If I may, I will use underwear as an example of how there is opportunity cost in every decision we make. This is going to be a bit weird.
You can wash your underwear, or you can buy new underwear for every time you change. Washing underwear takes a little detergent, water, time, and some amount of equipment. The detergent can be cheap or expensive, it can be used with bleach, stain remover, fragrances, stain blockers, etc. You can use liquid, powder, both. You can use an automated machine or hand wash. You can use a washboard, your sink, high efficiency models, a vintage machine held in your family for a generation or more, etc. You can use a dryer, clothesline, shower curtain rod, drying rack, or something else. You can spend a lot or a little money to wash underwear. You can spend a lot or a little time doing it. Do you enjoy washing underwear? Do you enjoy wearing clean underwear? Those two answers do not have to be the same, and the answer to one does not determine the answer to the other.
You may not have the money for a washing machine. Maybe you hate putting quarters in at the laundromat. You may be allergic to detergents. Perhaps you are a germophobe. Who knows. Anyway, you may not want to wash your underwear. Depending on the reason, you may just buy new underwear all the time. Maybe you try to buy the cheapest underwear you can for average days. Maybe you stretch your dollar by not changing your underwear as often. Maybe you air it out sometimes. Maybe you reserve your 'premium' underwear of fine silk and colorful prints for occasions where the quality of your underwear is going to matter most. Or maybe you wear the premium undies all the time because you never know when that time will be. You can spend a little on underwear, or you can spend a lot on underwear. Your motivations, what you enjoy about underwear, and your situation will influence this.
Maybe some people go looking through refuse or at thrift shops for underwear because they are comfortable with laundering it and get good results. Maybe some people don't like the idea of working on reusing something when there are cheaper alternatives, even though the cheaper alternatives are not better and they are limiting their options.
How often you go to the range, how much you shoot at the range, why you shoot, how much you like shooting, what calibers you shoot, what type of loads you shoot, what firearms you shoot with, the availability of these rounds on the retail market, the average price, the performance in your firearms, the desired results when pulling the trigger - a whole lot influences your choice to reload while you are on the range. Off the range, the amount of free time you have, the amount of working space you have, the attitudes of those you live with, if any, the disposable income you have, the price of components, the type of reloading equipment you are comfortable with, and plenty more also can affect your choices and actions.
Do you enjoy reloading as much as doing laundry? Do you care about the kind of rounds you shoot or the kind of underwear you have on? If you go commando, then please excuse the entirety of this post.
