Why does the fact that one of the stores happens to be small and locally owned matter? I think the local guy was just more real to me – it was more personal and I didn’t want to put him out. So I put myself out instead…

I do this all the time with gas. I will waste 10 mins of my time getting to a gas station that is 4 cents cheaper a gallon which saves me a whopping 60 cents on filling up my 15 gallon tank!

It is stupid, I know it, but for some reason I can’t stop!

Best, RB