Does saving money mean saving money?

Consider this brain buster: You go to a discount warehouse and buy two dozen frozen bagels for, say, $9.60. Or you go to your local bagel shop and buy them for 75 cents apiece. Which one saves you more money?

Well, if you eat a bagel every morning, you clearly save money by buying the warehouse-store bagels, which come to 40 cents a pop. But what if you now eat two bagels every morning because you have a whole refrigerator full of them? What if you start making your lunchtime sandwich every day with bagels instead of cheaper sliced bread? ... Might you end up spending more money in the end? And what about your waistline? ...

People are often price-sensitive about an initial purchase. But after the money has been spent, there's a tendency to view the stash -- be it a pile of bagels or imported stout -- as manna from heaven. And that's why I've often wondered if shopping at discount clubs saves people as much as they think.

- in the Wall Street Journal

Speaking of spending more to save money, I've been debating the "sell the car... spend more on rent" philosophy.