Budget Buster

Mother Dragon

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Have you ever bought something without looking at the price and after you're committed to buying it (or have bought it), realized it wasn't within your budget?

My husband buys meat at the grocery store deli for our sandwiches. He usually gets a pound of a couple kinds of house brand or Boar's Head meats and a like amount of a couple of sliced cheeses. They cost anywhere from $8 to $11 per pound, which is fairly expensive. Yesterday he went to the store and brought home some sandwich meat from the deli.

We decided to have some of his excellent sandwiches for lunch today. He happily told me he'd found some new lunch meat that he was sure I'd like. A guy buying some at the deli counter recommended it and the deli guy gave him a free sample. He bought a pound of it for us to enjoy.

My husband used to work at a famous sandwich shop, so he piles on the meat, over a quarter-pound per sandwich. I tasted my sandwich and found the meat to be slightly chewy, with a vaguely salty, unfamiliar flavor. He told me it was Serrano ham, a Spanish ham. My radar lit up like a klieg light. I knew right then that it was expen$ive. I casually asked him how much it was. He said he hadn't looked. He examined the package and found out that stuff was $25.00 a pound! Needless to say that will be the first and last time we'll be eating that! Lesson learned.

So, what have you unknowingly bought that turned out to be way too expensive?
 

MonaLyssa33

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I'm a bargain shopper to the extreme, so I'm always looking at prices. The only thing that comes to mind is when I had to get a key made at a small hardware store and I was charged $10 for it. I've had keys made before that were not that expensive, but it was also a small store, so I thought maybe things were just more expensive. I asked the cashier if that was the right price and she had to have her manager come over. It turns out she had typed in the wrong code and it was actually only about $3.
 

Talien

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The only time I get burned is either when someone puts a package in the clearance aea that's not supposed to be there, or when stockers put packages in an area of a shelf that's labeled as on sale when that particular item is not.

I usually check my receipts before leaving the store though, and in cases like that I always get a refund. If it's one of those rare times I don't check my receipt until I get home then I just bring it back and get a refund the next time I'm there.
 

MoochNNoodles

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My Dad nearly bought a $75 ham once. He said the cashier commented "I was wondering who would buy that!" Needless to say he exchanged the ham for a decently priced one!

I think the last time I did that was when I got fresh scallops from a local fresh seafood place. They were excellent. :yummy: But I haven't bought any since. :lol:
 

Willowy

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I am always grabbing a bag of grapes that say something like $2.98 and I don't realize the small print said "per pound" until I go to check out and it's like $8 for the bag :/. But eh, not really a budget buster, I just feel silly that I forgot to look, again!
 

denice

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The last time I was at the deli counter I saw that Boar's Head has Serrano Ham. I didn't even bother looking at the price because I knew it was too much. I have seen whole Serrano hams on the internet for several hundred dollars.
 

susanm9006

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Twice this week. First a quarter watermelon that looked to be 1.49. Nope it was $1.49 per pound. Second was a little snack I picked up this morning at the bakery. They had these little, like two inch round pastries. They looked delicious and were $1.99 a pound so I bought three. At checkout I discovered they were $11.99 a pound or $5 for my three little bites. Both would have been prevented if I wore my glasses when I shopped.
 

MoochNNoodles

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I am always grabbing a bag of grapes that say something like $2.98 and I don't realize the small print said "per pound" until I go to check out and it's like $8 for the bag :/. But eh, not really a budget buster, I just feel silly that I forgot to look, again!
I've done that with apples before. Once the cashier even commented "Those are some expensive apples..." :paperbag:
 

Winchester

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Mother Dragon Mother Dragon I bet that was some mighty good ham!

When we were first married and we had to do grocery shopping, I thought that when the store flyer advertised meat at $1.50, I didn't realize that meant $1.50 a pound. And I couldn't understand why I could never find the meat for that price. Rick didn't really know either; his mom always did the grocery shopping. We figured it out. When we were first married, we had a grocery budget of $15 a week and we did very well with that budget, even with our son and with Peanut Butter, my orange tiger kitty.

I'm like a bear with our grocery budget. I always check the receipt to make sure we got all our digital coupons for everything. I'll sit in the car til it's all checked out. Makes Rick crazy and he'll start checking the receipt as we're walking out of the store. But a $1.00 is a $1.00 is a $1.00.

I don't remember right off-hand when the last time was that we bought something that was more expensive than we thought it would be. I'm sure we've done it!
 

di and bob

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I always check prices too when I get to the car, and OFTEN have found mistakes. I think the worst we were overcharged is when my husband saw they sold Icees the Cinema in our town, we had only found them at the Burger king 70 miles away, for 1.99. We went in and asked if we could buy two even if we wern't going to the movies, he said sure, so we ordered a medium and a small. I should have known, should have asked first since anything else there is so high! The total came to over 15.00, for two drinks! We were too embarassed not to pay after he had to make them up, we could have ate for that much too! Well, i learned my lesson, and now I always get an Icee from Burger King!
 

rubysmama

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Just the other week, one of the grocery stores had containers of strawberries on sale for $2.49. So I looked at a few and took one that had decent looking strawberries.

Had some later that day, and when I was putting them back in the fridge noticed the label said "ORGANIC". Yeah, knew that wasn't good. Checked my receipt, and discovered my "on sale" strawberries cost me $5.99. :eek2: So, not really a budget buster, but definitely not a bargain. At least the strawberries were really good. :yummy:
 

NY cat man

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I can't sat that I have, because I'm an almost compulsive price tag reader. Have I ever bought expensive stuff? Yes, I have, but I knew the price going in, and figured accordingly.
 

Mia6

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I'm on a strict budget because I have to be but once a month I buy a container of Talenti Sea Salt Caramel Gelato and it costs about 5 bucks. The first time I bought it I didn't know it would be that much but got it anyway. Now it's my once a month
treat. :yess:
 

maggiedemi

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I was having my bartender re-create a fancy drink that I had in Canada. I named off the several different liquors it had in it. When it came time to pay for it, that one drink was $8. Back then a mixed drink was only $3 at the most. I didn't know that he would charge me for each individual liquor that went into it. :eek2:
 

Mia6

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I was having my bartender re-create a fancy drink that I had in Canada. I named off the several different liquors it had in it. When it came time to pay for it, that one drink was $8. Back then a mixed drink was only $3 at the most. I didn't know that he would charge me for each individual liquor that went into it. :eek2:
What's the drink?
 

maggiedemi

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What's the drink?
I can't remember, it was so many years ago. I remember it was pink, so maybe it was a cherry flavored drink. It was really fancy, but only cost $3 in Canada!
 

Mia6

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I don't drink any alcohol because of the pain meds I take but I've heard the prices of drinks now and I am incredulous. The last drink I had was in 2000; it was an Absolut Cosmopolitan and it was $5.00. This was at a nice steak house that my friend and I went to for my bd. Wonder what it would be now???
 

blueyedgirl5946

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I am very conservative when it comes to spending money. Once in a while I get burned at the grocery store if something is in the clearance area by mistake.
 
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