Imagine that you are planning to purchase an item for $10. The ever-popular titanium spork, for example. Then you find out that by going an extra five blocks out of your way, you can get it for half price. Would you walk five blocks to get $5 off a $10 item?

New purchase. You’ve got your spork, so now you need a new cereal bowl, like a lovely Faberge creation for $1,000. Once again, you find out that by walking a scant five blocks, you get can get a $5 price break. Would you walk five blocks to get $5 off a $1,000 item?

If you answered the same way to both questions, I commend you on your consistency. For the other 99% of us that said yes to the spork and no to the bowl, never fear: it’s an understandable mistake.

Somehow, $5 just doesn’t seem like that much compared to the reference point of $1,000.  But when it represents half the purchase price, it’s hard not to feel like you’re getting an amazing deal. The problem, of course, is that it’s the same amount of money saved either way. Economists like to use the term “fungible” to describe this, but really the concept is just that a dollar is a dollar is a dollar.

Let me give you a different example that shows you why I’m bringing this up. Imagine that you made a spending goal in Thrive to reduce your $50 monthly spending on coffee to $25. That’s a lofty goal, cutting your spending in half, but you patiently stop hitting up the local coffee shop every day and at the end of the month, you’ve managed to save $25. Great.

Now imagine that you also spend $300 a month at restaurants. You could have easily saved the same $25 by having one less fabulous meal out or by drinking a few less glasses of wine. And it would have been the same $25; all your work to cut your coffee consumption in half could have been just as easily achieved by cooking at home for one night. But because they come from different categories and $25 from the $300 doesn’t really feel like saving that much, research shows us that most people will slog through the coffee reduction.

So here’s the take away: a dollar is a dollar, no matter where you save it. And since it’s easier to save in categories where you spend the most, look to them first for easy money, so that you can finally afford that spork you’ve always wanted (even if you live in France and your sporks are taxed).