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Two recent experiences have taught me the lesson that you should always check the per-unit price:

Light Bulbs

I was in the store to buy light bulbs. There was a pack of normal light bulbs, and there was a pack of double-life light bulbs.

The double-life light bulbs are supposed to last twice as long as normal light bulbs. At least that’s what the packaging said.

I was tempted to buy them, because then I would have to change (and therefore buy) light bulbs half as often.

Then I noticed the price – they cost more than double the regular bulbs.

So I could spend $2.48 twice or $5.48 once for the same amount of light-years.
(what? that measurement is already taken? How about light-hours? Okay.)

I went with two packs of the normal bulbs.

“New and improved” might mean a price hike.

“Chocolate” Syrup

Yes, I added those quotes on purpose. The syrup has “real chocolate flavor” not necessarily “real chocolate”, so I feel those quotes are appropriate.

My kids are going through a chocolate syrup phase right now, probably similar to the Nestle Quik phase that my side of the family went through about a dozen years ago.

At the grocery store, I reached for the larger container of Hershey’s syrup. For some reason I felt like looking at the price. And I compared the per-ounce price to the smaller container. The smaller bottle had a better price.

The large one (48 oz.) was $3.79 and the smaller one (24 oz.) was $1.75.

“Buy in bulk and save” might not apply to whatever you’re buying.

All in all, I saved about 81 cents on those two items by buying the smaller or worse item. If I were paid by the hour, that probably would not have been worth my time to stop and do the comparisons.

Every little bit helps, I suppose. But there has to be a point at which it’s not worth it.

What’s a good threshold for saying “ah, skip it” and just buying an item without comparing prices (either within the store or between stores)?