February 2011

I bet you heard the saying “the poor man pays twice”. For me, saying that I strongly agree with this saying, is saying nothing. Let me explain.

For a few months now my car alarm has been going nuts. I’ve been to the shop 4 times in the past 3 months alone and I ain’t happy.

The shop owner has made a small fortune thanks to my cheapness and stupidity.

I could have bought an expensive alarm instead of the cheap piece of crap I got. It would be twice the price but ten time the quality.

Now I know first hand how agonizingly humiliating it is to be the poor man. And not only because of all the money I wasted, but for another, much more sensitive reason.

Imagine taking your girl out to town. You wash the car, wear your best shirt and make sure all accessories are a match. You take her out and have a blast. Later, when it’s time to go home, on the parking lot at 2am and the damn alarm jams! She’s staring at you nervously clicking the remote with that “again?…” look in her eyes.

“Why don’t you just get a new one?” she asks.

“Why would I? I paid for this. It’s brand new and it should be working just fine!”

Now that’s your ego talking. She knows it. You know it. But it makes no difference because it’s 2am in the morning and you’re stuck. You have no choice but to leave the car on the lot, take a cab and call it a night.

Thank god the iPhone battery isn’t dead (yet). Just enough to make a call.

That’s a humiliating, excruciatingly painful and just plain uncomfortable situation to find yourself in.

I’m definitely sticking to high prices from now on. I’ll be damned if I let “the poor man” in me take over again.

What about you? Do you usually go for the cheapest or the best? Leave a comment!