I am studying for my finance exam next Tuesday. It has me thinking about money all day long. The test will focus on forecasting and investment analysis. While I doing the forecasting for a fake company this morning, I suddenly thought, "how much does my breakfast cost?"
Caitlin and I eat oatmeal with frozen blueberries and almonds nearly every morning. With the question at hand, we figured out that we can eat oatmeal 60 times in three months at a total cost of about $0.25 per bowl. That is really cheap. Seriously - $0.20 for a huge bowl of delicious, filling oatmeal?
That got me thinking - how can I justify a $5 Taco Bell lunch expenditure when the cost of a bowl of oatmeal is only $0.25? Was the value of a Taco Bell lunch nearly 20x greater to me than that of the oatmeal? I know there is a need for variety in life, but does that constitute the 20x increase in price? Am I crazy?
I pondered on that for about two seconds, but the answer was clear. Yes, Taco Bell (or Burger King for that matter) is worth 20x more to me than the oatmeal. A 20oz Mountain Dew is also worth more to me than five bowls of oatmeal. I love those two products so much.
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2 comments:
Never much liked the oatmeal, but props for adding the almonds.
Did your calculations for the total cost of eating oatmeal include the time involved making it? That's always been a factor for me in justifying certain expenditures. For example, I can spend an hour or two doing the laundry myself and potentially lose out on the amount of money I could be earning in that time, or, I could just pay someone to do it for me. If the cost of paying someone is less than what I would make in the same amount of time, then it is justified. Your time has to have some value on it. So, the convenience of having someone else at Taco Bell make your food is completely justifiable. Also, you're helping the economy. Your bigger concern is whether the nutritional content (or lack thereof) is justifiable!
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