Budgets Are Sexy

That was the subject line of an email a reader just sent in ;)  At 3:30 a.m.  Haha… I think he was bit perturbed. Here’s the rest of the email below:

I just opened my hotel bill today and I was shocked to see all the added taxes that were added on my bill.  Now I was a little upset at that.  Not because of paying more money, but I felt that I was being deceived.  What ever happened to: “It costs $5” “okay” *passes $5* “have a great day!”

Nowadays, it is no longer airlines who are not adding random fees on top.  In a way of promoting their product above the others, it seems that the “price” is just an arbitrary number for a variety of different industries (especially the mortgage industry).  Then they add shipping & handling, sales tax, dog tax, breathing tax, and come out with a final cost.

I’d really like to see if people have noticed the same thing I do.  Are we so ashamed of seeing cost, that we often let the seller dictate what its worth?  Is anyone else willing to provide stories/examples of this?

I’d really like to hear from people who are about to sign a mortgage, and see a bunch of “admin fees” tacked on.  Thanks for listening to my 3:30am rant.

And here was my response (not at 3:30 am):

Haha, nice.  And so true – there’s taxes all over the dang place.  I mean, I guess most of it helps us in the long run, but I agree it would be nice to know UPFRONT what, exactly, the cost is for the stuff we buy.  Would make life a lot more interesting.  And in fact, maybe it would make people NOT buy as many things too!  Which would be great for us, but not so much the economy… so maybe that’s why the complete costs are hidden? ;)

What do you guys think?  Are you tired of getting nickeled and dimed all over the place, or have you come to terms with the way it is?  Our good friend above is dying to know!

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(Photo by xJason.Rogersx)

Originally published at budgetsaresexy.com.