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I think the movie thing has been mentioned but I will RARELY, almost never, pay for a first run movie at the theater when I can wait and see it at the discount/dollar theater instead.
Now, I might give my teenage son money to see a 1st run movie with his friends, since it's a socializing thing for him (and he doesn't ask often)... but never a thing we do as a family. Just a bit of patience and that $50 movie (for five of us, 1st run) will be a $9 movie for five of us, and on certain days of the week it is insanely cheap, something like $.75 a person... leaving us money to afford dinner if we want.
I also refuse to pay "new" prices for pretty much everything, unless I need it RIGHT NOW or simply cannot find it second hand. For example, I needed a plain black flat sheet for a backdrop for taking pics for my eBay stuff and I looked and looked in the thrift stores and never had any luck, so for that I broke down and went to Target. Just a matter of getting tired of looking, but for the most part I can't stomach the price of new things when I know how much less I will pay if I am just a little patient.
Sometimes when you compare the new price to the used price it's just nauseating. I was in the market for wood or faux wood blinds for my apartment because my cats kept messing up the cheap vinyl ones. Wow. Are they made of solid gold??? I held out and found mine (wood, not fake stuff) at a thrift for $5 a piece and got enough to do two rooms. Same with rugs. I wanted a living room rug since we have wood floors, and even cheapie ones at walmart or similar were pricey and that was for something not really big enough but "acceptable". Instead I found one rolled up in a corner of an antique shop... huge, gorgeous, wool, soft, with the colors I wanted. $40 for a 11 x 15 thick quality rug.
I don't think I can ever go back to retail thinking again.
I am really enjoying this thread and different points of view. If someone mentioned how nice something I had was
I would say what a bargain I got. I meant it as a way of saying that there are bargains out there for everyone but
apparently it didn't come across right and I must have sounded like I was bragging, so now if I get a compliment on
an item I just say "thank you".
I have a Shark Navigator Lift Away and am pleased with it but so many people rave about the Dyson. I wonder if any-
one got a Dyson and thought it wasn't worth it?
I can't believe people pay to get tanned. They pay for it again with increased risk of skin cancer. Time share condos. Market value often under $100. But some suckers, ( excuse me, investors), pay thousands.
Last edited by pvande55; 07-05-2013 at 07:17 PM..
Reason: Add timeshare note
I have a Dyson but I paid $25 for it at a thrift store. It's the purple one that's made for homes with pets. I've never used a Sebo but I WOULD pay more money for a really good product. My Mom had Kirby's and they were very expensive even back in the 60's and 70's. I thought they were a lot of trouble but she liked them.
I have a lot of high quality designer items. But I shopped and got them cheap. I also refinish leather and one year I did great Christmas gifts. All my friends got refinished vintage Coach bags. The really nice classic ones, not the stuff they sell today.
I spent a day as a tourist recently on the Vegas Strip(most locals never go there). I went to one of the food courts looking for something reasonable to eat. $7 for a Wendy's single and $13 for Subway. I decided to skip it!
That's great! I have that vacuum but I paid around $400 for it, if I recall correctly. I have four cats. I've had the Dyson for about five years now. I'm very happy with it and would recommend it. I've had crappy, cheaper vacuums that broke or shorted out after a year or two. With the cats (and one has long hair) I vacuum a couple of times a week. My place isn't that big so it doesn't take long to just run through it in fifteen minutes or so, and I just don't like the cat hair and the litter they track accumulating.
On the other hand, I wouldn't buy designer clothing or accessory items. I'm overly tall, so I couldn't even buy designer clothes if I wanted to. They don't make clothing for women like me in the first place. On the down side, I can't buy clothing in thrift shops, either. What are the chances that another giant woman donated clothes in my size to a local thrift shop, lol.
I am really enjoying this thread and different points of view. If someone mentioned how nice something I had was
I would say what a bargain I got. I meant it as a way of saying that there are bargains out there for everyone but
apparently it didn't come across right and I must have sounded like I was bragging, so now if I get a compliment on
an item I just say "thank you".
I have a Shark Navigator Lift Away and am pleased with it but so many people rave about the Dyson. I wonder if any-
one got a Dyson and thought it wasn't worth it?
I have a Shark too. Not the Lift Away but whichever one it was, I bought it because of all the good reviews from pet owners and it is amazing, cost me about $150. We have 3 cats and 2 dogs and the dogs like to "rub" all over the rugs, and the rugs are light and they are both black. It takes them about an hour to turn the rugs dark! The Shark really does an amazing job. Whatever we had before, we'd have to go over the same area five times to get the hair up but not anymore.
