The Price Is Not the Cost

Money that waits · Page 1 of 2

Name Date
DIRECTIONS: The label says what it costs to GET. Work out what it costs to HAVE.
What it isThe priceWhat else it needsSo what does it really cost?
1. A bike$130a lock, lights, a helmet, and a puncture repair kit
2. A hamster$25a cage, bedding every week, food, and a vet if it gets ill
3. A game with things to buy in itfreeeverything in it
4. A phone$200the monthly bill, a case, and a screen that cracks
Look at number 3 again. Free to get, not free to keep: no single moment where you decide, just forty small ones nobody adds up. It is designed that way.

The Price Is Not the Cost — Per Use

Money that waits · Page 2 of 2

DIRECTIONS: Work out the cost per use.
Cost per use = the price ÷ how many times you will use it. Boots at $80 worn three hundred times cost about 27 cents a wear. Boots at $30 worn ten times before they fall apart cost $3 a wear — eleven times as much, from the cheaper pair.
  1. A $24 book you read once, against a $24 game you play sixty times. Cost per use of each?
  2. When is the cheap one really the better buy? Give a case where $30 boots beat $80 ones.
  3. The sum only works if you can guess how many times. Which of these could you guess well, and which not: a raincoat · a fancy dress costume · a football?
  4. Pick something you own and actually use a lot. Work out roughly what it cost per use — and say whether that surprises you.