One dollar and seventy eight cents to one dollar and ninety six cents. Not that much of a difference, but in the long run paying that $0.18 every Tuesday and Thursday when I am down at school and buying a bagel with cream cheese certainly does add up. For those of the students living on campus they get to avoid paying tax by paying with their meal plan but for the rest of us, we have to pay our dues to the government.
On the one hand sales tax is a great governmental tool. It allows the government to tax more the people who are spending more and thereby target those people who can most afford to pay more taxes. Yet, being able to afford those taxes and having to pay them are two separate things. For someone who is buying their groceries taxes might often mean having to give up some essential items. While for the most of us taxes never get this extreme, they can have a significant impact on our budgets.
Despite this, in general people rarely pay attention to the sales tax. After all, it is added onto the entire purchase only after you have dragged everything up to the counter. Therefore, when we shop we should be more mindful of how much tax we are paying. For example, when I am down at school in Chicago I know that the sales tax is higher than near my house. So if I see something that I like I will wait and try and see if a store by my house has it instead. Of course there are some stores in Chicago that simply are not chain stores that I can find near my house or that only carry that particular item at that one store so if I want to purchase it, I must purchase it there. However, I do not need to purchase other things at that store. I feel that sometimes since we already are there, we feel that we might as well just purchase other things there. But in actuality it can be much cheaper to wait until you can go somewhere that has less taxes.
There is another thing to think about with taxes: what are they for and who are they helping? If you live in a certain city you might actually want to try and do your shopping there because the taxes that are being collected are going to help you. So if you work in a different city you may not want to purchase things near where you work because those taxes aren't going to help your neighborhood. However, if you are not incredibly dedicated to helping your city raise funds then being mindful of what the taxes are and where they are can help to save you more money.