It amazes how many people pull a "decision" from their ass without taking a few seconds to do the math. Here's a simple case in point:
A former co-worker was lambasting the Keurig K-cup coffee/tea brewing machine as being a waste of money. Now, excluding individual/personal vices and virtues, I'm not going to pick on him for smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, or buying camoflage clothing (when he rarely goes into the "woods"), but regardless, he insisted that the Keurig machine was indefinitely more expensive and could not "pay for itself" by comparison to walking over to the nearby 7-11 for an 8oz cup.
Here's the math:
- Price of Keurig machine at Sam's Club: $110
- Price per box of 80 count k-cups at Sam's Club: $30
- Price per k-cup: $0.38
- Cups per day: 2
- Price per 8oz cup at 7-11: $1.00
- Savings per day with k-cups: $1.25
- Savings per 80 weeks: $112.50
So, after 80 weeks, the savings from lower supply costs will have paid for the machine itself. Of course, this is skewed logic, but it still illustrates that nobody in the room had any idea if the k-cups were even cheaper until one person whipped out a notepad and pen and did the math on the $30 80-count box. Frustrated with the number, the co-worker then turned to the coffee pot and said "well, that's only 50 cents per cup!" 
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