La Vie En Rose for 2004 August 12

Ever since Sumana's entry I've been thinking about cost-per-wear a lot. I must admit I've previously been advised to figure one dollar per wear when shopping, and had dismissed the idea as ludicrous. A dollar per wear? That means you're paying, like $5 every time you get dressed! Who has that kind of money? Not me! But then I realized... how many $20 items of clothing do I have that I've only worn a handful of times? Shame! Shame! I'd like to think that the many items I got on sale for $7 and have worn more times than I can count sorta even it out.

I do think $1 per wear is too much. I'd rather pay, say, 20 cents. But it's handy. How many times would I have to wear a $30 jacket to make it worth buying? All that math turns me off to shopping.

Still, it's easy to see that a pair of Birkenstocks to be worn at least 1,000 times is well worth $115. And a $250 iPod mini used twice, three, four times a day for who knows how many years? It's practically free!!!