Member rewards and opacity of price are discussed in this week's hledger fan blog. Read more at https://hledgerfan.com/have-member-rewards-obscured-cost-comparison/.
4 Likes
This imo is better dealt with something like grocy. I'm not sure breaking down grocery list item-by-item on a ledger is a great idea, let alone possible. Even with grocy which I tried before, it was too much of a hassle that I ended up not using it.
It's interesting that you point out a lot of aspects of a purchase but there is no way you can compare every single element of purchases like you seem to suggest to at least try. There's at least going to be gas price diff if you go to the other store, for example.
Yes, I agree that breaking down a grocery list item-by-item might not be even possible. And probably not beneficial for the vast majority of people.
You also make a good point about indirect costs such as driving to a grocery store that would have to be factored in.
My post, at least as how I conceived it, was a lamentation that my ability to do price comparison has has essentially disappeared under many member rewards programs. Not that we should make the effort to figure out what each individual item actually cost!
Your post reminded me of the fixed/variable costs break even problems in my MBA finance classes. At the time, I wondered, "could you use PTA tools to help figure those out?" At the time, I couldn't figure out a convenient way to do it, so I gave up and went with a spreadsheet like the professors asked 
.
1 Like