In Betty Smith’s 1943 novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (which I highly recommend), the impoverished protagonist feels rich when she pours the last bit of coffee in her cup down the sink — after all, only a wealthy person would waste such a precious commodity that way.
Similarly, some people don’t mind spending more money on things if it makes them feel elite or extravagant to do so.
Even us commoners, though (the great washed-and-unwashed middle class) sometimes think we are being practical by spending more for an item of ostensibly higher quality (saving money in the long run), but that is not always the case.
For example, someone purchasing petrol (buying gas) for their horseless carriage (car) may be of the opinion that those who buy the “regular” (lowest-priced) fuel are being “penny wise and pound foolish” — paying less today, but more tomorrow because of the lower quality. But is that always so?
I googled whether it was cost-effective (meaning in the long run, obviously) to purchase premium (“Hi-test”) fuel for my buggy, and the first result was:
…any fuel efficiency gained using premium fuel would stem from engine performance, not the gas itself. Buying premium gas won't have you visiting a gas [less often]
So you don’t save on the cost of gas itself, as your mileage doesn’t improve with the quality of the stenchy fluid (which if it were true, would reduce the cost per mile). But what about performance, or whether it’s good for your car to be fed the fancy liquid? The second result said:
In most cases, the difference in performance is small and something you may not notice during normal driving. If the car is designed for regular gas — or doesn't specifically say that the car requires premium gas — go with regular. There are no benefits to putting premium gas in a car that doesn't need it.
So, I patted myself on the back for having been a cheapskate all my life. And I did the math: My car (a Toyota Prius V) has 125,000 miles on it. A conservative estimate of the gas mileage I get is 40 mpg; it’s probably more like 42 or 43, but I’ll stick with 40.
So, I have purchased approximately 3,125 gallons of gas for this car, as 125,000 divided by 40 = 3,125.
The price of gas is constantly changing, so I can’t give a super-accurate estimate of how much I’ve saved by opting for the lower-grade fuel for those 3,125 gallons, but going by today’s price (May 3, 2024, in Monterey, California):
…I saved 30 cents per gallon (as there’s a 30 cent per gallon difference between “regular” Unleaded and Premium). Therefore, I’ve saved around $937.50 by being a skinflint rather than a spendthrift.
So I saved enough dough by “slumming it” with regular unleaded to treat myself to a Schecter Stiletto bass — with maybe a couple of bucks left over (had I socked the savings away)!
If you’re a geezer and had saved money this way all your life, you could probably pay off Liechtenstein’s national debt with what you stashed away. Or you could spend your booty some other way; after all, I think Liechtenstein can take care of itself.
YMMV. Or rather than your mileage, your savings may (will) vary, depending on how much you drive and your vehicle’s fuel [in]efficiency (the more of a gas hog it is, the more you will save, because you will be pumping more gallons down your vehicle’s gullet).
In fact, the almost $1,000 I’ve saved in the last eight years is a tiny fraction of what I haved saved in my entire 50 years of driving, during most of which I usually drove more miles per annum (during my working years) and got less MPG than I currently do (typically around 20 instead of 40). By opting for the less expensive type of gas, I may have saved myself as much as $24,000 or so in today’s dollars over the course of my motoring existence (based on $1,000 X 6 X 2 X 2 = 24 — the multiplier six being the number of years [8 X 6 = 48], the first two the doubled miles, and the second two the dramatically worse MPG).
Getting back to "the price of gas is constantly changing," a feature in Mad Magazine called “Things You'll Never See” (or something like that) once showed a gas station owner rushing out to lower the price of his product as soon as his own price for it dropped, and being in such a hurry to do so that he tripped and broke his leg. The corollary (“Things You'll Always See”) shows the same gent breaking his leg rushing out to increase the price when his price to purchase the fuel had gone up.
So, do you want those extra bucks in your pockets, or in the coffers of the oilmongers (who wouldn’t want this post to be read because it could cost them millions of dollars per year)?