Add up the time spent in your car and the time working to pay for automotive expenses. Divide that into the number of miles you expect the car to last. It comes out to be about 7 miles per hour. That's before the recent price increase. Now, the number is slower than 7MPH.
Look at it that way and you will see that bicycles are faster than cars for local and semi-local trips.
Great insight for consumers who need to be in the know. It so true for people who work hard to find the discounts and coupons in order to stay within their budgets only to be taken for a ride by the store.
People need to realize it's their money that's being messed with and they need to speak up and exercise thier rights, no matter how small the matter may seem. It's the pinciple of the thing that should matter - as well as the importance of saving your own hard-earned money.
I'm currently in cyber-nomad land myself. It brings its conveniences and struggles, but sure beats having to solve some of the issues we are now solving while showing up at an office every day.
It's often sobering to do the math on things we've taken for granted as basics in our lives. (But yes, your cost per gallon does look a little off.) I've found this practice very enlightening at times. Even if the number isn't as shocking as the example you give, it's eye-opening to know the actual cost of things we own or do. I just figured out that it costs me about $3.30US worth of electricity per month to run our chest freezer. Good to know these things, even if it causes a wince now and then.
...but it's undoubtedly aimed at kids. Give the kids a healthy snack, try to keep them from getting purplish/bluish blueberry stains all over their hands, clothing, etc. - a dubious proposition at best.
I can only ASSUME that this product is being test marketed. Go back in 4-5 months and it won't be there... most likely.
Some convenience packaging makes a great deal of sense - but I don't think that's the case here. And in a subtle way, buying stuff like this teaches kids a bad lesson about value and frugality.
As for the shape... yikes. Someone in the packaging department was having a bit of fun.
When I went full-throttle hypermiling, finding out my cost-per-mile was very important to me. It costs me $0.14 for every mile my car moves, based on gas prices and my Sentra's MPG. That's a sobering fact to me, that just to hit my local grocery store (only 2 miles away, not to rub it in Nora), is about $0.60. It's not a bike-friendly neighborhood, but we find ourselves relying on pedal power more and more often.
My truck gets around 24 mpg on the highway, and I don't know what it gets in the city. Driving at 55mph on the highway, I burn a little more than 2 gallons per hour (because I move 55 miles, 2.2 gallons get used up).
Even though efficiency changes depending on driving habits, that 2 gallons per hour number seemed like a good "floor" for calculating costs. My 30 minute commute to work costs 1 gallon of gas. Two of these combined is 2 gallons of gas. So it costs $8 a day to drive to work.
In contrast, a monthly bus pass costs $62 (in Los Angeles). If I ride the bus to work 8 days, I break even! After that, every bus trip to work saves me $8. I've ridden the bus 12 times this month - because I got the pass late. That means I'm profiting over $30 by riding the bus -- my net transit costs will be $30 less this month, or so.
On top of that, I'm getting more exercise because I have to walk everywhere.
While this sort of packaging is WAY over the top and inane to those who actually THINK about things like that the reality is for another 30 cents worth of Plastic and Paper they can LITERALLY Double what they charge for the product inside.
While you and I find it over the top the manufacturer and the store are both laughing all the way to the bank.
I like Go-Gurt too--I can get the big boxes from Costco, they're super-convenient as a snack at home (yes, I'm too lazy to go dig out a spoon) and on the go (car, etc.), and the portion sizes are smaller. I know plain low-fat yogurt is probably healthier, but it's way less convenient. I don't drink milk so I'm calcium-deficient and any enticement to consume more calcium is a plus. (Go-Gurt is only good when frozen, though. Thawed, it just tastes like cheap kids' yogurt. And yes, I could go buy a tub of yogurt and divide it into small portions to freeze, but who has the time for that hassle?)
I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and I post on relevant blogs.
We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.
We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:
1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 2000 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.
And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide.
