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Dont think of price, think of cost per use

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Re: Dont think of price, think of cost per use

#181

Post by rufus_foreman »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #88

Here is another take, when I compare two things on price, I take the price difference and apply 5% compound interest on it for 30 years. That about how much I would save if I put the money on my mortgage instead. Or when the mortgage was paid off how much it would earn in my retirement savings. Also, now I have two kids, I always think how much its going to cost my kids. Sure I could buy a $1000 phone now, or I could…

I would have hated for my parents to not buy something so that they could leave me money. I mean not that they had that problem, they died pretty much broke, but still. They taught me how to make my own money.

Re: Dont think of price, think of cost per use

#182

Post by pneumatic1 »

lopis wrote: post #117
pneumatic1 wrote: post #111

I mostly use this for after-purchase evaluation. If I spend $80 on a pair of shoes and at the end of their life they’ve cost $10 per use, I’m not happy. If I spend $500 on a couch and by the end of its life it’s cost $0.25 per day, I’m pleased. I don’t decide beforehand exactly what value I expect to get out of it, but I know it when I see it.

You're pleased with 2000 uses for a couch? Imagine paying 25 cents each time you sit on the couch.

Yes I do imagine that.

Re: Dont think of price, think of cost per use

#183

Post by nextlevelwizard »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #169
nextlevelwizard wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I personally pay less than $400 a phone and keep it for over three years. Paying $1000 for a phone just two years is not an improvement. Either you aren't using your phone much or you are needlessly suffering with inferior product. Wearing cheap shoes for years when you could afford comfortable high quality shoes is not a virtue. Same goes with tools we use.

Have you considered that other people have different needs than you? My last phone (Nokia 640) cost about $200 and I kept it for 6 years. My current Samsung A12 is better in every respect and cost about $170 through AT&T. I'll probably keep it at least 5 years. I honestly can't imagine what usable benefit a $1,000 phone would provide.

Yes, you can also walk bare feet, but that doen't make you any more virtuous. How did you invest that $900 you so diligently saved?

>I honestly can't imagine what usable benefit a $1,000 phone would provide.

unless you never leave your house you lack imagination pretty hard. how about just having 5G speeds for internet? what about actually quality camera? how about any of the millions of interactions a modern smartphone allows? yeah you (probably) can do most of thaty shit with old phone, but you thats like using 6 year old computer

Re: Dont think of price, think of cost per use

#184

Post by OJFord »

robocat wrote: post #157
OJFord wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A trip to my parents and back is ~$180 by Uber - I go more than once a week so that would be way more than $10k per year. So you do the 'cost per use' calculation, and probably you find that car ownership is a better deal than a taxi? Nobody's saying it's a way of showing a purchase is always wrong! > And an Uber doesn’t come with a tow ball: I often use a trailer out there or back (I mentioned firewood, but also d…

It feels like you are pushing a political agenda. It seems to me that you are not responding in good faith. > tows, but you could hire a car for the weekend. I already commented “hiring a car instead, which is ridiculously more expensive and extremely inconvenient (at least where I live).”. I gave examples where hiring a car doesn’t make sense (urgency, emergency, optionality). There is no local car hire, so getting…

> I use my T-shirt for 16 hours a day, so I should pay thousands for the perfect T-shirt?

Not if it (as it won't) doesn't make it correspondingly better, but I think it is a good example, because yes, if you're anything like me we probably shouldn't balk at the price of basic clothes so much given their utility.

I think the times I've most successfully applied this line of thinking was to cutlery, and to bedding.

Re: Dont think of price, think of cost per use

#185

Post by robocat »

OJFord wrote: post #184
robocat wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like you are pushing a political agenda. It seems to me that you are not responding in good faith. > tows, but you could hire a car for the weekend. I already commented “hiring a car instead, which is ridiculously more expensive and extremely inconvenient (at least where I live).”. I gave examples where hiring a car doesn’t make sense (urgency, emergency, optionality). There is no local car hire, so getting…

> I use my T-shirt for 16 hours a day, so I should pay thousands for the perfect T-shirt? Not if it (as it won't) doesn't make it correspondingly better, but I think it is a good example, because yes, if you're anything like me we probably shouldn't balk at the price of basic clothes so much given their utility. I think the times I've most successfully applied this line of thinking was to cutlery, and to bedding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility
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