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What are people happy to pay for some things but not for others?

12 replies

munemema · 25/07/2019 09:52

For example, £3 for a take away coffee seems to have become a regular habit for loads of people.

£3 to park at a local beauty spot, where it contributes to the upkeep of the park and toilets etc and people will park almost anywhere to avoid going into the car park where they have to pay.

OP posts:
Biscusting · 25/07/2019 10:01

Lots of reasons. People are selfish. Coffee = instant gratification. Parking seen as a fee and the bigger picture of preserving the area not being hindered by ‘just’ them dodging a fee.

Parking fee could potentially be avoided by weaseling out of it. If people could get away with having the coffee for free by dodging it somehow they would.

SavoyCabbage · 25/07/2019 10:04

But you could say that about absolutely anything.

Some people pay for swank cars and send their dc to the local,school.
Some people go on loads of holidays but don't buy things for their houses.
Some people pay for private schools but buy clothes once in a blue moon,
Some people buy a new sofa every eighteen months but spend hardly anything on their weekly shop.
Some people have gardens bursting with beautiful plants but have never been to the theatre.
Some people buy loads of clothes but never have a takeaway.

MysweetAudrina · 25/07/2019 10:04

My dh can be like this no problem having 2 large costas every day but will do anything to avoid paying parking. I guess because the coffee is because he is worth it and it's an addiction and the other is because he doesn't get anything tangible from it.

Lardlizard · 25/07/2019 10:06

What cabbage said but it’s inteesting why we make the choices we do

Sparklingbrook · 25/07/2019 10:21

I don't think you can compare paying for coffee and car parks.

Why pay for parking if you don't have to? Our local station is an example. Lovely big car park but it's a fiver a day. Why would you pay that if you can park legitimately in a side road for free?

Want a coffee? You have to pay for that.

BarbaraofSeville · 25/07/2019 10:23

I think £3 for coffee is ridiculous and don't pay it if I can help it. I just get the same thing from McDonalds or Greggs for half that amount. I try not to pay for water either and will take tap water. That's also due to plastic waste, but the prices some places charge is often just terrible value for money.

Supermarkets sell small bottles of water in multipacks for about 6 for £1, but service stations, pubs etc often charge about £2 for one small bottle.

I will also avoid paying more than a pound or two for parking if I can do so safely and without causing annoyance for others by parking on narrow roads etc. But sometimes if you want to go to a particular place, paying for parking is unavoidable and other forms of transport often impractical.

I will pay what is a reasonable price to me, but most things are often piss taking prices. You also have to think about how much such things add up to per year if you do them a lot. Unless you have a lot of spare money, you will almost certainly have to do without elsewhere due to such spending.

Taking the DH who has two large costas a day, say these are £3 each and just every working day, that's £30 a week, £130 per month or over £1500 per year just on coffee. If that sort of spending meant that I couldn't afford a holiday for example, I would hope that he could cut the coffee down significantly, and take it from home in a travel cup, for a fraction of the price.

Soola · 25/07/2019 10:40

Car park money doesn’t always go on the upkeep of beauty spots, it’s a ploy by greedy local council to fleece people for more money.

JennaOfEluria · 25/07/2019 10:51

It's all to do with perceived value.

My perceived value on a car park hinges on it being less likely to be damaged by moving traffic than if I'd used a side street. If the cost fits in with that then it's an easy decision to use the car park. It's when the cost of the car park is too high that my value is skewed and I'll take the higher risk option and hope it works out.

My perceived value on a takeaway cuppa depends entirely on how long it's been since my last earl grey fix and how long I'll have to wait for my next one...if I can grab a cup somewhere else within an hour then £3 seems expensive. If I've be trailing after the kids all day and spy somewhere I can grab a cuppa and sit for 5 minutes £3 is a bargain!

That's just me and my variables. There'll be millions of alternatives depending on your upbringing and financial status. If it was easy to pinpoint why people buy stuff marketing teams wouldn't need to exist.

Sparklingbrook · 25/07/2019 10:55

WRT station car parks I just assume that people are already spending ££££s on a train ticket (where they don't even get a seat) so another £25 a week is a bit of a kick in the teeth money wise.

munemema · 25/07/2019 11:43

Soola, it doesn't actually end up in the pockets of anyone at the council, even if it's not directly for the park, it is for the community one way or another.

OP posts:
ems137 · 25/07/2019 11:54

I often compare myself to my friend and her DH (not in a bad way). He is a very high earner, my DH is minimum wage and both me and her are SAHM.

They hardly spend anything on food or holidays but spend lots of money on beauty treatments, massages and branded clothes for everyone.

Whereas in our family we spend more money on the weekly food shop and have a very good holiday every year. But we don't buy branded clothes really and would never ever think to take ourselves off for massages and facials etc.

ComtesseDeSpair · 25/07/2019 12:07

Some things are also ingrained from how you were brought up. We weren’t badly off when I was young but my dad would grit his teeth and walk two miles in the driving rain if it meant not having to pay for the car park; hence I as a very well off adult am bizarrely tight-fisted about paying for parking.

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