We are scratching our heads here and figuring you must mean about $6 per gallon rather than $.40 per gallon--which would be tremendously low, as we are running about $3.29 here in Missouri, USA. I remember seeing $.689 about ten years ago, and that was notable at the time. Anyway, that's something like $.15/mile in gas alone for a car that gets 20-25 mpg. Insurance, maintenance, and wear and tear add still more.
In the US, the IRS has calculated mileage deductions for business to be 58.5 cents per mile for the latter half of this year. This is the price they have calculated it costs to drive one mile, including gas prices, insurance, maintenance, etc. Depending on your car the actual amount is over or under but it's just an example why, if you run your own business, you should ALWAYS keep track of your mileage.
I make a small living as a freelancer, and more than half of my deductions come from mileage (I worked for over a year on a job that required me to drive 74 miles roundtrip daily, and they didn't reimburse me for the gas).
From my experience, blueberries in a container like that would go bad pretty fast. Imagine dumping moldy blueberries into your mouth while cruising on the highway. Not pretty.
I would guess the point of this packaging would be to put it in children's lunches. I haven't seen any advertising for this product but I would guess it would be marketed in that way. Just a thought!
After going through several jaw surgeries, I've really come to appreciate Go-gurt. When you have to suck all of your meals through a tube anyway, it's nice to find one that comes prepackaged.
The label said "Nature's Pantry", although I can't verify which company EXACTLY makes it, as there is certainly more than one Nature's Pantry out there.
I can totally see eating berries in my car - but it seems just as eas to pick them up and put them in my mouth. But I get where they are going with it - even then, it seems like it could have been better designed. :)
Because I bought these darn things so I could take them home and photograph them, I had to go through the checkout stand. The guy who rung me up looked at them and asked me a whole bunch of questions "Are these dried or something? Why are they packaged like that?". I tried to explain that I had no idea and would be blogging about them, but you could tell he didn't believe me.
I, too, saw this product at Safeway recently. Even in the sea of overpackaged food items in our modern grocery stores, Blueberry Blasters somehow managed to stand out. If it weren't so sad, it would be laughable.
Thanks for publicizing it. You've given me the nudge I needed to find out who sells it and give them a little feedback.
ha, that's pretty lame. but i know why they do it -- packages like this are aimed at people eating in their cars. because lifting a spoon of yogurt to your mouth IS difficult when roaring down the highway, late for work. ditto eating out of a box of blueberries without staining your hands and shirt blue.
i'm not saying it's a great idea, i'm just saying where the thought process is. because everyone is late sometimes, and if everyone just ONCE dashes into the market one morning for a porto-breakfast that doesn't require utensils or even perfect aim and decides on a bottle of blueberries, they've made their million. i've noticed with this kind of thing that it doesn't last, though. after the people who are likely to eat expensive road-berries have eaten them a couple of times and lost interest, they'll go back off the market.
until the next thing. willy wonka would make millions with his pill that tastes like a whole meal concept, he just had bad marketing.
Thanks for commenting - I'm actually writing up a post on that very subject, so stay tuned. In the meantime, many of our other bloggers have written extensively on how to shop for and cook cheap meals, so check out the following posts:
What about those of us who have horrible intestinal diseases that leave us in the hospital twice a year if we eat veggies and fruits? Anything with fiber is a no no. What if we don't live in an area where there are fresh markets anyhow? There are no ethnic stores here where I live. What about a $250.00 budget for an entire month for two people? I could afford no more than that, and I'm barely making do with that amount. Please tell me what those of us in this situation can do about feeding ourselves healthy and "Non-American like". What if we don't live within a walks length of a store, and could never even imagine affording to relocate? Any answers from anyone on these matters would honestly be appreciated.
Great post, however I think even if you pay cash it isn't the answer. A lot of can pay $70,000 cash for a BMW that doesn't mean they can easily afford it. If you make $100,000 a year and have $70,000 in cash, a $70,000 car is still way too expensive for you in my opinion. Sure you can afford it, but its roughly your entire year salary after tax. That means night and day you every minute of work you did for an entire year, day in and day out, week after week, went to a car. I think it is crazy. I think the only way to own something without it owning you is if the cost of it is nothing for you. If it is cash you can easily plunk down and not care for. That is why I a never think a thing of seeing high end cars on the road. They have become so common because of all the easy financing options and even many of the people that buy them outright really can't afford them. They are just willing to give up a huge chunk of their income for something that is losing value every single day.
