Once you’ve earned money by the hour, you never look at a price tag the same way.

Once you have worked for an hourly wage, prices convert themselves without asking. A pair of shoes stops being a number and becomes a specific count of shifts, and the arithmetic runs whether you want it to or not. It changes what you buy. It also changes how you see everyone behind a counter, because you now know what eight hours standing there takes out of a person.

Work out your own hourly figure and divide the next thing you want by it. Some purchases survive that. The ones that do not become obvious fast.