Do I Really Need to Buy This?

I just spent $175 at the grocery store. I hardly even spend over $100 usually, but today I managed to spend $175. Granted I had quite a few items such as dish washing liquid and laundry detergent push that figure higher, but there were a few groceries that scooted under the radar and turned out to be a lot more than I had thought.

I’ve always been able to go into a grocery store and get most of the things I need without worry of price. However, with the price of oil pushing grocery prices into the stratosphere, it’s time for me to start measuring the amount of utility I get from items against the cost.

A bag of Ruffle’s potato chips that used to always be $2.99 or under cost me $3.78 today. Now, I never eat all of the chips. I grab for the bag about two times and I eat a third of the bag each time. On average, about a third of the chips get thrown away.  So I paid about $1.89 for each serving of chips. Wow! That’s a lot.

Now to some of you, it may be worth it. You may think it’s fine to pay almost $2 for each serving of chips. Ruffle’s just aren’t worth that much to me though. I never eat the entire bag. I should have realized this in the store and put them back. Cookies? I probably don’t need them either at almost $6 a pack. Is milk worth almost $4 a gallon? To me it is. So I will still buy it. It’s time to rethink the things you purchase and see if you really need them. Who knows, it may make a difference around your belt as well as it does your wallet.