This $30 blazer from Zara, which you wore twice and broke at the seams, and this $200 blazer from Aritzia, which you have worn 50 times. Which one cost you more money?
It is embarrassing and hurtful to calculate this.
Cost-per-wear method is very simple and obvious and requires you to divide price of the product by the number of uses. So that cheap blazer which you have purchased costs you $15 for each wearing, while the other one only four dollars per wear. This ‘bargain’ was never a bargain.
But the thing is that it is not over, and this principle can be applied to the whole inventory of things, although it is introduced to you by your wardrobe. Gadgets for kitchen, accessories, that gym membership which you promised yourself to use all the time – everything that you own has a cost-per-use ratio which you probably never considered.
This situation is especially unpleasant for the people of late twenties and thirties who try to establish careers and lives. You probably own a lot of cheap items that you constantly replace and deplete your wallet for. Those $40 headphones which are dead in half a year. This $15 phone charger which stops working in a few weeks. This pair of trendy sneakers which is worn-out after one rainy commute.
All this is a part of the trap of emotional spending which is disguised as practical choice. You buy cheaper item, thinking that it is more responsible and virtuous action, that you act prudently. But replacement is not the answer; it is expensive, wasteful and exhausting.
Take your work bag for instance. It is highly unlikely that this $30 tote from Target will live more than one season, until handles break or bottom wears out. On the other hand, this $300 leather bag from Coach or Madewell will easily last 10 years of wear if you take good care of it. In 10 years of ownership the cheap bag will cost you $120 if you replace it twice a year. And the expensive bag will cost you $300 when you bought it, then $30 per year and $3 per year, as you and the bag get older.
There are some psychological aspects as well as mathematical in this situation. Once you made investment into the product, you treat it differently. You take care of it, keep it well and use it intentionally. Cheaper products are thrown into the drawer and forgotten, accelerating their journey to the landfill and emptying your wallet.
Surely this is not a recommendation to buy the most expensive version of every item which you use. It would be completely unreasonable and financial suicide. The idea is not to let the sticker price become your main criterion when buying something. $50 item used twice costs you $25, and $200 item used 200 times is dollar bargain.
Try to calculate the cost-per-use of items that you own for one month. Approximation will help you understand all the patterns.
Thanks for reading this post! – MyPlugin