Treat Tax - What it is & Why you should embrace it!

Treats:

When buying Treats Buy the single item not the Family Pack!

I felt great frustration at the price difference between a packet of 5 biscuits vs a single wrapped biscuit and that inspired me to write this article on how we can -and must- change our way of thinking and get savvy on making the better choice!

As I walked by the M&S store with my family (pre-lockdown times), I had this big craving for one of their milk chocolate chip cookies from their bakery section, yum! As we walked on by - destined for a coffee break at the next shop- , I praised myself for my strong will-power that kept me on my path. As fate would have it, the next shop was closed so we turned back and walked into the M&S store to have our coffee upstairs, I said ‘well Paul, in that case I think I’ll treat myself to one of those cookies now (insert excited emoji here)”.

While Paul ordered our coffees, I went in pursuit of a cookie in the food hall. When I got there, I could only find them in packs of 5 big cookies (each was palm size I would say) for 2£. As I picked up the packet I stared at the cookie inside the wrapper, my mouth salivated (as yours is now too!) but my brain went into turmoil: I knew that if I bought 5 of them, I would most likely eat 5 of them, either today or by lunch tomorrow and would suffer the tummy consequences … but then 5 cookies for just 2£? what a bargain! 5 big yummy cookies at 40c each, surely I was saving money in the end, no? And maybe I could hide some of them in the cupboard for a later date?

I was in turmoil and I stood my ground while I fought internally with my options.

Thankfully the more I realized I would probably eat more than the one cookie, the more I could feel the inevitable tummy pain I would experience later on and the more reluctant I was to buy them… In the end I put the pack down and returned empty-handed to Paul and the children. Then I saw the individually wrapped (still covid times) single milk chocolate chip cookies on the café counter for £1.79 each… after a moment’s hesitation I bought it and enjoyed it with my son (hubby and daughter not interested phew!).

Well, I can tell you, I spent most of our coffee break having a rant about how on earth one can avoid getting metabolic syndrome with these kinds of outrageous offers all around us all the time.

Info-break: Metabolic syndrome is, in my words, a negative aspect of what weight gain can lead to, where a cluster of symptoms start appearing putting you, the individual, at an increased risk for heart issues, diabetes, strokes etc, not nice as it usually means your doctor has to start monitoring what you do and may want to medicate you if you cannot sort the symptoms through nutrition & lifestyle interventions on your own.

So back to my rant on the day: when a single cookie costs £1.79 and a pack of 5 costs £2, you’d feel robbed buying the single cookie! Anyone would! So you would buy the multi-pack and pat yourself on the back for buying ‘more for less’ …

In the same way i found these prices in the local store:

1 kit kat = €1.18 / 2 for €1.57 / 4pack= €1.48! *

1 Coca Cola 500ml = €1.77 / 1.5lt=€2.56! *

You’re probably still thinking the bigger size/amount is an incredible bargain, but I say it is a horrible trick to play on us unsuspecting treat lovers, because we end up stocking our homes with these things, ready to be consumed at a moment’s weakness.

For all you ‘susceptible to availability’ treat-loving people: Don’t bulk-buy treats you like for home, opt for the single item and be happy you didn’t buy the family pack. And here is how you reason with it:

You must think of the higher end price of the single item as containing a Treat Tax, this is the tax you pay to the universe (!) for having had a treat that maybe is not so good for your overall health, and yet it does do wonders for in-the-moment psychology (am I right or am I right?!) so let’s not demonise it too much ;). You can also think of it this Treat Tax as an investment that will eventually pay you dividends by keeping healthier than you would be if you had bought the big pack!

Here is the math on Treat Tax:

£2 for 5 cookies means each cookie actually costs £0.40 (and one assumes they still make a profit on this)

So if I spend £1.79 for one cookie it means I spent £0.40 on the cookie + £1.39 on the Treat Tax!

Now you may think that is a steep and costly Treat Tax, but look at how it actually saves you money:

In my case whether I had paid out £2 or £1.79 I would have spent a similar amount of money. However with the bargain deal of 5 cookies I would have eaten a lot more than just the one cookie I was looking for & whether I eat it all in one go or over a couple of days, a small treat I fancied at 11.30 that particular Saturday morning would have turned into a multi-hour treat and a big burden to handle - for my body anyway-; and what about the long-term cost? If I did this frequently then my digestive system would suffer under the hard job of dealing with the processed food ingredients over and over; and as we get older the body doesn’t get better at dealing with processed foods, it gets slower and more inefficient at it, and when inevitably pains or discomfort appear, whether I had bought one item or a family pack of them would have made a difference.

Does that make sense? I hope it does…

So what I’m saying is that you can either pay this Treat Tax at the till now and you will save a few cents and go your merry way enjoying your treat without guilts, or if you ‘go for the bargain’ you will have spent a few more cents for a lot more processed ingredients to enter your body’s internal machine over and over again.

Do that enough times and you will be paying more to your doctor to fix issues like high blood sugars or insulin resistance or food intolerance or anything really. And let’s face it, if there were no bargain deals you would not have even considered buying more than one item unless you were hosting a party for example (in my case 5x£1.79 should have been £8.95! That would have been so easy to turn down!) .

… I came out of M&S that day, delighted with my reasoning. I was happy that I bought a single cookie, happy that I eat it there and then, and happy that I didn’t have any more in my bag for later, & I was happy I had a good reason for paying ‘through the nose’ for that one cookie. It was a happy moment in the past and I could now move on.

Moral of the story: for the seldom (I hope) moments you want a treat, go for the single cookie and pay the Treat Tax now, to avoid paying the Health Tax later on in your life. You are not making any savings by buying the family packs for yourself. Take back control of your health people!

*prices today 30/1/2021, haven’t changed much since the lockdown started in fairness.