On a recent grocery shopping trip, my eyes were intrigued by something completely unusual. It was something I had never seen before, or at least in my 28+ years of grocery shopping as an adult. No, I didn’t come into contact with a smart robot that was there to shop for its human owner, nor did I see an alien in the produce aisle. What I saw was a product selling for 10 cents! A Boston Cream Pie, to be precise, that would otherwise be worth close to $2 or $3. It had the same shape and size as an Apple Pie you would buy from McDonald’s and tasted very similar to a Boston Cream donut. In fact, it would have been one of the best purchases even at 20 times the price, had it not been for the high amount of sugar and calories. Regardless, I ended up buying 25 of them, and that only cost me $2.50! I gave most of these away to family and friends.
Why do I tell this story – in an inflationary economy out of all times – in addition to the unique experience of finding an item for 10 cents? It’s for the same reason I refuse to commit to various monthly subscription services: to avoid the trap of becoming addicted to the services and then having to deal with inevitable price increases. Just look at Netflix, where the original price I started with was around $7.99 and has since gone up by 200% to $23.99! And that is exactly my reason for refusing to commit to the paid version of Spotify, YouTube, and other online services I like to use almost daily. Just when you have gotten hooked on them, comes the price increase, then another, and another, until you are paying double or triple what you started with.
Don’t commit or get addicted to something if you don’t want to pay for it indefinitely. Better yet, don’t commit to something unless you can guarantee that it won’t affect your budget in the future, even by a few extra dollars. If you set aside $10 for Spotify and it suddenly goes up to $12, and although it is only $2, are you psychologically ready to absorb this increase? My introduction grocery trip story, although real, is a metaphor for our reliance and addiction to something without considering the long-term budget implications. Before you commit to any service or purchase – including cars, of course – take a look at your budget and make sure you not only have room for it today, but also whether you will 1, 2, or even 5 years from now. That is the true measure of time-proofing and avoiding being surprised by future price hikes.
And just for the record, this also applies to our daily coffee and other food binge habits. We’ve become accustomed to our Tim Hortons, Starbucks, or other favorite beverages, and despite the almost annual price increases, we find it challenging to break away. This is often because we didn’t approach these habits, which could potentially turn into addictions, with caution.