How much will you pay for convenience?

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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
How frugal are you? how much value do you place on convenience?

i used Vonage but my wife insisted on keeping a local line so we paid verizon like $12.00 / month for minimum service.

so i have vonage at $16.xx / month and verizon at $12.00 / month.

if i get a complete verizon package i pay $52.00 / month (thereabouts).

oh and finally, i have verizon DSL, so if i take their Freedom package i save $5.00 / month.

is convenience worth (caller ID on my main home number, using all the jacks in the apartment, not having to worry about how many minutes i've used talking to my brother, don't have to worry about router outages, broadband outages etc) worth $29.00 / month?


another example, i buy a lot of sodas at drive thrus. i pay $2.01 for a king size diet coke at Burger King (about 30 oz of soda). obviously i can get this for significantly less at the local supermarket, but then i have to drink my soda warm or carry around a cooler with ice in it. so say, if i put a thermoelectric fridge in my car, and kept ice in there and bought 2 liter bottles of soda at $0.60 / bottle. is the savings worth the inconvenience?

another example, say you are ordering pizza delivery and you don't have any soda's at home. do you just pay the $2.00 per 2 liter bottle they charge? or do you start up your car drive to your local grocery store and buy it there cheaper?
 
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DnetMHZ

Diamond Member
Apr 10, 2001
9,826
1
81
I do tend to pay extra for convenience, but I wouldn't give Verizon a dime for unlimited calling for life.
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Get rid of Vonage if you want to save money.
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vonage has saved me some money, but not enough to make it worth the hassles. you don't get the same level of quality in phone service. anyone that claims it is just flat out lying.

it is down more than the service you get from your local phone company.

so, you save some money but it's not without it's own costs. i'm just tired of dealing with it.
 
dullard

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
26,042
4,684
126
I pay next to nothing for convenience. Why? I make being cheap the most convenient thing. Lets look at your pop examples (soda for those who like to make it vague since many things are called sodas).

I go grocery shopping roughly twice a month. When I do so, I get an abundance of things that have a long shelf life (like pop). Bring it in, put it in the refrigerator and it is always there cold and ready for 10 to 20 cents a can or 89 cents per 2 liter. In the winter I don't even bother to take the pop out of the garage - free refrigeration. I'm already going to the grocery store, so this is no additional effort. It is convenient and cheap.

At all of the places I work at, I insist on having a small refrigerator. If they don't have one, I ask for one and have always gotten it. Then once a month, I bring a 24 pack of pop (~$4.59 on average) and put the whole thing into the refrigerator. Whenever I'm thirsty, I walk a dozen steps and have my cold drink ready. People in offices around me all "coveniently" walk 5 minutes up/down stairs to a $1 vending machine or "conveniently" walk to a nearby gas station for $1.29 drink. What I do is more convenient and cheaper.

If I know I'm going to be going to a drive through, I usually have a cold pop around me (home or work), grab it on my way to the car and then get my food. No extra effort and I save ~$1. Thats a whole hell of a lot simplier than keeping a fridge and ice in your car. Sure at times I don't have pop nearby, and I'll pay for the one at the drive through. But usually I don't have to.
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: dullard
I pay next to nothing for convenience. Why? I make being cheap the most convenient thing. Lets look at your pop examples (soda for those who like to make it vague since many things are called sodas).

I go grocery shopping roughly twice a month. When I do so, I get an abundance of things that have a long shelf life (like pop). Bring it in, put it in the refrigerator and it is always there cold and ready for 10 to 20 cents a can or 89 cents per 2 liter. In the winter I don't even bother to take the pop out of the garage - free refrigeration. I'm already going to the grocery store, so this is no additional effort. It is convenient and cheap.

At all of the places I work at, I insist on having a small refrigerator. If they don't have one, I ask for one and have always gotten it. Then once a month, I bring a 24 pack of pop (~$4.59 on average) and put the whole thing into the refrigerator. Whenever I'm thirsty, I walk a dozen steps and have my cold drink ready. People in offices around me all "coveniently" walk 5 minutes up/down stairs to a $1 vending machine or "conveniently" walk to a nearby gas station for $1.29 drink. What I do is more convenient and cheaper.

