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Originally Posted by JinnKai
I'm a bit of each. When it comes to big ticket items, I never mentally accounted, for which I am glad.
When I was looking at buying a $1000 bed or a $1600 TV, I was considering it in how many other fun things that could be, not by some arbitrary amount that I had or had mentally earmarked for the purchase. It was more like.. Is this $1000 bed worth the loss of an XBOX360 with 10 games? Is this $500 skydiving trip worth two months of eating? If I can justify a big ticket purchase in terms of equivalent things I can buy with that same money, I'm usually satisfied.
But when it comes to anything under $50, I have to admit that I do the sort of mental accounting described above. If I lost $10 on the subway, I wouldn't even hesitate to buy the movie ticket. But if I lost the ticket, there's almost no way I'd buy another. Quite odd.
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Maybe there's pessimistic accounting and optimistic accounting? I'd see that $1000 bed as frivilous, thinking all the bills that could be paid with at least half of it and then look for something cheap...on the other hand, I justified the camera at $700, paid it down, went and got a lens for $250, justification being it's all needed to further pursue my advocation, but I haven't made it back yet and may not.
Losing $10 would and has upset me; I'd probably buy another ticket, though.