'Value for money' often different for different people

My wife, Stacey, has a unique ability.

Put her in a room with several similar items — anything from furniture or appliances to clothes or food — and she will, almost without fail, select the most expensive one as her favorite.

Even if all the brand names are erased. Even if they all look almost exactly alike.

It's uncanny, . . . and can be a bit expensive.

She and I were talking about this the other day as we considered the subject of "value for money," a phrase we heard often during the year we lived in Wales.

We were on our way back from a family reunion in Keystone, Colo. It's a fairly short trip, but we decided to go out in two days and spend a night in Cheyenne, Wyo., to let our girls take a dip in the hotel pool.

As I got online to make a hotel reservation a few days before our trip, my wife suggested we stay at the Little America. I searched for a room and found that it would cost more than $100. We both agreed that was a little beyond our budget, so I suggested we consider some of the bargain chains.

I eventually found a Motel 6 at which we could reserve a room for about $60. She thought that sounded a little cheap — unlike her, I always select the least expensive thing — but agreed to stay there.

When we arrived, the room was clean enough. But it was tiny. Really tiny. And it was right next to the railroad tracks. That is to say, as we swam in the pool, the tracks were about 10 yards away. It made for an interesting night.

We spent the next three nights at a beautiful condo in Keystone, then headed home. As we talked about our trip, Stacey said she wished we would have found a hotel priced somewhere between Little America and Motel 6 on that first night. It would have cost a little more, she said, but it would have been worth it.

That judgment, of course, was subjective. And it got me thinking that what is obviously worth extra money to one person may be an extravagance to another.

For example, again while we were living in Wales, I was preparing to work on my master's dissertation. Most of the other students opted to use word processors made available to us by the university. But Stacey argued that we should purchase a word processor so I could work from our flat.

I was strongly opposed to this idea. We had a limited amount of money, I said, and I didn't see the value in buying something that we would have to resell before we left.