Saving: Not Always About Unit Price

Whenever we go grocery shopping, we’re always sure to take a look at the unit price of a particular item to make sure we’re getting the most for our money. What this usually, but not always, results in is that we buy more of a product in order to secure the lower price and usually, but not always, this is no big deal. The only time that the unit price concept fails is when you start talking about quickly perishable goods. See, when you buy a 2 lb. bag of sugar (or whatever size that largest bag is), it doesn’t matter how long you keep it because sugar won’t go bad. If you were to instead buy the large container of cottage cheese or yogurt, then you start inching into the territory of wondering how quickly are going to use it because it will go bad.

So, the frugal thought of the day, which occurred to me (at least to write about it) when I was walking around, of all places, Costco, was that in addition to unit price, you should consider how much of it goes to waste if you don’t use it in time. By that token, we buy a lot of things at a higher unit price but lower amount simply because waste is waste, regardless of its financial impact, and we should try to keep that at a minimum always anyway.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about frugality, maybe hosting the Festival of Frugality put it on the brain or something.