10/08/2025
🍽 The Sunk Cost Fallacy and “Getting Your Money’s Worth” with Food
Have you ever kept eating past the point of comfort just because you’d already paid for the meal?
Or because the food was expensive and you didn’t want it to “go to waste”?
Economists and psychologists alike have a name for this: the sunk cost fallacy.
A “sunk cost” is money, time, or effort that you’ve already spent and cannot get back.
The fallacy happens when we keep investing, through eating more, staying in a bad job, or finishing a boring book, just because we’ve already invested something — even when continuing makes us worse off.
Here’s the truth:
The money you paid for that meal is already gone. Whether you eat past fullness or not, the cost doesn’t change.
What is still in your control is how you want to feel after eating: pleasant, satisfied, able to move on with your day… or uncomfortably full.
Choosing to stop eating when you’re comfortably satisfied doesn’t “waste” money; it prevents the additional cost of discomfort that comes with overriding your body's cues.
💡 A gentle reframe: instead of focusing on “getting your money’s worth” from the food itself, you can get your money’s worth from the experience.
Did the food taste delicious?
Did it nourish you for the portion you ate?
Did you enjoy the company, the setting, or even just the break?
That’s where the real value is.
And if leftovers are an option, future you will thank you.
✨ A question to try this week:
When I notice the urge to keep eating because “I paid for this,” can I pause and ask, “What would feel most worthwhile to my body right now?”
