English

Alternative forms

• have one's money's worth

Verb

get one's money's worth

1. (business) In a transaction, to receive a good or service which is considered to be of a value equal to or greater than the amount of money expended.
   • 1857, Maria Edgeworth, “The Will” in Tales and Novels: Volume II:

     Goodenough's partizans, however, observed that he got his money's worth out of every man he employed; and that this was the way to grow rich.

   • 1905, E. Phillips Oppenheim, A Maker of History, ch. 7:

     They pay fancy prices for what they have, but I think they get their money's worth.

   • 1917, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, ch. 5:

     I go to fortune tellers nearly every day. But then all the girls do. You get your money's worth in excitement and hope, whether there's anything in it or not.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) To derive satisfaction from an experience or occurrence; to have one's expectations or hopes fulfilled.
   • 1965, "Two for the Show," Time, 10 Dec.:

     Determined to milk as much benefit as possible from U.S. antiwar demonstrations, the Viet Cong last week freed two G.I.s. . . . The Viet Cong seemed to get their money's worth almost immediately. Seated on either side of a Viet Cong spokesman at a press conference in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the two Americans sharply denounced U.S. involvement in the war, praised their captors, and pledged to quit the Army to lead peace demonstrations.

Translations

See also

• you get what you pay for