The Cost of Uke

Jerryc41

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Here's an odd question. How do you keep track of the costs of the ukuleles you buy? Do you include the shipping cost? On the one hand, that is definitely a cost of getting the uke. On the other hand, that cost is not for the ukulele. Shipping could cost $10 or $40, but that's not for the item itself.

Suppose you have to drive to a store to buy a ukulele. Do you include the cost of gas, tolls, and meals - or even overnight lodging?

I've decided to go back and list just the actual cost of the ukes I've bought.

I ordered a Fluke, and I thought I'd drive to The Magic Fluke to pick it up and save shipping. If I did that, I would have to pay sales tax, so I'd save only about $1.50 for three hours of round trip driving. When I list the price of the Fluke, it will be for the instrument itself.

This may seem like a minor thing, but it can lower the total spent for ukuleles considerably. Creative bookkeeping? Maybe. :eek:
 
Basic economics would tell us that you would have to account for everything to determine the true cost. I can tell myself that a uke only cost me $250 but if I'm paying $20 for shipping, $20 to get it set up and $50 for a case then that uke is actually costing me $340. You'd have to account for the additional expense because you are missing out on the "opportunity cost" of that money. In this case, you'd be spending an additional $90 for uke related expenses that you could have spent on other things but now you can't because you spent those dollars for the uke related things.

In your Fluke scenario, it would make more sense just to pay the cost of shipping. Consider what you make in an hour at work and call that dollar amount what your time is worth and multiply that by your driving time. Then consider what you'd be missing out on when you think what else you could have done with that time. Then consider cost of gas, wear and tear on the car and money that might be spent on that trip that you wouldn't have spent if you hadn't taken the trip. If you'd want to break it down that way, then it would make more sense just to have it shipped. But then again, maybe the trip would be a lot of fun for you and you could chalk up the expenses as entertainment/leisure you might have otherwise spent for entertainment/leisure elsewhere.
 
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I don't think about any of this. I think about the all the joy ukulele brings me............priceless. This is the cheapest mental healing and spirtual therapy anyone could undertake. To feel this good and not wake up hungover is worth whatever the cost
 
I don't think about any of this. I think about the all the joy ukulele brings me............priceless. This is the cheapest mental healing and spirtual therapy anyone could undertake. To feel this good and not wake up hungover is worth whatever the cost

This ^.

Dave is very wise.

For me, life is too short to split hairs and get bogged down with things that slow our momentum towards happiness.
 
I don't think about any of this. I think about the all the joy ukulele brings me............priceless. This is the cheapest mental healing and spirtual therapy anyone could undertake. To feel this good and not wake up hungover is worth whatever the cost

I don’t know how to respond to this theory consider what I just did yesterday ;).
I guess you are right.
 
This ^.

Dave is very wise.

For me, life is too short to split hairs and get bogged down with things that slow our momentum towards happiness.

Booli your last line is brilliant........momentum towards happienss. Gonna get a t-shirt that says "On a Trajectory Towards Happiness"
 
With most things I buy/sell online I will include/leave off tax and shipping as needed when I discuss the costs with my wife :p. It's just easier that way.

Otherwise I don't bother.
 
Interesting thoughts, but when I buy a uke, it is worth what I pay, to me. :)

On occasion when I tally up how much I've spent on them, just to compare to how much other people spend on their hobby, I just take a rough costing of the uke price itself. ;)

What I have spent on them could have been spent elsewhere, I gave up smoking & drinking a long time ago now, & I don't have holidays, so just imagine how much other people spend on those, & then compare that to what you have spent on your ukes. :D

I'm also spending on harmonicas, but it is money that would have gone elsewhere, if I hadn't given up those habits. :cheers:
 
Interesting thoughts, but when I buy a uke, it is worth what I pay, to me. :)

On occasion when I tally up how much I've spent on them, just to compare to how much other people spend on their hobby, I just take a rough costing of the uke price itself. ;)

What I have spent on them could have been spent elsewhere, I gave up smoking & drinking a long time ago now, & I don't have holidays, so just imagine how much other people spend on those, & then compare that to what you have spent on your ukes. :D

I'm also spending on harmonicas, but it is money that would have gone elsewhere, if I hadn't given up those habits. :cheers:

Right! I'm amazed at what people spend on drinks, cigarettes, and coffee. All that money goes into my ukuleles.
 
