Money experiment · 7 days
Cost-per-use check
Dividing what something cost by how often you use it reveals which purchases were good value and which were not.
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Dividing what something cost by how often you use it reveals which purchases were good value and which were not.
What to do each day
Pick one thing you own and estimate its cost per use so far.
What to notice
- Cheap things that turned out expensive per use.
- Expensive things that turned out good value.
- Items you have barely used.
At the end, ask yourself
- What will you think about before your next bigger purchase?
Lessons behind this
- The true cost: cost per use and total cost of ownership — The price tag is only the beginning. What something costs across its whole life is the real number. (7 min · Practical)
- Cheap, expensive and value-based spending — Cheaper is not always thriftier, and expensive is not always better. Value is personal. (6 min · Practical)
- Designing your personal spending philosophy — A few written principles about what you spend freely on, what you cut, and why. (7 min · Practical)