Daily Spends – A Diary of Spending Habits

Since my little post about the sofa last week I’ve become slightly obsessed with Cost Per Use (CPU).

So every so often I’ll be popping a cheeky little cost per use calculation in the site, just to make me happy.

This week: Shoes

Cost of shoes: £45.00
Expected Lifespan: 6 months
Expected Use: 120 (based on 120 working days during the 6 months)
Expected Milage: 720 miles (I walk 6 miles per working day)
CPU: £0.37 (£45.00/120 working days)
CPM (mile): £0.06 (£45.00/720 miles)

One of my good friend’s (trying2save) favourite cost excercises is the ‘cost per use’. Cost per use allows you to assess the impact of a ‘one off’ purchase by working out how much the item actually costs over the period you use it.

Essentially, cost per use allows you to rationalise a one off purchase such as:

• a sofa
• a pair of shoes
• a new coat
• some aftershave
• shaving foam

We’re all slightly obsessed with cost per use at the daily spending network and it’s something I’m going to spend more time on in future blog posts.

Here’s my first cost per use calculation – for the purchase of a new sofa:

Purchase Price: £545.00 (Easter Sale bargain)
Estimated Life Span: 1825 days (5 years)
Estimated Use Per Day: 20 seperate usages (sit downs of 10 minutes)
Estimated Total Uses: 36500
Estimated Cost Per Use: £0.01 per sit (£0.014)

1 pence per sit – not overly excessive