A bargain?

I had to get gas for the car last night on my way home. In order to save those precious dollars, I try my best to run out of gas in front of the Kroger gas station so I can save an additional 10 cents a gallon with my Kroger card (with about a 10 gallon tank I save about a buck every time I fill up). As I cruised into an open spot I was overjoyed when I saw that unleaded gasoline was selling for ONLY $2.37 a gallon so I was going to get it for the BARGAIN price of $2.27!

But as I was pumping the gas and reveling in my awesome deal on fuel, reality set in... I can remember a time not very long ago that $2.27 was a ridiculous amount to pay for a single gallon of gas. But when the prices were cruising up well over the $4.00 mark a few weeks ago it makes you feel like you're getting an awesome deal when they bring it back down to $2.27. How easily my simple mind can be fooled!! (Oh and I noticed tonight that the QT by our house has gas set at $2.26 without the use of a Kroger discount card in case you'd like to rush out and take advantage of such a great gas bargain!)

I guess the principle the gas price setter people use (who ever they are and however they make their choices) could be applied other places in my life: parent with the bar set as high as possible and then lower it to a more realistic place so it will seem easy for Kate to obey because I'm not asking near as much at the end; make myself workout three times a day for a week and then just once a day to make exercising so much easier to fit into my schedule; keep my house totally spin and span for a month and then ease up so it will be simpler to keep things in order; etc.

In some ways I guess that logic makes perfect sense and would seem to be an effective way to accomplish goals, but in other ways it seems overly extreme and sort of unfair to Kate, me, and all those drivers out there who have been tricked into thinking $2.27 a gallon for gas is a bargain! Your thoughts?