What Have You Calculated?

[ChetMC]

What have you calculated the cost of? I'm thinking of things like :

- the cost of doing a load of laundry.
- the cost of washing a load of dishes.
- the annual cost of car ownership including parking, insurance, maintenance, etc, or the cost per mile or km.
- the cost to cook a particular meal or make a food item like a loaf of bread.
- the amount of money a particular lifestyle choice has cost you or saved you.

When we started cloth diapering I calculated that it cost $1 to wash and dry a load of diapers. From that, I extrapolated that we will save a minimum of $5000 cloth diapering four kids. That number is low though, because we've since moved to an area with much cheaper utilities, I didn't account for the fact that I was sheets and towels with the diapers (so that has us getting clean sheets and towels for free), and that I'll also be able to sell some of my diapers when I'm done.

[zebra15]

Right now I'm trying to calculate the 'cost' of staying with a roommate or finding my own place. I have a just turned 10 yr old DS and while the roommate looks cheaper on paper its not. Said roommate is a slob LOL.

My credit is horrible and I dont have a full time job so looking for my own place is difficult as well. Both options have 'costs'. One is financial and one is emotional.

[A&A]

How exactly would you figure out the cost of doing a load of laundry? Wouldn't that also involve the price of the machine divided by how many loads you do over its lifetime, which you won't know until it dies?

[ChetMC]

Originally Posted by A&A

How exactly would you figure out the cost of doing a load of laundry? Wouldn't that also involve the price of the machine divided by how many loads you do over its lifetime, which you won't know until it dies?

I did not include the cost of the washer and dryer. My thinking was that we already bought the machines, and I wanted to figure out how much extra water, electricity and detergent we would use by adding cloth diapers to our regular laundry.

However, the machines that we bought are supposedly built to last twenty five years. One load of laundry a day, over twenty five years would come out to something like $0.50 per load to wash and dry. My current estimate is quite high though... so in the end it probably comes out somewhat less than $1.50 per load.

[dagny.galt]

I once calculated that it costs me $.19 to brew a gallon of mildly sweetened tea. This is sun tea and/or tea made with very hot tap water started after the dishwasher kicks on (so it's pre-heated, thus no water waste) using one family-sized bag and a generous 1/4 c. of sugar.

I calculated this to point out the insanity (or at least non-frugality & stupidity) of buying Coke or other colas to feed a caffeine habit when strapped for cash.

[texmati]

just this weekend i calculated the cost recuperation time for dh to replace our kitchen lights with energy efficient fixtures.