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You need some cheddar cheese for a recipe you鈥檙e going to make, so you head to the store.

The cheapest block of cheddar cheese costs鈥� let鈥檚 say, $1.99. It鈥檚 got the logo of a giant multinational corporation on it. You 诲辞苍鈥檛 know where it was made. You 诲辞苍鈥檛 know what kind of milk is in it. There鈥檚 a long list of ingredients, but you 诲辞苍鈥檛 know what half of them are.

Right next to it is a block of cheese of the same size for鈥� let鈥檚 say, $4.99. It鈥檚 got the logo of a dairy farm that鈥檚 twenty miles from where you live. There are only six ingredients listed. The package indicates that the milk is local, from cows you can go visit that live on an open pasture that you can also visit, and the cows are treated humanely and are not given hormones or antibiotics of any kind. The cheese was made at that facility, also twenty miles away.

Which cheese is truly the best bargain?聽

Obviously, the quality of the second cheese is higher. The ingredient list doesn鈥檛 contain anything unknown. The cheese is likely healthier and may actually taste better, too. The cows that make the milk are treated well. There are no antibiotics or hormones floating around in the cheese. The cheese is also local, meaning that the cash is much more likely to stay in the local economy.

Those factors weigh directly against the cost of the cheese, though. Like it or not, the other cheese costs聽less than half聽of the expensive cheese.

It鈥檚 not an easy thing to decide, especially when there are a bunch of different cheeses on the store shelf, each with advantages and disadvantages. It has to do not only with objective things like price, but subjective things like how you value things like keeping money in the local economy and how much impact food additives have on your personal health over the long term.

Frugality is easy when you鈥檙e seeking the best deal on a very specific item.聽It becomes much harder when you鈥檙e comparing the merits of two similar items and trying to decide which one is really right for you.

So, how do you navigate these kinds of murky waters?

贵颈谤蝉迟,听you need to figure out what you actually value.聽Is reliability important to you? What about an ingredient list that doesn鈥檛 include food additives that you can鈥檛 identify? What about the humane treatment of animals in the foods you buy, like milk and eggs and cheese? What about GMOs? What is the value in keeping money local? How desperate is your current money situation? Does the store you鈥檙e using practice ethical behavior with its employees and its supply chain?

I can鈥檛 tell you the 鈥渞ight鈥� answer to these questions because there is no 鈥渞ight鈥� answer. It comes down to what聽you聽value and how much you value it.

For example, if your approach to such issues is to focus entirely on making next week鈥檚 bills, then the value of saving $3 is going to supercede those other values. If you鈥檙e truly in an 鈥渆very dollar counts鈥� situation, then the lower price is incredibly important.

On the other hand, if you鈥檙e in a position where you place a high value on non-GMO foods or on supporting the local economy or on humane treatment of animals, the higher price of the local cheese might be worth it to you.聽It is completely valid to decide that products that聽诲辞苍鈥檛聽achieve the standards you find important are the ones that are rip-offs.

It鈥檚 worth nothing that聽choosing the higher-priced items does not mean you abandon bargain shopping.聽You can still shop around and use coupons for items that live up to whatever values and standards you hold for yourself and seek out items that match those values.

I can certainly share with you where I stand on these issues.

If the price is close, I prefer to buy local items to keep the money local, particularly when I buy directly from the producers themselves 鈥� farmers, local breweries, local wineries, and so on. I tolerate about 15% or so higher prices to buy from a local producer.

I am not really concerned at all about GMOs and won鈥檛 pay extra to avoid them.

I am concerned with how crops are grown and prefer organic vegetables because of the lack of pesticides and herbicides used, so I鈥檓 willing to pay a somewhat higher price for organics 鈥� 30% to 40% more or so.

I generally won鈥檛 go in the door of any business that I consider to have unethical practices, so I 诲辞苍鈥檛 even include them in price comparisons.

I will pay another notable premium 鈥� say, 25% or so 鈥� to avoid items that have food additives that I鈥檓 unfamiliar with on the ingredient list.

I am obsessed with 鈥渃ost per use鈥� when figuring out which reusable item I should buy and this will generally be the largest factor in helping me figure out which item to get. This sometimes leads to more expensive items if I can expect a lot more uses from it (like an enameled cast iron pot that I鈥檒l use for the rest of my life).

I generally use聽Consumer Reports聽when comparing items. I tend to trust their scores and I usually focus hard on their 鈥渂est buy鈥� selections.

I could go on and on with these ideas, of course, but the key is that I鈥檝e thought about them and I know how much I value them.

The 鈥渃heapest鈥� item is not always the one with the lowest sticker price.聽In fact, it鈥檚 often聽not聽the one with the lowest sticker price. Instead, the best bargain is always the one that matches what you鈥檙e actually looking for in a product at the lowest possible sticker price. Fairly often, the lowest sticker price doesn鈥檛 fulfill what I鈥檓 looking for.

Bargain hunting is about finding the lowest price on an item that actually matches what I need. Simply buying the cheese with the lowest cost? That鈥檚 not bargain hunting. Bargain hunting involves knowing what you鈥檙e buying.

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