David Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 On a recent ride with Jim Williams, he and I were joking about what I call "alternate currencies" at our respective homes. He thinks of a purchase in terms of "how many guitars" that would buy. At our home, we used to measure everything in "trucks," since Jonathan's first vehicle was a $2,000 pickup truck (in which the engine eventually grenaded). Are we nuts, or do you think of purchases in terms of "wow, that's x number of y." Link to comment
Huzband Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 I used to quantify purchases to Laura Lee by how many "little teeth" (crowns) I had to make to pay for it. Unfortunately, she's been on to me for a while. Link to comment
SageRider Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Being self employed, it's hours instead of $$$$. How many hours I will need to work to cover the cost... Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 # of Mojos I have to sell. Link to comment
Dave McReynolds Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Recently was shopping for a new car, and was considering a new BMW 328i. While they were marked down to a good price, I couldn't help but make the comparison as to how many Hyundai's they cost. Funny, but when shopping for a new BMW motorcycle, I don't think I would make the comparison as to how many Honda's one would cost. Different motivation, I guess. Link to comment
lawnchairboy Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 anesthesia hours...oh, wait, I forgot I was in the Navy... Link to comment
Paul Mihalka Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Last year when I needed tires on the way home from Torrey, I commented that for me is $200 more than getting and mounting them at home/work. Friend said that's not really that much. I said that's three Motel6 nights. Link to comment
StretchMark Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 My answer may not be appropriate for a family sight, but it would make a very interesting business case study. Link to comment
ericfoerster Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Golf clubs...lots of them! Link to comment
Joel Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 My answer may not be appropriate for a family sight, but it would make a very interesting business case study. Another chapter for Freakonomics, perhaps? :smirk: When my wife became addicted to 20 oz. lattes, they -- at $5 per -- became our household's unit of currency. (I'll admit having indulged a few times, "But I ain't hooked," he says in is best Richard Pryor voice.) Now we live ~25 miles from the nearest dealer of yuppie crack, ... er, I mean coffee shop, so we need a new measure. With the rehab of our house in progress, we now refer to a home improvement store as the "$100 Dollar Store," since that seems to be our minimum purchase lately. That'll probably do. Link to comment
4wheeldog Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Costco trips seem to be about $300 a pop. Link to comment
upflying Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Barter has worked for me in the past. I got my car painted in exchange for services I provided. I 'forgot' to mention it to the IRS. Link to comment
bakerzdosen Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Costco trips seem to be about $300 a pop. Never get a cart. You'd be surprised at how much you save. Link to comment
ChrisNYC Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 When looking at the price of just about anything, I hear myself saying "That's a lot of cat food ..." ------------------ Chris (aka Tender Vittles ) Little '77 KZ400 in the Big Apple Black '99 RT for Everywhere Else, such as ... Link to comment
stubble! Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 My son's learning about "weeks of allowance" as measures of his purchases. Pretty darn effective. When buying a car, I find myself thinking how many cool motorcycles it represents. Otherwise, it's hard drives. With my photo and video hobbies, I'm a storage junkie. So I often think of larger purchases in terms of number of hard drives Link to comment
Wheels Rollin' Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Face-to-face classroom hours + prep and review time as a function of what I'm paid for each course I facilitate, David... By my calculation, that factors out to something... oh... a few degrees south of minimum wage, though satisfaction and contentment can't always be measured in the coin of the realm (though it does help <>)... ~ Bill Link to comment
Matts_12GS Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I used to ski with a guy who was 5'5" and he served as our depthfinder. We measured water in "Joes" deep. Link to comment
questrider Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 anesthesia hours...oh, wait, I forgot I was in the Navy... Careful. Link to comment
Matts_12GS Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 anesthesia hours...oh, wait, I forgot I was in the Navy... Careful. Sure, I mean Rum, buggery and the lash, but what about the bad times in the Navy? Link to comment
Couchrocket Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 A variation on the theme: When I was in the later years of my career, I used to say that I'll know I'm "done" when I had attended as many City Council Meetings as "Fire Chief" as I had cleaned toilets as a "rookie." It came out about even in the end. And the similarities of my "beginning and ending" duties wasn't lost on me. Link to comment
OoPEZoO Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I used to ski with a guy who was 5'5" and he served as our depthfinder. We measured water in "Joes" deep. Thats funny. Think we can get away with doing that with John? Link to comment
Huzband Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I used to ski with a guy who was 5'5" and he served as our depthfinder. We measured water in "Joes" deep. Thats funny. Think we can get away with doing that with John? Ouch! Link to comment
ltljohn Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I used to ski with a guy who was 5'5" and he served as our depthfinder. We measured water in "Joes" deep. Thats funny. Think we can get away with doing that with John? KUDOS to Matt and Keith, a short joke I have not heard Link to comment
Matts_12GS Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I used to ski with a guy who was 5'5" and he served as our depthfinder. We measured water in "Joes" deep. Thats funny. Think we can get away with doing that with John? KUDOS to Matt and Keith, a short joke I have not heard Link to comment
Lone_RT_rider Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 I used to ski with a guy who was 5'5" and he served as our depthfinder. We measured water in "Joes" deep. I thought you were talking about John at first... *he ducks* We measure things by "a day on the lake". It costs about 35 in gas for the truck to get the boat to the lake, and another 25 for the gas we use on the lake. So... "a day on the lake" is 60 dollars US. Shawn Link to comment
Quinn Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 How many hours I had to work. Sort of like the national tax day; you work from January 1st to July 11th just to pay your taxes, before you start working to have money to spend. So on a daily basis, I work the first two hours to pay the expenses of coming to work--breakfast and lunch at fastfood, cigarettes, gas, laundry, etc. Now when you use hours worked to measure expensive things like cars or motorcycles, it gets scarey. You could retire two years earlier if you hadn't bought that new car. For clothes, I use the blue jean and work shirt measure. Those slacks cost as much as four pairs of blue jeans; are they four times as comfortable?; will they last four times as long? Link to comment
Bill_Walker Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 we now refer to a home improvement store as the "$100 Dollar Store," since that seems to be our minimum purchase lately. Back when I owned a boat, I was introduced to the "Boating Unit of Cost", or BUC. At the time, the BUC was about $100. Anything you want or need to buy for your boat costs at least one BUC, and usually some multiple of BUCs. I think the size of the BUC varies with the size of the boat too. I believe they have a similar concept in the world of general aviation. I think they call it the "Flying Unit of.....", er, never mind. Link to comment
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