Sweat the Small Stuff

Each item in your house has a given lifespan:

Furnaces - 20 years
Water heaters - 12 years
Major appliances - 10 years
Kettles - 7 years
CFL lightbulbs - 6 years
Jeans - 3 to 5 years
Socks - 2 years
Cleaning supplies - 1 year
Regular light bulbs - 6 months
Handsoap - 4 weeks
Milk/eggs - 2 weeks
Bread - 1 week

Despite the significant differences in the amount of time we'll spend consuming or using our purchases, we usually apply an even importance. How many spur of the moment purchases do we still use after several years? (think clothes) On the flip side, how long did we spend contemplating purchases that only cost a few dollars and were consumed in minutes? (think food)

This is OK if done in the right way.

It's much easier to consistently overspend on small purchases than larger, more significant ones. If we think about what we buy regularly, we can come up with more valuable alternatives. For example, I used to spend and extra dollar for Omega-3 eggs that I bought every two weeks. That's an extra $500 in future dollars over the lifespan of my furnace for the health benefit equivalent of $30 of flax seed oil.

Used several times a day, bars of soap last only a few weeks before they become gross, so why pay continually for luxury brand soap? We can alternate with cheaper brands and then use our regular luxury brand with renewed interest.

Unless we get significant, conscious enjoyment of the small, pricey purchases (for me, it's avocadoes), we can save much more on the little stuff.