Prix Fixe! Peace of mind

I like the peace of mind afforded by knowing to the last decimal digit how much something is going to cost me in future.

For example, even after a vast majority of the cellphone data plan world had moved off the fixed price, unlimited data plan model, I used to pay $30 a month for "unlimited" which, effectively, 22GB of data at LTE speeds followed by slower speed data if the network so demanded. My monthly cell phone budget was ~72$/month.

Similarly, Comcast was $90/month.
Recurring donation to ACLU was $30/month.
My VPS costs $30/month. No per second billing nonsense for me!

I used to hate (still do), having variable costs in my budget.

A recent book on neurology, The Tell-Tale Brain by VS Ramachandran, makes me wonder if the desire for an orderly, regimented budget has neurological underpinnings.

Can this be exploited by marketing and sales people? "Pay $X a month for this great service! We'll true up at year end!"

(Our income taxes are structured like this. You pay first, seek redress later. In all fairness though, since salaries are basically fixed, our income taxes are also fixed so there's little variability in how much tax we'd have to pay if we had to personally pay them every month rather than having them deducted at source.)

Some religious orders prescribe fixed, highly structured days to free the mind from worrying about the minutiae of every day life. You find yourself inside order and then seek disorder.

Some tourists and travelers just can't abide the chaos and disorder of most Asian cities.

So, the larger point being made is that not everyone wants to eat a la carte. Some people like the artificial limits of a prix fixe or buffet menus.