Petrol
My father in law will happily drive an extra 5 miles to a garage just so he can pay 1p less per litre than the garage closest to his home. Given that cars do around 9 miles per litre he's spending a lot more on petrol to drive to the garage than he is saving. But it's ok because he is getting a cheaper price.

This is the same man who will buy dozens of packets of toilet paper or toothpaste when there is a 2 for 1 offer or equivalent. I haven't worked out the opportunity cost of having all your money tied up in toilet paper but I'm pretty sure it's not that big a saving. Mind you, when he does the same for offers on beer or wine I always help him drink it.
(Smale is stuffed, Wed 25 Jun 2014, 11:54, 6 replies)

At 9 miles per litre he's still saving 15p on a 60 litre tank of fuel after travelling 5 miles.
10 miles would be a false economy but not 5 - he breaks even at six and three quarter miles.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Wed 25 Jun 2014, 12:31, closed)

Are you sure?
If he saves 60p on a full tank but it costs him more than half a litre to get there and back, and a litre costs him GBP 1.30, then he's out of pocket. Or is my petrol pricing completely wrong?
(Smale is stuffed, Wed 25 Jun 2014, 14:35, closed)

oh yeah
was never much good a maths
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Wed 25 Jun 2014, 14:52, closed)

I remember my dad doing this when I was a kid, too. It used to infuriate me, because I did the calculations and thought there was no point. He'd also work out the fuel economy of the car to two decimal places, using the formula (miles/litres)x 4.546; not 4.5, but 4.546. I remember trying to tell him about evaporation, errors in measurement of the pump, engine efficiency and so on meaning that you can't get a great degree of accuracy, but he was having none of it. I remember one week, the car had done 40.17 mpg instead of 40.21 or something and he was furious.
(Sutcliffe's Ball Pein, Wed 25 Jun 2014, 17:15, closed)

Unless the price halves 2 for one is cheaper in the long run.
So unless the few quid spent on bog roll would earn lots of interest in your savings account then taking advantage of low prices of non-perishable goods is a perfectly good strategy.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 26 Jun 2014, 12:56, closed)

I know, intellectually it's the right thing to do
but then I think, do I want to live in a house where every cupboard is stuffed with packets of toilet roll, kitchen towel and toothpaste?
(Smale is stuffed, Thu 26 Jun 2014, 16:20, closed)