If I know I'm going to be going to a drive through, I usually have a cold pop around me (home or work), grab it on my way to the car and then get my food. No extra effort and I save ~$1. Thats a whole hell of a lot simplier than keeping a fridge and ice in your car. Sure at times I don't have pop nearby, and I'll pay for the one at the drive through. But usually I don't have to.
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if you will notice. i specifically posted about things in my car. why do you think that is? well, it's because i'm on the road about 15 hours / week. on the average day i will drive 3 hours. i work out of my car. i don't have an office.

 
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Argo

Lifer
Apr 8, 2000
10,045
0
0
A lot. I'd gladly spend $100 if that makes my trip more convinient. Example, I'm renting a car to go to the airport and I'm paying extra $30 to get an SUV. I'm willing to spend extra just so that I don't have to cramp myself into a compact. My thinking is, what good is money if it doesn't make my life better?
 
dullard

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
26,042
4,684
126
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
if you will notice. i specifically posted about things in my car. why do you think that is? well, it's because i'm on the road about 15 hours / week. on the average day i will drive 3 hours. i work out of my car. i don't have an office.
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Well you asked what we do, so I answered. In your case, it'll be harder. But you can still grab a cold 2 liter and a half frozen 2 liter on your way out of your house (put it in the freezer when you wake up and while you are showering/shaving/etc it'll get half frozen). Drink the cold one in the morning and by afternoon the half frozen one would be the perfect temperature. Thats a bit less work than going out of your way to a drive through and to sit in line there for 10 minutes just to buy a soda. Of course if you buy food at the same time, all you save is a bit of cash since you'll be sitting in line anyways. But you gain the ability to drink whatever you want. It could even be a nice juice or Gatoraide that restaurants rarely offer.
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: dullard
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
if you will notice. i specifically posted about things in my car. why do you think that is? well, it's because i'm on the road about 15 hours / week. on the average day i will drive 3 hours. i work out of my car. i don't have an office.
Click to expand...
Well you asked what we do, so I answered. In your case, it'll be harder. But you can still grab a cold 2 liter and a half frozen 2 liter on your way out of your house (put it in the freezer when you wake up and while you are showering/shaving/etc it'll get half frozen). Drink the cold one in the morning and by afternoon the half frozen one would be the perfect temperature. Thats a bit less work than going out of your way to a drive through and to sit in line there for 10 minutes just to buy a soda. Of course if you buy food at the same time, all you save is a bit of cash since you'll be sitting in line anyways. But you gain the ability to drink whatever you want. It could even be a nice juice or Gatoraide that restaurants rarely offer.
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:)

to be honest, diet coke is my drink of choice. i guess i wouldn't mind a switch to diet sprite or diet Lipton once in a while.

 
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farmercal

Golden Member
Mar 23, 2000
1,580
0
0
vonage has saved me some money, but not enough to make it worth the hassles. you don't get the same level of quality in phone service. anyone that claims it is just flat out lying.
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I use Vonage for all my long distance and my kids use it for local calling as well. We have Sprint local land-line only (now), since they were ripping me off with all of their extra charges. Anyway, we have Cox cable with very fast internet speeds and unless I tell someone that I am calling via Vonage they cannot tell the difference and I am not lying. We were afraid that the call quality would be substandard but that is not the case with us so far. Knock on wood.
 
