A few years ago, I was moving to a new area with my girlfriend (now my wife), so we went around the letting agents in the town centre looking for somewhere to live. We walked into one letting agent and said that we were moving into the area and were looking for a 3 bedroom place.

The first question, as is the case with every letting agent, was “how much do you want to spend?” I said “well as little as possible” (obviously).

Why would I “want” to spend any amount? Why would spending a particular amount be one of my requirements? What would happen if there was somewhere we liked that was considerably less than the amount we “wanted to spend”? Would we turn it down?

Read more: Why I don't understand the standard human buying process