Monday, November 25, 2019

Mileage

Driving around in pursuit of bargains is not free; there are costs in both time and money.

The IRS's mileage rate for business use of a car in 2019 is 58 cents per mile. This includes both fixed and variable costs, so it's an estimate of total cost per mile.

I used their mileage rate a few years ago to determine if walking to the more expensive neighborhood hardware store could actually be more economical than driving to a larger store with lower prices. It turned out that the neighborhood store was indeed the better deal overall...although it closed its doors not long after that, possibly because their service was rather poor.

When we do drive longer distances to buy things, it is usually not about lower prices, but to get better quality, or a wider selection.

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