"McCain, in particular is offering 'to replace the current exclusion from income tax for health insurance provided by an employer with a refundable tax credit of $2,500 for singles and $5,000 for family coverage. Unlike the current exclusion, the credit would be available for privately purchased insurance as well as insurance provided by an employer.' That's an extra $5,000 [emphasis added] that your formula didn't address."
So, McCain's plan gives employers an excuse to transfer the cost of health insurance from the employer to the employee, because a husband and wife can receive a $5,000 tax credit? Great!
The average American spends $4,700 a year on health services and pharmaceuticals. Twelve percent of that is siphoned off by the insurance bureaucrats, and 20% is waste because of inefficiencies in treating the uninsured and underinsurred. Is it an extra $5000 income to the taxpayer?
Sounds more like a transfer of wealth from the average working taxpayer to the corporate employers. The way our healthcare system is now is essentially a huge tax levied on people who have insurance or pay their own health care costs. Our healthcare system is broken. We're 24th in quality of healthcare, behind Costa Rica, and pay twice (14%+ of our GDP) what other more civilized first-world countries pay.
It's time for universal, comprehensive, single-payer healthcare for all Americans, and a law putting the private health insurance industry out of business. Pay for it with a tax shared by employers and employees equally, probably around 12% of the GDP. The savings in California alone would be around 8 Billion dollars annually.
Add up the time spent in your car and the time working to pay for automotive expenses. Divide that into the number of miles you expect the car to last. It comes out to be about 7 miles per hour. That's before the recent price increase. Now, the number is slower than 7MPH.
Look at it that way and you will see that bicycles are faster than cars for local and semi-local trips.
Great insight for consumers who need to be in the know. It so true for people who work hard to find the discounts and coupons in order to stay within their budgets only to be taken for a ride by the store.
People need to realize it's their money that's being messed with and they need to speak up and exercise thier rights, no matter how small the matter may seem. It's the pinciple of the thing that should matter - as well as the importance of saving your own hard-earned money.
Thanks for the post!
I'm currently in cyber-nomad land myself. It brings its conveniences and struggles, but sure beats having to solve some of the issues we are now solving while showing up at an office every day.
It's often sobering to do the math on things we've taken for granted as basics in our lives. (But yes, your cost per gallon does look a little off.) I've found this practice very enlightening at times. Even if the number isn't as shocking as the example you give, it's eye-opening to know the actual cost of things we own or do. I just figured out that it costs me about $3.30US worth of electricity per month to run our chest freezer. Good to know these things, even if it causes a wince now and then.
...but it's undoubtedly aimed at kids. Give the kids a healthy snack, try to keep them from getting purplish/bluish blueberry stains all over their hands, clothing, etc. - a dubious proposition at best.
I can only ASSUME that this product is being test marketed. Go back in 4-5 months and it won't be there... most likely.
Some convenience packaging makes a great deal of sense - but I don't think that's the case here. And in a subtle way, buying stuff like this teaches kids a bad lesson about value and frugality.
As for the shape... yikes. Someone in the packaging department was having a bit of fun.
Fun post - thanks.
I love the conclusion - with a little frugality, you can live your dreams. (That's the conclusion I came to, anyway.)
Nice article.
When I went full-throttle hypermiling, finding out my cost-per-mile was very important to me. It costs me $0.14 for every mile my car moves, based on gas prices and my Sentra's MPG. That's a sobering fact to me, that just to hit my local grocery store (only 2 miles away, not to rub it in Nora), is about $0.60. It's not a bike-friendly neighborhood, but we find ourselves relying on pedal power more and more often.
My truck gets around 24 mpg on the highway, and I don't know what it gets in the city. Driving at 55mph on the highway, I burn a little more than 2 gallons per hour (because I move 55 miles, 2.2 gallons get used up).
