cost of item vs hours worked for it

joeblags

does any body else think this way? I find now I save a lot more buy thinking , hang on, this item costs £ 15. that's one hours wage for 1 item I don't even really need. might not seem a massive deal over 1 item but when I apply it to everything I look at buying it saves me hundreds a year

MadMat

I use a similar mental process, I ask myself "do I want to sit in my taxi for XX hours to pay for that"

My wife however doesn't seem to care how long I have to sit in the taxi . . . . .

Mat

colsten

I think a lot like that when assessing whether chasing a switching bonus or cashback is worth my while, and when comparing interest rates.

HappyMJ

joeblags wrote: »

does any body else think this way? I find now I save a lot more buy thinking , hang on, this item costs £ 15. that's one hours wage for 1 item I don't even really need. might not seem a massive deal over 1 item but when I apply it to everything I look at buying it saves me hundreds a year

I look at from entertainment value.

If something costs £15 and you wear it once before it gets binned then it's not good value but if you wear it 50 times over a year or two then it is good value at 30 pence per wearing.

Shoes tend to fall in this category quite regularly with me as they seem to wear out much quicker than any other clothing item I own. I only own a couple of pairs of shoes so most of the time I use just the one pair every day and they last about 3 months and cost £40 at 45 pence per day. Is that good value or not?

bowlhead99

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/72745-the-reason-that-the-rich-were-so-rich-vimes-reasoned

nb73

This is also the key message of the book "your money or your life"

BananaRepublic

These days it is so easy to think you need something because there is hype online. Or an amazon add follows you around as you browse. I think about what happens after I buy it. And if I conclude that it will not bring much benefit, I forget about it. So many people buy a new car, and change it after 2 or 3 years. I kept my last car 10 years, until it failed the MOT and was unrepairable. I've had my current car 4 years. I'd love to buy a new one, but I know that after a few days or weeks the thrill of the purchase will be over.

By the way, some rich people get rich because they are cold blooded when it comes to negotiating, be that a contract with a customer, or a contract with an employee.

badger09

colsten wrote: »

I think a lot like that when assessing whether chasing a switching bonus or cashback is worth my while, and when comparing interest rates.

Me too.

Despite having my 'main' account with Co-operative Bank for over 40 years, and already meeting the monthly funding & log in requirements, I decided I simply CBA chasing another £4 per month:o

joeblags wrote: »

does any body else think this way? I find now I save a lot more buy thinking , hang on, this item costs £ 15. that's one hours wage for 1 item I don't even really need. might not seem a massive deal over 1 item but when I apply it to everything I look at buying it saves me hundreds a year

Having taken early retirement almost 10 years ago (10 years :eek::eek::eek:) I have no 'how many hours do I need to work for this' measure.

Instead, I now think 'if I don't buy this for myself/spend this £xxx now, and die soon - how will my son spend it?'

That is usually enough encouragement to go ahead and treat myself :rotfl::T

dktreesea

BananaRepublic wrote: »

These days it is so easy to think you need something because there is hype online. Or an amazon add follows you around as you browse. I think about what happens after I buy it. And if I conclude that it will not bring much benefit, I forget about it. So many people buy a new car, and change it after 2 or 3 years. I kept my last car 10 years, until it failed the MOT and was unrepairable. I've had my current car 4 years. I'd love to buy a new one, but I know that after a few days or weeks the thrill of the purchase will be over.

By the way, some rich people get rich because they are cold blooded when it comes to negotiating, be that a contract with a customer, or a contract with an employee.

We bought our car second hand. It's still valued higher on Glass auto valuations than when we bought it, at auction, three years on. So little or no depreciation. Possibly none, because we have done a few things to it, like given it a set of all weather tyres and changed the turbo.


I wouldn't like to pay for a new car. ( A company car would be nice though ) We drive around 30,000 miles a year. Even if it only dropped 20% (just over £30k to replace ours so £6k a year) in the first year, that's still 20p a mile without any diesel/on the road costs. Our car, on a long mostly motorway journey, does 650 miles to the tank. Having a new car to depreciate would treble the cost of the journey. I'd feel every hundred yards of it, let alone every mile.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

£15, wow, that's 5 pints of lager. :beer:

[Deleted User]

joeblags wrote: »

does any body else think this way?

Yes every time drivers whinge about the cost of motoring. Not so very long ago travelling 100 miles would have cost a week's lost wages and a week's food & accommodation, now you can drive it for the price of an hour or two's labour.