Cheap things have a way of asking for the rest of their price later, quietly, when you can least afford it.

The thought behind it

It publishes a price that usually goes unquoted — not to frighten you, but so the trade can be made knowingly. It sits in Money Mind because it treats spending as a symptom, and symptoms are worth reading before they are treated. “cheap” is doing the work: it is where the line stops describing you and starts asking something.