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Penny pinching

Posted on August 31, 2010 by KK

So I arrived in Florence and decided to get my ticket to Nice while I’m at the station. I ask for an overnight train to Nice for Sept 2nd and am told the price is €83.50. I gawk at this but pay up anyway. Cognitive dissonance (cheapness or financial savvy, call it what you will) sets in soon after. I get to my hostel, check in, then decide to head back later to check if that was the cheapest option available.

I get to the station, see a very long line, head to check out bus ticket prices at Eurolines. The guy tells me it’s €65 for an overnight bus to Nice. I think, ok, that’s about €17 in savings but the cons is that I’ll have less freedom of movement on a bus. Anyway, I go eat lunch, head back to the station, find out the cheapest option only costs €28! But it’s a day train and I’ll have to get off twice at two different stations to change trains. But I get all excited that I’ll save €50. Then I find out I came back 3 hours after I purchased the tickets from earlier and can only get 80% refund (2 hours is the cutoff for a full refund). So that’s €15 lost. And factor in that I have to get a room for the night in Nice for €20-25, that’s another “loss”. So in total, all that bloody trouble and I ended up saving €15.

I then proceed to blow it all on pizza lunch (hand-made dough, oven baked), High Fidelity (I GOT IT at this awesome bookstore with many English books but it was €11.60 FFS…) and PASTA DINNER (read rant in ‘Venice’ about my annoyance at buying pasta in restaurants). But I justified that hey, I’m paying for great sauce. Which is true.

My God I feel like an idiot sometimes lol.

2 thoughts on “Penny pinching”

  1. Lesley says:
    September 1, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    one word: kiasu. haha..it’s ok. i do it too. i bought some bathing suits online, and some didn’t fit, so i had to return them (had to pay for return shipping too)..then simultaneously ordered more bathing suits (this time correct and in the appropriate size) but at an extra 30% off! after i calculate it all, it turned out i saved like $5.

    Reply
  2. KK says:
    September 1, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    LOL!!

    Reply

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