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randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
2
0
linh.wordpress.com
i will pay for convenience. but $12/mo for your local line.. do you have anything on that at all? our min is like $30 w/ caller id after all the taxes and such. I'm finally switching to VOIP.... my only concern from not switching before was if there was a power outage. But since I'm home now, there are two cell phones, 99% of the time fully charged. Hopefully our phone bill gets cut in half.

granted, the outage will happen the 1% of the time we don't have them charged.....
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: farmercal
vonage has saved me some money, but not enough to make it worth the hassles. you don't get the same level of quality in phone service. anyone that claims it is just flat out lying.
Click to expand...
I use Vonage for all my long distance and my kids use it for local calling as well. We have Sprint local land-line only (now), since they were ripping me off with all of their extra charges. Anyway, we have Cox cable with very fast internet speeds and unless I tell someone that I am calling via Vonage they cannot tell the difference and I am not lying. We were afraid that the call quality would be substandard but that is not the case with us so far. Knock on wood.
Click to expand...

then your local land lines must be horrible. there is a definite difference here between Vonage and POTS. even my Verizon Wireless is better than Vonage.

it's not as clear, crisp or as loud as what you get from POTS.
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: isasir
PlatinumGold, where were you when I posted this thread? :)
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i was in LA for Christmas. ;)

vonage is ok for some. if my wife were willing to go over completely to vonage, no POTS whatsoever it might even be worth my money.

but i need to keep my DSL service (yes i have both Cable internet and DSL service).

so keeping both is very inconvenient, hence, i decided to do away with vonage.
 
brigden

brigden

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2002
8,702
2
81
I think being cheap is a character flaw. I don't care if you think saving money makes sense; if you're cheap I don't want anything to do with you.

There are people out there that pinch pennies despite the fact that they're worth millions. It's a character flaw.
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: lnguyen
i will pay for convenience. but $12/mo for your local line.. do you have anything on that at all? our min is like $30 w/ caller id after all the taxes and such. I'm finally switching to VOIP.... my only concern from not switching before was if there was a power outage. But since I'm home now, there are two cell phones, 99% of the time fully charged. Hopefully our phone bill gets cut in half.

granted, the outage will happen the 1% of the time we don't have them charged.....
Click to expand...

it's not just power outage, it's also broadband outage. i'm going to assume you will use cable internet as your broadband. with cable internet as your broadband, you will have internet interuptions. some due to your router, some due to your cable modem and some due to your cable company.

we have a cheap local service which has no feature, caller id etc and a very limited local area.

 
Kelemvor

Kelemvor

Lifer
May 23, 2002
16,928
8
81
I'm cheap so I'd pretty much go the extra few steps to not have to pay more unless it costs me more to do the extra steps than I'd be saving.
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: brigden
I think being cheap is a character flaw. I don't care if you think saving money makes sense; if you're cheap I don't want anything to do with you.

There are people out there that pinch pennies despite the fact that they're worth millions. It's a character flaw.
Click to expand...

hehehe, a client of mine (doctor) had a server go down. turns out one of the ide hds (in raid 1) went bad.

i offered to replace them with HD's i had in stock. i quoted him a price. he went out to best buy and found them for $10.00 less per HD and wanted me to use them instead. :roll:

that's cheap. does he really feel like the $20.00 he saved is worth thoe 45 minutes of hassle he dealt with? we are up to renewal this month (he's on an annual contract with me). i'm doubling my rates. take it or leave it. i don't like dealing with cheap customers.
 
jlee

jlee

Lifer
Sep 12, 2001
48,518
223
106
Originally posted by: brigden
I think being cheap is a character flaw. I don't care if you think saving money makes sense; if you're cheap I don't want anything to do with you.

There are people out there that pinch pennies despite the fact that they're worth millions. It's a character flaw.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you didn't grow up in a low income family.
 
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PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
23,168
0
71
Originally posted by: CadetLee
Originally posted by: brigden
I think being cheap is a character flaw. I don't care if you think saving money makes sense; if you're cheap I don't want anything to do with you.

There are people out there that pinch pennies despite the fact that they're worth millions. It's a character flaw.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you didn't grow up in a low income family.
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there is a difference between being frugal and being cheap. look at my post above for an example of being cheap.

i'll give you another example. my sisterinlaw HATES spending money. shoot, she hates it soo much she puts off buying airline tickets too the LAST MINUTE. for trips she has planned MONTHS in advance.

that's not frugal, that's cheap and mb a little bit not too smart.
 
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