If you purchase the latest and greatest but in a few weeks time, the best conversation you can come up with it is about the money spent on it, why the heck did you buy it? Furthermore, I hate idle possessions. If they were acquired, they better be used until they are used up. I actually make my wife donate old clothes before she adds to the closet.
Hearing friends talk about 3 closets for a person is insane IMO. If it doesn't fit in 1 closet, donate the old stuff to someone who can actually use it. That being said, I actually encourage her to buy more expensive and durable clothing she will keep for a longer time. Cost per use wise, I see it that a $15 crappy dollar shirt is worn maybe 5 times before a rip or it's hopelessly unstylish to wear and own. Cost per outing $3. A $50 shirt worn 20 times will exceed that cost per use. If you spend $50 shirt, you wear that thing as much as possible and take way better care of it. We literally donated something like 100 pounds of clothing (combined) alone after that conversation. I've seen clothing spending averages over a year drop drastically in the meanwhile. Though it fluctuates way more.
The loophole with "cost per use" is that at times, usage isn't always equivalent. That $50 shirt above? Actually a decent choice business or casual. $15 shirt? Embarrassing in business environment, casual only. I had a serious talk with the wife. I believed that spending $30 on a crappy wallet she gets bored of in 3 months is more "expensive and a waste of time" than her buying a $200 wallet to use over 2-3 years (that and I hear less complaining about the 8 items she'll probably buy in between and the time and energy wasted looking for that next crappy wallet isn't worth it). She embraced it fully and 3-4 years later, she still uses it. She even commented that when she digs up an old purse to rotate to (mix it up, accessorize etc.) some colleagues/friends comment about the "new amazing purse" and rush out to get something new as well. Don't tell your wife, but my wife determined that idea wise, by paying that 40-60% premium, she doesn't have to spend money on a lesser bag to not feel left out. She just cycles in a bag everyone forgot about or comments hers is still a superior bag to the new ones they are acquiring if they're being annoying. (She generally doesn't like commenting a lot about her possessions). You tend to develop a bond and preference for things that you own that work good for a long time.
I for fun mused about cost per use for the Stampede once too. Those "idiotic" $100 hot dogs and expensive foods etc. Short term, the cost per use is complete crap. But if you are smart about it, you could eat the $100 hot dog and still brag about it 15 years later (whilst never touching any of those expensive foods ever again) that's not bad cost per use for conversation and excuses to not touch the next latest and "greatest". (Though eating deep fried bugs was probably the better "cost per use"
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That being said, some of the money saved, we expect to splurge. Scotch, fountain pens and my car were some of those things and I don't feel the need to copy other's "splurges". My wife has hers as well.
Oh... and I don't hold back on spending and eating on trips. We diet and exercise and save to go on those trips. No reason why we can't enjoy everything to the fullest while there. Otherwise, what was the reason we dieted and exercised? To look sexy for friends?