I have a trick to determine whether I’ll get my money’s worth from a splurge item called CPW or Cost Per Wear. It’s quite simple and very effective in helping me decide if spending $900 on a pair of shoes that I feel I can’t live without is even worth the splurge. Here’s how it works. If your splurge item is a pair of shoes for $900, you first want to imagine how many times you’d wear the shoes. Be honest with this part so you’ll get an accurate CPW.
If the shoes have a super high heel that you’ll only wear “occasionally”, they may not be worth the splurge but, if you can dress the shoes up or down with jeans and wear them multiple times, you’ll get more wear out of them. If you can think of 6 times you’ll wear the shoes then your CPW will only be $150.
I also like to think in terms of “looks” when determining CPW. When I see a $900 pair of shoes I want, I try to think of 6 different looks for the shoes to determine the CPW. If I can’t think of 6 looks, I won’t buy the shoes. The more you wear the shoes, the lower your CPW and suddenly spending $900 for a pair of shoes doesn’t seem so bad.
