We all pay full-price for something.

In these troubled financial times, with people being laid off and our 401ks tanking, we're all looking to cut costs. Maybe not that European vacation or that Alaskan cruise. Not this year. Maybe not even that snow-blower we'd been planning to buy. Not even a new pair of jeans, for God's sake!

But there are things we all pay full-price for, regardless of hard times. (Joan Rivers used to say, "Does anybody pay retail?" What she meant, of course, was that she not only got clothes from sponsors for nothing but that she also shopped for bargains.) What do you pay for without trying to finagle the price down?

Clothes I think you can always find on sale, unless there's a particular brand you just have to have. Even cars: almost all the car companies are ready and willing to make you a deal on whatever you want just to get their inventory sold and off the lot. Houses? We all know what's happened to the real estate business: if you want to buy a house, this is the time!

But some things never go on sale, and still we buy them. I'm thinking small right now: Boar's Head hot dogs. Made without additives. Tasting so much better than the name brands and only carried in certain stores with good deli departments. What else? Well, for me it's bicycle repair. I know that sounds kind of odd, but when I need a tune-up on my bike, I can't dicker: their price is their price, take it or leave it. And I want to be sure I'm riding a bicycle that's in the best shape it can be in: after all, there are just those two thin tires between me and the pavement.

What else?

I guess I would continue to pay full-price for movie tickets, but only if it's a movie I really need to see on a big screen instead of renting it later, on DVD, and watching it at home. (I'll pass on the $5 bucket of popcorn.) A meal at a restaurant that is so well-established that it doesn't have to offer a discount to lure in new customers? Maybe, but it has to be really good -- and probably a special occasion. (Even better if someone else is paying.) I'm more tempted these days to try a new one that's advertising a special in the newspaper.

For some of us, it's spa and gym memberships: the way we pamper or exercise ourselves. They do have specials but usually only for new members. For those of us who need that group-exercise kind of thing (I'm not one: I do it alone, at home), that's an expense we just have to pay. Maybe, for the ladies, a special spa treatment that you can't get at home and that makes you feel better about yourself. Worth the whole price? You bet. (Get your mate to buy you a certificate for your birthday. He'll be thrilled not to have to shop.)

By the way, let's rule out the very rich, who can afford to pay whatever for an ocean-view mansion and a second home in Italy. For them money is nothing because they have so much of it. They usually pay retail for everything; no dickering. (Or maybe they do, but what they end up paying is still beyond any rational scope: ten million for a place that, last year, might have gone for twenty million.) They live in another dimension, only marginally related to our own.

I went into a store recently that sold sports equipment, thinking that I'd like to buy a snorkel outfit that wouldn't allow any water into my nose and mouth. I'm not a water person -- don't even know how to swim -- but I'm intrigued by all the fish and other creatures you can see when you lie in the water (with a safety vest on) and look down. I saw one that guaranteed no water would be backed up into my snorkel -- which feels to me like drowning -- so I paid more than I wanted to. I've yet to test it, but if it works, it's worth the money.

On the other hand, I'm a book person and own hundreds (many of which I'll likely not live long enough to read). But I paid full price for almost none of them -- even the paperbacks. Books are one of our society's great recyclables. Most of us don't keep lots of books around after we've read them, which means second-hand stores always have a substantial stock on-hand, often for just a dollar or two apiece. One of my old friends, though, buys only new books -- in hard cover.
Why? I don't know. After all, a book isn't like a tool that we tend to re-use over and over; once it's been read, we're probably not going to open it again (unless it's a coffee table book with lots of pretty pictures). But as I think about it, here's one possible reason he insists on buying books new: he likes the looks of them on his shelves at home. And maybe he likes visitors to see that not only is a literate person, he's also not a cheapskate like some of his friends (namely me).

So what do you think is worth the money?

That particular piece of clothing? That car? That item in the grocery store? That service? Maybe that haircut from the only person in town who understands your hair and your head? I think what you're willing to shell out the big bucks for says something about you; it's up to you to determine exactly what.

So there really are things we'll pay full price for, but we should size them up and be sure they're worth the extra expense. Go for quality when it matters. Otherwise, shop around.

And shopping for bargains is kind of fun -- or so my female friends tell me.