{"id":25855,"date":"2020-03-18T07:29:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T12:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=25855"},"modified":"2020-03-16T17:16:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T22:16:54","slug":"the-cost-savings-are-lost-by-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/18\/the-cost-savings-are-lost-by-me\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cost Savings Are Lost By Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Now that I&#8217;m dispensing <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/10\/the-dollars-a-day-bad-habits-of-brian-j\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">financial advice<\/a> to your detriment, gentle reader, I want to let you know in on a little secret I learned back in the old days, before the macarenavirus, when my son and I could freely travel to the YMCA for a triathlon class in advance of a triathlon sure to be canceled now.<\/p>\n<p>After class, we went to the vending machines to get a Gatorade.  The price listed on the machine said $1.50, and it had a credit card reader, so I used the credit card to buy a couple of drinks.<\/p>\n<p>When I checked the credit card statement, I had a pair of charges for $1.60.  When I checked the machines again, I saw the fine print: The price reflects a ten cent discount for using cash.<\/p>\n<p>Well!  I never!  Well, no, I rather too often!<\/p>\n<p>So I have decided that I&#8217;m going to save that ten cents each drink and pay with cash from now on.<\/p>\n<p>One thing to note about me is that I don&#8217;t tend to carry coins out of my house.  We have a little mite box for the Lutheran Women Missionary League, a little receptacle for change that you can bring, once a month, to church and dump into a larger box.  So whatever change I accumulate in my pockets goes in there when I unpack for the evening.<\/p>\n<p>Now I do try to generally be frugal with my pocket money as I will, if given the opportunity, stuff it into some collection plate or another.  So I get a twenty out of the ATM once or twice a week, and then I promptly stop by the doughnut store.  As a matter of fact, I tend to get that twenty just to buy doughnuts.  My order comes to $4.76, and the proprietor gives me a quarter and three fives in change.  If I have a dollar, I&#8217;ll tuck it in the tip cup.  If not, sometimes I tuck in a five (a tip jar is a sort of personal collection plate, ainna?).<\/p>\n<p>So when I get to the YMCA, I have a wallet full of five dollar bills.  Two of the machines dispensing Gatorades do not take five dollar bills (apparently, the only &#8220;cash&#8221; allowed is coins or one dollar bills).  One of them does, though, and we get a Gatorade and change paid out in three Sacajawea dollars and two quarters.  Two quarters and a Sacajawea buy the other, and I have two dollars left.<\/p>\n<p><em>Two dollars in coins.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You already know what happens next: I get home and put the change into the Mite Box.<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;ve essentially spent two dollars to save twenty cents.  <\/p>\n<p>Fiscal responsibility really isn&#8217;t my strong suit.  I have an English and Philosophy degree, friends.  Not accounting.  I would have said &#8220;economics,&#8221; but we know that&#8217;s not a study of money so much as <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/28\/on-thinking-like-an-economist-a-guide-to-rational-decision-making-by-randall-bartlett\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">manipulating people into doing what the economists want<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that I&#8217;m dispensing financial advice to your detriment, gentle reader, I want to let you know in on a little secret I learned back in the old days, before the macarenavirus, when my son and I could freely travel to the YMCA for a triathlon class in advance of a triathlon sure to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25855"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25858,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25855\/revisions\/25858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}