...momentum towards happiness.

Different strokes for different folks.

I've always kept meticulous records for cars and anything else that I could. I can look back and see what mileage my 1962 MG or 1965 Ford was getting. Yes, that makes me happy. :p

I made up a table in a word processor with date, cost, seller, etc., for my ukes. I don't look on it as a chore.
 
A while back, I started keeping an expansive spreadsheet, with detailed specs of all the uke models I had tried along the way. My wife saw it, and commented that I must have OCD. I told her "no honey, I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are all ordered alphabetically, as they should be." :D
 
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...I made up a table in a word processor with date, cost, seller, etc., for my ukes. I don't look on it as a chore.

You'd be better served to use a spreadsheet like Excel or one of the many others...

Not only do you get nice tables to line up your numbers in columns and rows, but you can use simple formulas to add tax, shipping, etc, as well as total each column or row, and it all updates automatically as per the formula you put in when you add items later.

Formulas are not hard, i.e. you have a row that has price paid, tax, shipping, in the 1st 3 columns...

and the forumula would look like

=SUM(1-3)

in the 4th column of that row....to give you the total

Lots of tutirials on YT for more help.

I do not use ANY Microsoft products and instead use LibreOffice, which is perfectly fine for my needs and it runs on Mac/Linux/Windows so I am not tied forever to any operating system or a bad software company.
 
You'd be better served to use a spreadsheet like Excel or one of the many others...

Not only do you get nice tables to line up your numbers in columns and rows, but you can use simple formulas to add tax, shipping, etc, as well as total each column or row, and it all updates automatically as per the formula you put in when you add items later.

Formulas are not hard, i.e. you have a row that has price paid, tax, shipping, in the 1st 3 columns...

and the forumula would look like

=SUM(1-3)

in the 4th column of that row....to give you the total

Lots of tutirials on YT for more help.

I do not use ANY Microsoft products and instead use LibreOffice, which is perfectly fine for my needs and it runs on Mac/Linux/Windows so I am not tied forever to any operating system or a bad software company.

Good idea. I've used spreadsheets before. Remember Lotus 1-2-3? :)
 
I have been agonizing over additional cost such as shipping, taxes, or a nicer case. But once a uke arrives, I am so happy with it that it simply doesn't matter if it cost a few bucks more or less. It was worth it to me, and that's that.
 
I tried to tally up but then looking at the numbers makes me sweat and feel guilty. As long as I am happy with the uke, it is worth the price, even if it means I have to put up extra to set it up right, change strings or to fix it. When I am selling the uke, the initial up front total cost means very little, the buyer will only pay what he/she thinks it's worth, and the market price at that time. Buyers don't care how much I paid for shipping initially, they all want free shipping to them, INSURED.
So I just relaxe and enjoy.
 
A while back, I started keeping a detailed spreadsheet, with detailed specs of all the uke models I had tried along the way. My wife saw it, and commented that I must have OCD. I told her "no honey, I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are all ordered alphabetically, as they should be." :D

Lol! When I use this line, I'm going to pretend I just thought of it.
 
Good idea. I've used spreadsheets before. Remember Lotus 1-2-3? :)

Yep. Seems like ages ago, and it was. I am a dinosaur in computer years Ha ha!

Harvard Graphics, WordPerfect, ccMail, VisiCalc, MultiMate, Autodesk Animator...and so many others...

Luckily for dosbox I can still play Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Jazz Jackrabbit and Lemmings ...even in 2018 :)

sorry for the digression
 
how many ukes do you all have that you need SPREADSHEETS to keep track of the prices :rofl:
 
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