Even though efficiency changes depending on driving habits, that 2 gallons per hour number seemed like a good "floor" for calculating costs. My 30 minute commute to work costs 1 gallon of gas. Two of these combined is 2 gallons of gas. So it costs $8 a day to drive to work.
In contrast, a monthly bus pass costs $62 (in Los Angeles). If I ride the bus to work 8 days, I break even! After that, every bus trip to work saves me $8. I've ridden the bus 12 times this month - because I got the pass late. That means I'm profiting over $30 by riding the bus -- my net transit costs will be $30 less this month, or so.
On top of that, I'm getting more exercise because I have to walk everywhere.
...."there's a sucker born every minute".
While this sort of packaging is WAY over the top and inane to those who actually THINK about things like that the reality is for another 30 cents worth of Plastic and Paper they can LITERALLY Double what they charge for the product inside.
While you and I find it over the top the manufacturer and the store are both laughing all the way to the bank.
~ Roland
I like Go-Gurt too--I can get the big boxes from Costco, they're super-convenient as a snack at home (yes, I'm too lazy to go dig out a spoon) and on the go (car, etc.), and the portion sizes are smaller. I know plain low-fat yogurt is probably healthier, but it's way less convenient. I don't drink milk so I'm calcium-deficient and any enticement to consume more calcium is a plus. (Go-Gurt is only good when frozen, though. Thawed, it just tastes like cheap kids' yogurt. And yes, I could go buy a tub of yogurt and divide it into small portions to freeze, but who has the time for that hassle?)
I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and I post on relevant blogs.
We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.
We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:
1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 2000 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.
And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide.
We are scratching our heads here and figuring you must mean about $6 per gallon rather than $.40 per gallon--which would be tremendously low, as we are running about $3.29 here in Missouri, USA. I remember seeing $.689 about ten years ago, and that was notable at the time. Anyway, that's something like $.15/mile in gas alone for a car that gets 20-25 mpg. Insurance, maintenance, and wear and tear add still more.
You can see some stats on U.S. gas prices at the Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/info_glance/petroleum.html
You did the conversion backwards. $5.68/gallon, not 40 cents. I'd be dancing in the streets too if gas hit that low, and I don't even own a car!
Aside from the puzzling conversion error, this was an excellent article, and one of the many reasons I love public transportation.
My best WTF? item was Smucker's frozen PB&J sandwiches. How much effort do they take to make?
In the US, the IRS has calculated mileage deductions for business to be 58.5 cents per mile for the latter half of this year. This is the price they have calculated it costs to drive one mile, including gas prices, insurance, maintenance, etc. Depending on your car the actual amount is over or under but it's just an example why, if you run your own business, you should ALWAYS keep track of your mileage.
I make a small living as a freelancer, and more than half of my deductions come from mileage (I worked for over a year on a job that required me to drive 74 miles roundtrip daily, and they didn't reimburse me for the gas).
From my experience, blueberries in a container like that would go bad pretty fast. Imagine dumping moldy blueberries into your mouth while cruising on the highway. Not pretty.
I would guess the point of this packaging would be to put it in children's lunches. I haven't seen any advertising for this product but I would guess it would be marketed in that way. Just a thought!
After going through several jaw surgeries, I've really come to appreciate Go-gurt. When you have to suck all of your meals through a tube anyway, it's nice to find one that comes prepackaged.
The label said "Nature's Pantry", although I can't verify which company EXACTLY makes it, as there is certainly more than one Nature's Pantry out there.
I can totally see eating berries in my car - but it seems just as eas to pick them up and put them in my mouth. But I get where they are going with it - even then, it seems like it could have been better designed. :)
Because I bought these darn things so I could take them home and photograph them, I had to go through the checkout stand. The guy who rung me up looked at them and asked me a whole bunch of questions "Are these dried or something? Why are they packaged like that?". I tried to explain that I had no idea and would be blogging about them, but you could tell he didn't believe me.
