Recently we had a our regular once-a-month poker game at my partner’s best friend’s house.  The poker group decided we wanted to have dinner together too and so it turned into a potluck event as well.  I think potlucks are a great money-saving idea (see Potluck), but this night it didn’t turn out so economical for me and my partner.

It was my boyfriend’s night to cook and so it was he who would be in charge of our contribution to the potluck - the salad.  He was feeling a bit lazy and decided to buy a ready-made salad at the local supermarket near his best friend’s house.  Never having bought a ready-made salad at the supermarket myself, I thought, it’s mostly just a bunch of veggies, how much could it cost to buy enough for 6 people?  The answer is: $30 CAD!  Ouch.

I was very angry at my partner for: 1. being too lazy to make his own salad, 2. being too lazy to estimate how much the ready made salad would cost before ordering it (the cost was determined by weight), 3. being too lazy to change his mind and just buy salad kit to assemble at the his friend’s house.  Needless to say, next time we buy anything by weight, I’m bringing a calculator.

We were lucky in that this was just a salad and were out only $30.  Imagine if you were too lazy to do your due diligence before buying a house?  If you did not do market research before starting up a business (as I understand it many start-up business owners do not - yikes)?  How about investing $20,000 on a stock tip your cab driver gave you without checking it out first?  Lazy can cost you!