Every once in a while I like to talk more about the psychological aspect of choosing to be frugal and the way I think through different scenarios involving money. I’ve been living frugally for so long that I forget that not everyone is used to thinking this way. I thought I’d share my thought processes on how to decide whether something is worth buying.

For any item, we’re going to assume it’s a quality we’re happy with and that it fits into the kinds of things you want to be buying. Quality is subjective and you may have different standards for different things, but if the quality is bad or it doesn’t fit in with your personal values and goals, then you should almost never buy the thing.

How to Decide Whether Something is Worth Buying

Cost

You won’t be surprised that in most cases, the number one factor for me is the cost. And I don’t just mean how much it costs overall, but the price per unit. (Toilet paper is the one exception — I don’t do a lot of math there because it’s really confusing to figure out what is cheapest.) Recently I realized I had been buying something at Costco that was much cheaper per ounce on Amazon. The great thing about store apps is that if I’m at one store and I’m not sure it’s the cheapest price, I can look at Amazon, Walmart, and many other stores to compare. If the unit price is much more than many other places, I’m not going to buy it.

Time / distance cost

These aren’t specific costs, but they are a cost of a kind. Time is worth something to me. Maybe this isn’t the best price, but it’s the best price within about 20 miles. Unless I have plans to drive to the place where I can get a better price, it might just be worth it to get it here. This is true of both time but also distance, because driving costs money in the form of gas and wear on my car.

Similarly, going to another store for one item, even if it’s a store that isn’t too far away, might not be worth it. If there are ten items that are cheaper, then I might.

Timing of next sale

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