My Grandmother was a vacuum cleaner NUT. It was kind of weird. Kind of an obsession with her, she always had the newest/fanciest even though she had an ancient Kirby that worked fine. My Grandma didn't even like to clean, I never understood her need to pay as much for a vacuum as some folks pay for a used car!
When people ask about where I got things, I just raise an eyebrow. Anyone who has known me for longer than six months knows I get 95% of my "stuff" at thrift stores so I don't know why they ask!
^I have a friend who gets most of her clothing for work at thrift stores. She's gotten some nice stuff! That's not possible for me, as I said above, but when I worked in Manhattan I loved to check out a few thrift stores that were close to my office. I got some costume jewelry, and some books, and even though I hate most "knickknack" type crap, once in the while I'd find a dish or something I really liked and could put to use. Or a picture frame.
Wanted to add re the vacuum--the only caveat I'd offer with the Dyson vacuum is that it's heavy. A petite, delicate type of woman isn't going to find it easy to maneuver. As a matter of fact, I used to have a male boss who was short and slight-built who had the Dyson, and he complained that it was too heavy.
My home phone service for the past 3 years has been with one of the retailers that I won't name, but that advertise with folks throwing their phone bills over their shoulder, and changing over to that phone carrier's service. I called them last night to see if I could find a plan that was a little less expensive. I ended up getting transferred to a department that handles low cost plans that aren't promoted on their website. At first, I was leery about the fact these plans for some reason weren't known to the public, apparently, and was wondering if they were even legitimate. The first two plans offered to me were nothing more than the usual. A low introductory amount of $ 9.99 that goes up to $ 24.99 + taxes and fees after 6 months. After I denied the first two, and was ready to hang up, the young lady I was talking to offered me just what I was looking for. A plan that covers U.S./Canada/Puerto Rico, with unlimited minutes, for the lifetime that I have service with them, for $9.99+ taxes, and fees( got to add those in). She estimated it would all come to approx.$ 18.00 a month. The question that stuck in my head after we finished, and hung up, was, that if they can offer this plan for this amount, to folks like me, and not go in the red, then why not offer it to everyone instead of making people work for it? I was on the phone almost an hour trying to get this taken care of. They gave it to me, she said, because I was a " longtime customer." Three years with them does not seem that long to me, come on. If they were to offer plans such as this for that amount to the general public, I would bet they would corner the market on telephone service. In a case such as this, all I perceive is greed on the part of the business. Well, it was a small victory for me, at least.
My home phone service for the past 3 years has been with one of the retailers that I won't name, but that advertise with folks throwing their phone bills over their shoulder, and changing over to that phone carrier's service. I called them last night to see if I could find a plan that was a little less expensive. I ended up getting transferred to a department that handles low cost plans that aren't promoted on their website. At first, I was leery about the fact these plans for some reason weren't known to the public, apparently, and was wondering if they were even legitimate. The first two plans offered to me were nothing more than the usual. A low introductory amount of $ 9.99 that goes up to $ 24.99 + taxes and fees after 6 months. After I denied the first two, and was ready to hang up, the young lady I was talking to offered me just what I was looking for. A plan that covers U.S./Canada/Puerto Rico, with unlimited minutes, for the lifetime that I have service with them, for $9.99+ taxes, and fees( got to add those in). She estimated it would all come to approx.$ 18.00 a month. The question that stuck in my head after we finished, and hung up, was, that if they can offer this plan for this amount, to folks like me, and not go in the red, then why not offer it to everyone instead of making people work for it? I was on the phone almost an hour trying to get this taken care of. They gave it to me, she said, because I was a " longtime customer." Three years with them does not seem that long to me, come on. If they were to offer plans such as this for that amount to the general public, I would bet they would corner the market on telephone service. In a case such as this, all I perceive is greed on the part of the business. Well, it was a small victory for me, at least.
A few months ago I looked at VOIP (internet based phone service) options for a cheaper home phone and I ended up getting a Google Voice phone number (free) and a Obi100 device ($40 on amazon) and set it all up as my home phone. All calls in US and Canada are free with GV. After trying GV out for a few weeks I called and cancelled my cheapo $30/mo landline service. I've been happy with the GV service and I don't see ever going back to a regular landline.
(Thanks to some folks here in the Frugal Living subforum for telling me about all this a while back!)
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Just a matter of getting tired of looking, but for the most part I can't stomach the price of new things when I know how much less I will pay if I am just a little patient. 