Andrea,
I, too, saw this product at Safeway recently. Even in the sea of overpackaged food items in our modern grocery stores, Blueberry Blasters somehow managed to stand out. If it weren't so sad, it would be laughable.
Thanks for publicizing it. You've given me the nudge I needed to find out who sells it and give them a little feedback.
ha, that's pretty lame. but i know why they do it -- packages like this are aimed at people eating in their cars. because lifting a spoon of yogurt to your mouth IS difficult when roaring down the highway, late for work. ditto eating out of a box of blueberries without staining your hands and shirt blue.
i'm not saying it's a great idea, i'm just saying where the thought process is. because everyone is late sometimes, and if everyone just ONCE dashes into the market one morning for a porto-breakfast that doesn't require utensils or even perfect aim and decides on a bottle of blueberries, they've made their million. i've noticed with this kind of thing that it doesn't last, though. after the people who are likely to eat expensive road-berries have eaten them a couple of times and lost interest, they'll go back off the market.
until the next thing. willy wonka would make millions with his pill that tastes like a whole meal concept, he just had bad marketing.
Thanks for commenting - I'm actually writing up a post on that very subject, so stay tuned. In the meantime, many of our other bloggers have written extensively on how to shop for and cook cheap meals, so check out the following posts:
http://www.wisebread.com/healthy-eating-the-sequel
http://www.wisebread.com/5-ways-to-cut-your-grocery-bill
http://www.wisebread.com/how-i-grocery-shop-0
What about those of us who have horrible intestinal diseases that leave us in the hospital twice a year if we eat veggies and fruits? Anything with fiber is a no no. What if we don't live in an area where there are fresh markets anyhow? There are no ethnic stores here where I live. What about a $250.00 budget for an entire month for two people? I could afford no more than that, and I'm barely making do with that amount. Please tell me what those of us in this situation can do about feeding ourselves healthy and "Non-American like". What if we don't live within a walks length of a store, and could never even imagine affording to relocate? Any answers from anyone on these matters would honestly be appreciated.
Great post, however I think even if you pay cash it isn't the answer. A lot of can pay $70,000 cash for a BMW that doesn't mean they can easily afford it. If you make $100,000 a year and have $70,000 in cash, a $70,000 car is still way too expensive for you in my opinion. Sure you can afford it, but its roughly your entire year salary after tax. That means night and day you every minute of work you did for an entire year, day in and day out, week after week, went to a car. I think it is crazy. I think the only way to own something without it owning you is if the cost of it is nothing for you. If it is cash you can easily plunk down and not care for. That is why I a never think a thing of seeing high end cars on the road. They have become so common because of all the easy financing options and even many of the people that buy them outright really can't afford them. They are just willing to give up a huge chunk of their income for something that is losing value every single day.
"McCain, in particular is offering 'to replace the current exclusion from income tax for health insurance provided by an employer with a refundable tax credit of $2,500 for singles and $5,000 for family coverage. Unlike the current exclusion, the credit would be available for privately purchased insurance as well as insurance provided by an employer.' That's an extra $5,000 [emphasis added] that your formula didn't address."
So, McCain's plan gives employers an excuse to transfer the cost of health insurance from the employer to the employee, because a husband and wife can receive a $5,000 tax credit? Great!
The average American spends $4,700 a year on health services and pharmaceuticals. Twelve percent of that is siphoned off by the insurance bureaucrats, and 20% is waste because of inefficiencies in treating the uninsured and underinsurred. Is it an extra $5000 income to the taxpayer?
Sounds more like a transfer of wealth from the average working taxpayer to the corporate employers. The way our healthcare system is now is essentially a huge tax levied on people who have insurance or pay their own health care costs. Our healthcare system is broken. We're 24th in quality of healthcare, behind Costa Rica, and pay twice (14%+ of our GDP) what other more civilized first-world countries pay.
It's time for universal, comprehensive, single-payer healthcare for all Americans, and a law putting the private health insurance industry out of business. Pay for it with a tax shared by employers and employees equally, probably around 12% of the GDP. The savings in California alone would be around 8 Billion dollars annually.