"The $150 10 ounce down jacket didn't make the cut, but the $40 13 ouncer did. SMD Traveler cost $3.90/ounce saved."

That illustrates a problem

If you buy the 13 ouncer, you pay less $ per ounce, but then you're left yearning for the 10 ouncer, and if you succumb - you wasted the money on the 13 ouncer

Maybe you're better off buying the best jacket which will last for years, and then eventually you can buy the best pack...

No clear best answer...

>> If you buy the 13 ouncer, you pay less $ per ounce, but then you're left yearning for the 10 ouncer, and if you succumb - you wasted the money on the 13 ouncer. Maybe you're better off buying the best jacket which will last for years, and then eventually you can buy the best pack... No clear best answer...

That certainly is a concern. In my case, I generally just don't have enough fun money at any one time to validate those really high dollar goodies, and I can generally make myself happy with whatever it is I purchase. In those rare cases that I can buy something now and make an incremental upgrade later, I consider myself blessed. Since all of my retired gear gets passed on to someone else (son, scouts, etc.), it's never a waste.

I did the same as above with the spreadsheet and calculating dollars saved per ounce. But first i made a plan to hit a 10 pound pack once everything was bought. Then i purchased each item in order of lowest cost per ounce. This way I would never have to re buy to meet my goal

.....cannot....help....self....must .....purchase....lighter ....gear.

I use this formula, that is I calculate the difference between the new and old price and divide that by the number of grams saved. If you are going for straight weight savings, you'll buy the stuff that has the highest number first.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AjvbVPeRAFHrcDRaNWhrWFZiQWJFTzdrY0RMelFTQ3c&output=html

Its only calculated for my pants but you get the idea.

But the real issue is that you actually have other things such us a durability, features etc. Its hard to quantify them.