When I get paid I like to take a few dollars out of the ATM and pick up a coffee on the way into work. I don't care for Starbucks coffee at all so I usually go to one of the many Dunkin Donuts in the area and get a medium regular coffee and an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. I can't get the bacon or sausage on my sandwich because of my meat allergies.
At any rate, the sandwich (on a croissant) runs me about $1.99 and the coffee comes to $1.55. With tax I pay a little under $4 but never ask for the change. I just give them the four dollars and if they hand me change I just drop it in the jar.
Today I went to hand the woman at the register my usual four dollars and I noticed the total was over four! I was not expecting a price change but they raised the price of the coffee by 30 cents. I found myself paying $1.85 for the coffee plus $1.99 for the croissant sandwich. The total was just under $4.25 so I gave her the cash and a quarter and dropped my change (a few pennies) in the tip jar. Needless to say I will not be going there again. The deli behind my office has a similar sized coffee for $1.25 and an egg and cheese sandwich for $2.50 and that includes tax.
This sudden price change really annoyed me because I take great pains to budget my money and that extra quarter screwed me up. You might wonder how a quarter can screw me up but it is real simple: quarters add up. Four quarters make a dollar and so on. That extra quarter will cost me $1.25 per week or $5 a month. It may not sound like much but that morning coffee and sandwich are wants not needs, I can easily eat at home and not eat out.
I end up saving money but the economy suffers in the long run because I am spending less money. Thanks Dunkin Donuts, for a 30 cent price jump I am now responsible for wrecking the economy...
Image used under Creative Commons License from Flickr user misocrazy
