How do we gauge whether paying for an item, an experience, or a service is worth the price tag? This is something I have been pondering for a while. For example, would we pay more for a direct flight rather than taking a connection? And how do we determine whether the monetary value is worth the time and energy saved?
Until a few years ago, I chose the most economical flights simply because I could not afford the direct flights or the flights that operated at a decent time of the day. Now I try to make the best use of my time, but still, my decision to take a better flight depends on how many dollars I am paying extra for it. As I mentioned in a previous post, how much extra am I paying in terms of the hours I worked to earn that dollar amount also plays into consideration.
At the same time, looking back at such decisions, what are items and experiences we wish we spent on rather than saving it? Is there a flight that we wish we spent the extra few hundred dollars on because the connection was brutal? That dollar amount may have been a deal breaker 15-years ago while in graduate school, but it might not be anymore.
As a gift to ourselves, a friend and I traveled to Egypt a few months after we defended our dissertations. The flights were ~ USD 1000 and the private, guided tour for 8-days was ~ USD 900. While visiting a museum, the guide told us that we had to pay extra to see the mummies. I was taking 5-months off between graduation and starting my postdoc position, which is the maximum amount of time I could not be employed under U.S. immigration laws. This means I was living off my savings, and each dollar counted. So I decided that the extra $8 (?) was too much to pay to see the mummies. After all, I had already paid for the tour which included the museums. In principle (!), I just could not come to terms with paying extra.
Looking back, it was such a small amount of money to experience something so historic and rare. Egypt is not on my list anymore since I have already visited, but if I were to land in Cairo for whatever reason, I will definitely go see the Queens and Kings in all their wrapped glory.
Photo: Temple of Kom Ombo in Egypt
